Whitman College officials said the mascot was considered noninclusive and imperialistic.

The Seattle Times reports.

Whitman College lets go of Missionaries mascot

SPOKANE — Whitman College, the private, liberal-arts school in Walla Walla, has dumped its longtime mascot.

Whitman teams will no longer be called the Missionaries, a reference to Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who came to the Walla Walla Valley in 1836 and were killed a decade later.

Campus officials said the Missionaries’ mascot was considered noninclusive, imperialistic and incorrectly implied that Whitman was a religious school.

It also was not terribly intimidating and often mocked. The old name was officially retired earlier this month and now the school is working to select a new mascot in the fall, Whitman spokeswoman Gina Ohnstad said.