Many Feathers and Much Paint Don't Make an Indian

1996 Sep 24, Arizona Republic  - Nogales High School – for 50 years known as the Apaches – are changing their school name, though students and alumni object. This author calls them a “victim of political correctness.”  “We are a campus that’s minority. Ninety-five percent of our students are Hispanic,” school Principal Marcelino Varona Jr said. “Having the mascot of another minority culture is inappropriate. Especially when we use it in a negative connotation to go out and kill and beat the hell out of the other team.” The mascot – a student dressed in Native American garb with an oversized Apache head – is also out, as is the war whoops from the band, the school sign with the Indian symbol, the football stadium name, etc.  E.E. Pierson Middle School, which called itself the Braves, was closed in favor or a new school, the Desert Shadow Diamondbacks.  State Apache leaders, however, say they feel anything but offended. “We fought against those people on the ...

1996 Oct 23, The Des Moines Register  1996 Sep 25, The Des Moines Register 

Iroquois Indian gives way to wolf mascot by Yvonne Eaton 1996 June 12 The Courier Journal 1996 June 12 The Courier Journal 

 November 29, 1909 - " They had a large consignment of the vengeance of the pale face ." To read the actual article, click below The Evening Herald, Nov 29, 1909 

Indian mascot bill sanctions bigotry By Tim Giago 1995 May 10, Argus Leader        Representative Rick Winkel of the Illinois House of Representatives decided to protect the mascot of the University of Illinois, Chief Illiniwek, by introducing a bill to make the “Chief” an “honored symbol” of the university.        After a heated debate the House voted 80-26 in favor of the bill. “We need to settle this issue so the sentiment of the majority alumni and supports of the U of I cannot be silenced,” said Rep Winkel, a Champaign, Ill Republican.        Rep Winkel got the idea to sponsor the bill last year after a campus planning committee recommended that the University of Illinois phase our Chief Illiniwek because the mascot was offensive to American Indians.       Charlene Teeters, an American Indian now employed by the Institute of American Indian Art at Santa Fe, NM, fought the mascot issue during th...

Disney History Pochontas insults Indian women by Time Giago       I really didn’t want to do it. But since the national media has made such to do about it – I feel it is necessary to get my two cents into the hype.       People magazine displayed it’s special brand of ignorance with a cutline under the photo of Pocahontas that read: “Pocahontas: the squaw that stirs the drink; at last, a heroine who know the ways of nature and the art of belting show tunes.”        There is not an American Indian woman alive in this land who is not immediately repulsed by the word ``squaw.'' It is the literal translation of an Algonquin word referring to a woman's private parts. As the mostly male settlers moved west, they brought this word with them and used it to describe all Indian women, relegating them to nothing more than whores.       And yet we have places like Squaw Valley in California and Squaw Peak in Phoenix. ...

1994 April 2, Iowa City Press Citizen  1994 April 2, Iowa City Press Citizen  Don Hogan (managing editor)        I seem to have an ability to evoke debate of sensitive subjects. In that vein, I would like to ask readers their feelings about school mascots.       The Press-Citizen reported Friday that American Indian representatives and some members of the University of Iowa Board of Control of Athletics are discussing school policy regarding school mascots that in some way might offend American Indians. The American Indian delegation wants UI to state that it will not schedule any sports teams that use American Indian symbols.       Of course, the first team that comes to mind is the University of Illinois, a Big Ten opponent whose athletes rally behind Chief Illiniwek, namesake of the Fighting Illini. [no plans to change mascot since the board of trustees kept to keep it in 19990…. ]       The Ameri...

1994 Aug 28m Ariziba Republic  1994 Sep 14, Arizona Republic 

1994 Feb 6, Hartford Courant        West Hartford – A national debate that has drawn hundreds of protesters to march outside football and baseball arenas has funneled down to some high schools in Connecticut where students are objecting to the use of mascots depicting American Indians.       Whether they are called Warriors – as at West Hartford’s Hall High School and Canton Senior High School – Chieftains or Indians, some students say the mascots are stereotypical and should be changed.        “Here we are being taught about diversity and how great it is and yet our mascot is stereotyping a group of people,” said Marissa Weiss, a sophomore at Hall High School. “Not all Native Americans are warriors who fight and wear face paint. My school is sharing a stereotype, and I don’t want to be a part of it.”        Weiss and about 30 classmates took their concerns to the school principal last week. Similar conc...

Hey, FSU fans: Can you help the scoreboard commander?  1994 Nov 3, Tallahassee Democrat 

Arkansas State to get new mascot  Runnin' Joe, the tomahawk-wielding Indian caricature with bared teeth and angry eyes, is being run off the campus of Arkansas State University. The school will keep its 61-year-old nickname, the Indians, university president John N. Mangieri said. But Runnin Joe, the school's official athletic symbol, will be replaced "with an appropriate new logo."  1993 Oct 16, The Journal News   Shirts still for sale  

Prairie Island plant bans  cartoon mocking Indians  by Bob von Sternberg 1992 April 30, Star Tribune       Copies of a cartoon portraying members of the Prairie Island Sioux tribe wearing braids, traditional Indian garb and speaking pidgin English were removed from the walls at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant this week after a plant worker complained.       “It’s racist – it’s trying to stir things up,” said Willie Hardacker, the tribes attorney.        “I personally found it offensive,” said Mike Wadley, operations superintendent at the power plant, located next to the Prairie Island reservation near Red Wing. “It doesn’t affect Native Americans in a positive light. I took down five copies of it.”       After employees brought the cartoon to Wadley’s attention Monday morning, he told staff members and contract employees at the plant that NSP doesn’t tolerate harassment on any grounds. ...

