Campaign Origins

Over the past few years I have been disturbed by the image on the patch of the Yakima police department, though I haven’t said much about it to many people besides a few friends until recently. While discussing the image on the logo with a colleague recently, I was encouraged to reach out to the City of Yakima chief of police and ask him about the logo. I had never spoken to him before so I didn't have any idea what to expect as a response and this was a little outside of my comfort zone but I sent him an email anyway. He responded quickly and we set up a meeting to discuss it further in person.

The question I asked him via email was, “What would it take to facilitate YPD ending their use of a Native American face and headdress as a logo on their patches, uniforms, etc.?” It was a short meeting and he was friendly and easy to talk to. However, the content of our conversation only increased my determination and certainty that more needed to be done besides just asking the question.I expect the City of Yakima as an organization to do better, to be held to a high standard on inclusion and equity as public servants, and to make more of an effort to put thoughtful consideration into using such images and their impact on the community.

The points he made in defense of the continued use of the image on the logo were fairly standard and not surprising, though disappointing, and have formed the foundation of this campaign. I took notes during that meeting so I could try to be as accurate as possible in remembering and understanding what was said, though I now wish I had recorded the conversation for 100% accuracy. I didn’t know at the time that I would end up launching a campaign to get the logo changed.

To the best of my recollection and note-taking, this is what I heard him say about the logo:

• It represents the people who came before us;
• It’s what we owe (forebearers);
  
• It acknowledges the Yakama people, it’s the 1 thing we have left (as an acknowledgement)
• It’s not a caricature;
• It’s not a profit-making logo;
• It’s not been an issue from the tribe – the tribe has not brought it up (to him specifically);
• Imagery means nothing in the face of MMIW, violence, addiction, homelessness, etc. on the reservation;
• It’s a way of not forgetting them (the Yakama people);
• To remove the logo would be a loss to the City of Yakima residents, they would be upset by that;
• There was a consent decree in Seattle that resulted in their city logo and badge being changed to an image of Chief Seattle;
• If the Yakama tribe wanted to discuss it, he'd be willing to have that conversation.

I firmly believe that none of those points are valid or accurate reasons for keeping the image on their logo and are in fact examples of cultural appropriation and racism. I’ll be sharing rebuttals to each point through this blog and on the changetheypdlogo Facebook page.

This campaign is intended to be an opportunity for education for all of us, myself included, and an opportunity to hear from community members, especially Yakama tribal members, about this image. I say especially Yakama tribal members because of the responses shared with me by Mr. Murray and because that image is supposed to be somehow representative of the Yakama tribe.

I hope you will engage respectfully and honestly.

Thank you.