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Maine town renames street ‘Redskin’s Drive’

By WTOP Staff

WISCASSET, Maine (AP) — Officials in a Maine town are renaming a road after the local high school’s former mascot, which was changed because some people found it offensive.

Wiscasset’s board of selectmen voted this week to grant a resident’s request to rename her street “Redskin’s Drive,” a decision that is drawing criticism from Native Americans.

The move comes four years after the town’s high school abandoned the nickname after vigorous lobbying from Native Americans.

Ben Rines, one of the selectmen who approved the change, tells the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1sZh89m ) the name honors generations of Wiscasset High School graduates who identify with the word Redskins, himself included.

But Newell Lewey, a Passamaquoddy tribal councilor, called the name change racist and “disgraceful.”

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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