"With technology such as it is today, this is not just an issue here in the United States. Can you imagine how people in Europe, Africa and South America view the US sporting scene? It should be an embarrassment to every American to be using Indian people for mascots." - Vernon Bellecourt, American Indian Movement "In many cases, rituals are part of the ceremonies the tribes perform. But to do this thing generically really is an insult. If the San Diego Padres put a priest out there dangling a crucifix, I think the Catholic Church would take offense." - Mike Anderson, executive director, National American Congress of Indians.  "I think America really does have a deeply racist past to deal with. When Frito Bandito and Little Black Sambo went by the wayside, we should have had the critical thinking to realize the other symbols in our culture are racist and eradicate them... I guess when the Indians lost all that land, they lost the meaning of Redskins w...

1991 March 13, The Ithaca Journal 

                                                            Name Calling                                  Teams discard American Indian labels                                               By Brad Herzog                                                       1991 March 13, The Ithaca Journal        The idea of changing sports nicknames and mascots is not new.       Although pro sports fans still cheer on their Indians, Braves, Redskins, Chiefs, Warriors, and Blackhawk...

Indian Wanna-Bes Display Creative Genealogy 1991 March 16, The Los Angeles Times  By Bob Pool       The audition hall was loaded with pale faces as 100 actors answered a casting call for “Native American males… willing to undergo rigorous training prior to filming” for a remake of the 1936 movie classic “The Last of the Mohicans.”        Near the front of the line was brown-haired, blue-eyed Lance Patak.       “I’m Indian,” insisted Patak, 18, of Hollywood.       “I’m 7%. What was that tribe – lemme think. It starts with Ch. Say something with Ch,” he said, shrugging.       Was he Cheyenne? Chumash? Chippwea?       Patak though it over a moment before finally answering. “It’s Czechoslovakian.”       Patak wasn’t the only one at Thursday evening’s Hollywood audition for whom American Indian culture may have been a foreign commodity. And some Native Americ...

American Indians shift protest to Atlanta 1991 Oct 23 Lancaster Eagle Gazette        Atlanta - As the World Series shifted to the City Too Busy to Hate, so did the debate over whether doing the "Tomahawk Chop" is demeaning to American Indians. "We find your behavior embarrassing not only to us but to the American people, for the image you are reflecting is being projected throughout the world." - American Indian Movement leader Vernon Bellcourt of Minnesota. ... He implored fans to stop painting their faces, wearing headdresses, carrying tomahawks and yelling what he called a 'Hollywood hype' war chant. "Can you imagine what people think throughout the world when they see the Atlanta Braves fans in the stands acting the way they do?"         While the American Indians were pleading with the few fans who could hear him, a few feet away, Braves fans inside a tent took turns beating on drums in a series-long vigil being sponsored by an At...

1990 Dec 29, The Anniston Star 

Native Americans contend  Indian mascots are racists, cruel  1990 Dec 24, Asbury Park Press       Naperville, Ill - Her peers cheered wildly at the pep rally scalping of an Indian, but Wabigonence White wasn't laughing.        A Native American whose family left a Wisconsin reservation about four years ago, 17-year-old Miss White found the skit a cruel stereotype of her heritage. She felt stung when her school's mascot, the Naperville North High School husky, ravaged the Redskin of crosstown rival Napervill Central.       “They really cheered when the husky beat up that Redskin and scalped him,” Miss White said. “I wanted to leave. Everyone though it was fun. I didn’t stand, cheer, clap or anything. I told my mom and dad when I got home that I was upset by it.”       Miss White’s humiliation last October is the kind of incident that a group of American Indians is using in seeking the removal of...

Americans' fascination with  history of Indians is revived by Donald Smith 1990 Oct 21, The Star Democrat        Cherokee, NC - Chief Thundercloud strides from his teepee, war bonnet fluttering in the breeze around his tanned and deeply lined face. He reaches down and hoists a pigtailed 7-year-old tourist onto his knee. She squeaks with laughter as her mother snaps their picture.        The fact that Indians in North Carolina never wore war bonnets or lived in teepees does not seem to bother most of Cherokee's 8 million annual tourists.       "It's what I call the free enterprise system," says Ken Blankenship, director of the Cherokee Museum, a short drive but a cultural millennium away from Chief Thundercloud's stand in an Indian-theme shopping mall. "It's a way to make a living."        With its collection of ancient Indian artifacts displayed alongside traditional crafts made by contempor...

Who holds the keys to our school's textbooks? The censorship of school books stifles debate by Anthony Podesta 1990 Sep 6 The Anniston Star        The past few years have been productive ones for America’s censors.       From the highest levels of government to local communities and schools across America, censorship has become a frightening reality. In whatever from it takes – imposing pre-publication restrictions on government officials, blacklisting United States Information Agency speakers, denying visas to foreign speakers, weakening the Freedom of Information Act, “protecting” students from controversial books, courses, and ideas, eliminating textbook coverage of controversial events in American history – the effects of censorship are the same. It stifles the debate and diversity of discussion that traditionally have been the core of our democracy.        The government’s efforts to control information and ideas ...