WELLPINIT, Wash. - This little town of 928 - with its one grocery store, one gas station and one stop sign - is far, far away from the national controversies of the day.
To get here, you drive about an hour north of Spokane, past fields of barley, wheat and canola with yellow flowers, past the forests.
It is home for the Spokane Tribe of Indians, and for 107 years, the Wellpinit High School mascot name has been Redskins.
Wellpinit doesn't particularly want to be part of stories about its mascot.
But the tribe gets calls because of the controversy 2,600 miles away in Washington, D.C., with the Redskins NFL team.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office last month canceled the team's trademark registration, deeming the name disparaging to Native Americans. Various media outlets around the country, including this newspaper, have stopped using the name, except in stories about the controversy, because it is offensive.
In its defense, the Washington football team in 2013 linked to a list of 70 high schools using the Redskins name and later specifically referred to Wellpinit.
"One thing that annoys me," says John Teters, registrar for the school district, "is that we're used as an excuse for this asinine process. You name it, Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, whenever those names come up, the school gets called. ËœIf you guys can do it, why can't we?' We're somehow used as a justification."
The school district isn't in a big hurry to change the name and sees no big push for it.
The high school is the only one in this state using that name.
Last year the Port Townsend School Board voted to abolish Redskins as its high school's mascot. They're now the Redhawks.
A list of school mascot names in this state, compiled by Marc Sheehan, a Federal Way teacher, shows a few Indians and Chiefs - also not appreciated by Native Americans - but mostly a lot of names along the lines of Eagles and Mustangs.
Michael Seyler has been on the Wellpinit School Board for 19 years. He says there might be a community meeting sometime to discuss the name, and maybe a vote, but nothing is scheduled.
"Casual interest" is how Seyler describes community concern about that "back East" controversy.
Take Clarence Le Bret, who at 90 says he's the oldest male tribal member in town.
Controversy, what controversy, he says. "It's the traditional name we always had."
Le Bret says he helped raise five boys and two girls and would go to all the school sports games in which they played.
"After that I was sported out," he says, and doesn't much care about the NFL or any other team.
But with many here, the team-mascot name means a lot.
Here, the kids have their "Wellpinit Redskins" T-shirts and sweatshirts they wear to games or Spirit Week. At games, they chant, "Redskin Power!"
Says Kyra Antone, 17, who's going into 12th grade and is wearing one of the T-shirts, "It's not a negative name for us. Whenever I think of Redskins, I think of pride in our sports teams. There's nothing wrong with being a 17-year-old Native American."
Meanwhile, life ambles on in this quiet town.
Brodie Ford's family is justifiably proud that he earned a full-ride college Gates Millennium scholarship.
He had to write six essays in his application.
In one essay, Ford told about his upbringing:
"When I was eight years old my dad began taking me to his farms, and for every day of the summer, I was down at the farms with my dad. He put me in his lap, and showed me how every single instrument on the tractor worked. To this very day, I remember everything that he taught me. During those hot, dry summer days, I learned how to ride a horse, drive a tractor, bail hay, and how to catch and tag a buffalo."
In another essay, he concluded, "I'm just a kid from a rural reservation who wants to make a difference."
Let the East Coast fester in the Redskins name controversy.
Says Ford, "I use the name proudly. I wear it with respect."