SANFORD — Loveland, Strasburg and Sanford took to the playing field the first weekend of December for the Colorado state football championships, bearing tribal nicknames. That may change.
The first three are nicknamed “Indians.” CSU Pueblo (then University of Southern Colorado) also shared this moniker before changing its nickname to the ThunderWolves in 1994.
Adams State University also once shared the nickname before becoming the Grizzlies.
Eleven other schools in Colorado feature mascots depicting indigenous peoples or imagery. Those schools are Arapahoe (Warriors), Arickaree (Indians), Grand Junction Central (Warriors), Cheyenne Mountain (Indians), Frederick (Warriors), Kiowa (Indians), La Veta (Redskins), Montrose (Indians), Mountain Valley (Indians), Weldon Valley (Warriors) and Yuma (Indians). 
The debate has reached every corner of the country and Colorado as high schools like Eaton and Lamar, the two who played in that 2A title game, have faced calls from their community to change the name. 
Officials at Sanford say the school has an agreement with one of the tribes to continue using the nickname.
Professional teams also have decided to change their mascots, as seen by the Washington Football team in the NFL dropping “Redskins” and the Cleveland Indians in MLB set to retire their mascot after the 2021 season. 
Oct. 5, 2015, Governor Hickenlooper issued an Executive Order establishing the Commission to Study American Indian Representations in Public Schools. The study occurred in the early months of 2016. 
The commission, which included leaders from the American Indian community, educators, students and representatives from civil and governmental organizations, met with schools and communities to discuss their mascots and also studied the effects of these mascots on students’ mental health. 
The commission met with school representatives and community members from Loveland, Strasburg, Eaton and Lamar. 
They recommended that all schools eliminate use of a Native American mascot. 
Still, schools have the choice thanks to a Colorado constitutional provision calling for local control of educational actions. 
If a school still wanted to retain its mascot, the commission set forth a second recommendation calling for the school to create a meaningful relationship with a Native tribe to go over respectful guidelines to keep the imagery.