Vote for the Best Mascot in AK

Aniak is probably the only place in the U.S. where you can call somebody a "halfbreed," and not be politically incorrect. The school welcomes it, in fact. The student body changed the school's nickname from the Apostles/Angels to Halfbreeds in the 1970s to pay homage to the area's past of white settlers who married Yu'pik Eskimos. The school logo is a traditionally dressed Alaskan native crossing his speer with a white man's rifle.

Chaptnguak used to have a generic mascot, the Cobras. With a student body that's 100 percent Yu'pik Eskimo, the students felt the nickname didn't represent the community well. The students said the community is more magical than the Cobras nickname conveyed. So they pushed to become the Shaman, because they felt that shaman produce black magic in a good way - and that, they said, reps the community perfectly.

Diomede went by the bland Trojans moniker until the 1980s. Now it has one of the most unique nicknames in high school sports thanks to its geographical location. Diomede High School is located about a mile from the international date line, an imaginary line that demarcates one calendar day from the next. When the Pacific Ocean freezes over - usually from February-May - students can actually walk to the date line and, hence, another day. Fun fact - on clear days you can literally look outside the window of the school and see Russia. Sarah Palin must love the Diomede Dateliners.

Nome Beltz is located in Nome, a Northwest Alaskan town on the edge of the Bering Sea. Though Nome is about 140 miles south of the Arctic Circle, polar bears have been known to make cameos in the area. But Polar Bears is such a boring nickname. Hence the adaptation of the Nanooks mascot, which means "polar bear" in the native Inuit dialect.