‘SICK TO YOUR STOMACH’

Mockery: Indiana School’s 70-Year-Old ‘Pipe Ceremony’ Comes Under Fire

A viral TikTok recorded at a basketball game thrust Anderson High School into an uncomfortable spotlight.

An Indiana high school has come under intense scrutiny after a now-deleted TikTok capturing a pregame ritual disrespectful to Native Americans accumulated more than half a million views on the platform. “It was definitely bizarre,” Sarah Holba, who recorded and posted the video, told McClatchy News. “It kind of makes you feel a little sick to your stomach.” Holba said she had gone to attend a basketball game at Anderson High School when a mascot walked out “wearing a headdress.” In subsequent footage, according to the Bellingham Herald, students can be seen passing around a kind of pipe and dancing in a style reminiscent of Native stereotypes. It made a “mockery of a sacred pipe ceremony,” according to Rachel Thunder, a Native rights activist and organizer. Anderson Community School Corporation has said that an investigation into the performance has been launched. District officials told McClatchy that students at Anderson had been performing the ritual for more than seven decades, and that its intent was “to honor… our rich Native American history.”