Pocatello High becomes home of the Indians

In 1922, Poky High first published its fight song. It was blatant plagiarism of a University of Illinois loyalty song, but it included a nonsense phrase that would play a larger part in Poky High’s history. The line read, “Shouting defiance, Oske Wow-Wow!” (the first wow would eventually lose its initial w in the Poky version). “Oske Wow-Wow” is nothing more than an invention like “sis boom bah”. College students often made up such nonsense words for cheers and songs during the first part of the 20th century. “Oske-ow-wow” had no meaning at all, but it was catchy.

In 1923 baseball games were worthy of full-page advertisements in the local paper. That year Pocatello had two teams in the regional league, the Indians and the Bears. Neither was the school team.

The 1925 yearbook opens with two illustrations. On one is an Indian riding a horse over “Ex Libris”. On the next page is an Indian sitting on the ground in front of a fire smoking a pipe. The smoke drifts over and around an image of the school. The message is not clear until the last page of the yearbook marked “Finis”. There an Indian on horseback with three arrows sticking out of his chest falls backward off his horse.

In 1927 Poky High’s football team went undefeated, but they were not the Indians. Two years later the Pocatellian yearbook’s dedication was to the railroaders who “struggled westward against insuperable obstacles, braving arrows and bullets to lay track through an Indian infested tract of desert and mountain.”

In 1930 something new happened. The yearbook’s basketball page is titled “Indians” beneath the team photos, and the text calls the athletes “warriors”. The moniker did not seem to stick. There is no mention of Indians in the 1931-1933 yearbooks.

Then it happened. The 1934 yearbook mentions a new activities club called “the Medicine Men’s Club... just organized this year to create more pep.” What brought about this change is detailed on page 76, “About the middle of November the Pep Club disbanded and reorganized into a new group for the purpose of arousing more pep at the games. So far it has been successful as there has been more pep shown in the last half year than there was in the first half. After initiation every member must make a headdress and a breech cloth and must not be afraid of being noticed. It is a popular belief amongst the students that on account of these unique costumes it has become one of the most popular clubs of the year. Big Chief Wayne B. Whitlow is the advisor.” On the next page are nine boys and Mr. Whitlow dressed in breach cloths and well-crafted headdresses. The Senior Class Prophecy page is a story about a “medicine man” seeing what happens in the future lives of graduating seniors. Both pages are filled with Indian tropes that do not bear repeating.

In 1935 it was clear Poky High was now known as “the Indians”. The basketball page mentioned back to back losses that “started the Indians on the warpath for they scalped” five teams in a row. Seven times in the five summary paragraphs the team is called “the Indians”. The Medicine Men again make an appearance, this time the club has 24 members. Mr. Whitlow is shown wearing the same outfit as the boys and participating in the fun. In a separate photo the Medicine Men in full regalia stand proudly beside what was perhaps the first Pocatello High School mascot - a small pony.