Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman taunted Gov. Kathy Hochul over her administration’s fight to cancel the Massapequa Chiefs team name – as high school seniors trolled the Empire State’s ban on Native American imagery.
Blakeman promised to protect the name chiefs in the face of a state ban on Native American imagery as he visited the Massapequa High School merch stand during the Long Island school’s football team game against Garden City at Hofstra University on Monday.
“Hey Kathy Hochul, you see what this says? It says Chiefs,” Blakeman said, holding up a Massapequa sweatshirt for a Post reporter shooting video of the callout.
“Once a Chief, always a Chief. You tried to take that away from Massapequa – no way,” added the Republican, who is now serving as the Nassau County executive.
High school seniors have also joined in on trolling the Empire State over its ban, with defiant Class of 2027 T-shirts that include a Chiefs logo and the phrase “2till 7he Chiefs!”
Massapequa has been fighting the Hochul administration since a 2023 Board of Regents mandate forced state public schools to ditch Native American names and imagery or face cuts in funding.
The Massapequa Union Free School District estimates rebranding its sports teams would cost about $1 million – while school officials argue that the team name “chiefs” is an innocuous term used in courts, firehouses and police stations — and even within New York State government.
The legal battle has sparked the community, drawn the attention of President Trump and inspired students to paint a massive “Once A Chief Always A Chief” mural on a wall adjacent to campus.
“One year they thought they were the last of the Chiefs, and I think it was just throwing back to, well, we’re still the Chiefs,” said Massapequa Board of Education President Kerry Wachter, who also attended the game.
“They are not willing to give up their identity, their history, who we are. It’s just as much to them as to us and to alumni,” she added as she took in the game, an instant classic where the Chiefs beat Garden City 21-14 and ended the Trojans nation leading 68-game win streak.
Wachter said several alumni at the showdown, which drew nearly 6,000 buzzing fans, were saying “thank you for standing up for us” by pushing back against the state.
Trump, who had posed with a Chiefs sweatshirt in the Oval Office in 2025, has continually backed keeping the chiefs.
Last year, the president deployed federal Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Massapequa for a tour of the high school — where she announced a civil rights investigation into New York’s policy during her visit.
The Native American Guardians Association has been another major advocate for the Massapequa Chiefs. The group’s attorney, Chap Petersen, called the state’s position the “dumbest law of all time” in January and said his clients were ready to take their related lawsuit to the Supreme Court.
“It’s something that is known throughout our community,” Wachter added.
“We’re just not giving it up.”
Blakeman faces an uphill battle against Hochul in deeply blue New York, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2-to-1.
Hochul is seeking a second full-term after the former lieutenant governor ascended to the state’s top elected office in 2021 when her former running mate, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, resigned in the face of sexual harassment accusations that he fiercely denied.
Election Day is Nov. 3.
