March 13, 2006 - “You’ll see icons and pictures that are not reflective of the people or cultures. They become caricatures, and that’s offensive in itself, as it would be to any other race if they were caricatured.”

Smargon.net lists school nicknames from A to Z, said school nicknames are used either to intimidate or celebrate some feature local to the school’s environment. [Some] nicknames… are meant to “stroke fear into the hearts and minds of the opposing team” or to intimidate.   

Native Americans say some names are no-nos

      Most team names – whether the Golden Gophers of Minnesota or Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish – are pretty uncontroversial. Not so Native American team names.

    The National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media works to end the use of Native American names for sports. Charlene Teters, the organization’s vice president, points out that Indian team mascots are commonly depicted as buck-toothed, big-nosed clowns.

      Native American activists also say their religious practices are distorted during half-time, and drunken fans yell made-up “war chants” and practice “tomahawk chops.”

      “You’ll see icons and pictures that are not reflective of the people or cultures,” said Jacqueline Johnson, of the National Congress of American Indians, told Wiretap magazine. “They become caricatures, and that’s offensive in itself, as it would be to any other race if they were caricatured.”

      The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) declared that the American Indian nicknames used at least 18 colleges and presumed “hostile and abusive” and can’t be used in post-season play. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the National Education Association and the NAACP also oppose such nicknames.

      Adam Smargon, doctoral student at the University of New Hampshire, said some schools have changed their nicknames. Stanford, Dartmouth, St John’s, Syracuse, Miami of Ohio have all abandoned their Native American mascots.  

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Muscatine Community College changed their name from Indians to Cardinals. 

2006 March 26, The Des Moines Register

2006 March 13, The Courier Journal