By Carson Waterman
Salamanca High School Emblem Logo History – Approximately 1976
The logo that was used prior to 1978 for the Salamanca High School was a design based on a western plains Indigenous style head dress.
The Seneca-Iroquois National Museum opened circa 1976. At this time we were talking about the Salamanca High School emblem being inaccurate since it represented the western style head dress. George Heron described what our Seneca Nation Gustoweh looks like and I drew up his description. It consists of a small bonnet with split feathers around the top with a single standing eagle feather. The standing eagle feather was placed at the same angle as the young warrior’s braided hair. The young warriors profile was then placed inside a red circle with the eagle feather extending out past the top of the circle and the braided hair extending below.
In my opinion, the 1978 gustoweh was too skimpy. In the new and improved design that I submitted for review, I added a more full gustoweh with the feathers going down the back of the warriors head.
Above L to R: The 1978 logo designed by Carson Waterman, Carson’s Gustoweh Inspiration that he then included in his new and improved version and the current logo that SCCSD is proposing. Mr. Waterman shared his thoughts about this logo. He feels it is too corporate and lacks Seneca representation.
