Sanger Unified gets tribal approval to keep Apache name at Sanger High

Sanger Unified School District has secured written permission from the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California and the Lipan Apache Band of Texas to keep the Apache name at Sanger High, a decision that puts the district at the center of California’s new crackdown on Native-themed school mascots.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, district leaders said the approval was meant to satisfy the state requirement under California’s Racial Mascots Act, as updated by AB 3074. The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 27, 2024, bars public schools from using derogatory Native American terms as school names, mascots or nicknames beginning July 1, 2026. “Apaches” is listed among the examples in the statute.

The district recognized and honored representatives from the North Fork Rancheria during the meeting. Fred Beihn, the tribal council vice chairman for the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California, called it “a great day” for Sanger Unified and Sanger High School Apaches. Sanger Unified said the written permission from both tribes was the key step it needed to keep the name in place.

The approval could become a test case for how districts navigate the new law. AB 3074 exempts public schools operated by an Indian tribe or tribal organization, but Sanger High is not a tribal school. Instead, the district appears to be relying on written tribal permission, a path that may invite scrutiny over whether consent alone is enough to preserve a Native-themed name or whether it amounts to a loophole in the state’s ban.

Sanger Unified has already been trying to distance itself from caricatured imagery. In 2021, the district said it was phasing out a caricature Apache logo while keeping the school name unchanged. The school’s own website still describes Sanger High as “Home of the Apaches.”

The board usually meets at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at the district administration office, 1905 Seventh Street in Sanger. For now, the district has a written approval in hand, but the broader question remains whether California will treat that permission as a durable fix or a narrow exception that other districts may soon try to copy.