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Pride or appropriation? Two North Carolina towns are the sites of fierce battles over American Indian imagery. Brian Gordon USA TODAY NETWORK The mascot for South Point High School Red Raiders is an American Indian man with an earring and a long feather running alongside a mohawk. It’s an image Isabella Lanford would like to erase. Lanford grew up in Belmont, a small city in Gaston County near Charlotte. In the mid-2010s, she attended Belmont Middle School (nickname: the Wildcats) and thought she’d join her classmates for the ninth grade at South Point High. A home football game changed her mind. Lanford, a Lumbee Indian, saw South Point fans in face paint carrying fake tomahawks. Most of the crowd was white. When the Red Raiders scored, many cupped their hands over their mouths and released stereotypical Native American war cries.

North carolinaUnited statesAmerican universityDistrict of columbiaGaston countySouth point high schoolCraven countyBrian gordonJason rumfeltJennifer stoddenLaura boyceLumbee indianIsabella lanfordPat merzlakJerry dentonPoint high school red raiders