Headdress logo instills pride in school through its history
Contributed
By Anna Krejci, Dells Events
In 1970, the school crest displayed on a vertical plaque was dedicated on the Wisconsin Dells High School's west lawn.
Donna Nelson Thorpe, a 1965 graduate who had won a design contest for the logo, returned to the school for homecoming that year for the crest's dedication, according to records of the event kept by former high school principal Fred Reineking.
Reineking, who first taught history, social studies and Latin at the high school in 1946 and became principal in 1952, said the Dells students always had pride in themselves and their Native American Chief's headdress logo grew that pride.
"We're from the Dells and we couldn't be prouder. If you can't hear us now, we'll yell a little louder," he recited a Dells cheer.
The crest displayed in the late 1960s that was dedicated a few years later was Columbia blue and white. Thorpe, who won a cash prize for her winning design in the 1960s, can attest to it.
Under the direction of Mr. Luke, the art teacher at the time, Thorpe said she submitted her design that incorporated black-tipped white feathers in the headdress and the letter "W" superimposed on the letter "D." The overlapping of the letters can be traced back to at least the 1957 edition of the Arrow, the high school's yearbook.
Thorpe said the school used her design exactly in creating the sign that was sponsored by the school's Key Club and erected on the lawn. She attended commercial art school for a year and used her education in jobs ranging from floral to marketing. Thorpe is now an antiques dealer who has lived in Sun Prairie for 35 years.
How the school's logo developed and changed over time seems unknown. Thorpe theorized that it was artistic license from printers that could have led to the incorporation of the color red in the logo.
Now the school board is considering a school policy establishing the logo's official colors as Columbia blue, navy blue, black and white. Members of the Ho-Chunk Nation have reported to the school district that the use of red for feathers is not authentic to a real chief's headdress.
Thorpe said before she made her design of the logo the school sometimes used a side profile of a Native American chief's face. The facial side profile appears on some old editions of the Arrow, especially through the 1970s.
"I do know that the school wanted something to signify a more generic version that still represented the Dells Chiefs," Thorpe said. "Even in those days, we wanted to be correct in portraying the Dells Chiefs in an upright moral way. So many of the schools and sports clubs decided to change their names in case offense would be taken by the Native Americans at that time. We wanted to portray our school logo as something to be proud of as achieving the very best you could be....not a warrior or scout, but the Chief, the very best."
Thorpe said the Chief's logo is so appropriate for the school because of the Dells ties to the Ho-Chunk.
"My fondest memory was watching them perform at Stand Rock when I was a child. They are an integral part of history of the area. I feel using the Chiefs logo is a compliment to their unique heritage and honors that heritage very nicely," she said.
Alumni like Thorpe aren't willing to let go of the Chief's symbol.
Wisconsin Dells resident Roger Stowers said he's never heard negative comments about the Dells Chiefs. And he has a theory as to when the color red was first used in sporting uniforms and as a consequence might have been incorporated into the school's logo. Stowers said his football coach in August 1959, John O'Malley, handed him a blue and white helmet with a red stripe. When Stowers asked him why the helmet contained red when the school colors had always been blue and white, he recalled the coach saying new helmets were required and on short notice he could only get blue and white helmets with a red stripe.
It may have been the color red was incorporated in school uniforms off and on over the decades. School board member Gisela Hamm, and former teacher in the district, said she recalled red being used in football uniforms in the 1970s.
Regardless of how the school's logo might have changed over time, the present school board has the authority to proclaim the official design and is scheduled to do so this fall.
It's not on official school records, but it's possible to imagine a time when the Dells Chiefs weren't called that at all. Bud Gussel, a 1948 Dells High School graduate, said he recalls the student athletes used to be called the Dells Resorters. He recalled that no logo accompanied the nickname.