1981 - Injun Andy Timeline of Events
1981
Injun Andy, a cartoon figure with a bull's eye painted on his nose and a grunting Tonto-like voice, was banished from radio and television for the state fair after a protest from an Indianapolis group, which called it racist. - 1981 Aug 18 Journal and Courier |
| 1981 Aug 11 Journal and Courier |
August 12 - It is the voice of "Injun Andy" that rouses the most objections, said Miss Hammil, an Apache from New Mexico. The character says, "Me speak'em not too bad English'm" during the advertisement broadcast on television stations around the state. "We are not embarrassed for our language problems but we are very sensitive to it. This is another unfair stereotyping of Indians as dumb, ignorant, stupid and wooden-headed. But American Indians are doctors, lawyers, counselors and professionals of all kinds, not cigar-store carvings." - 1981 Aug 12, The Indianapolis Star
August 12 - "This is an image we have tried in a very professional manner to overcome for the last 150 years," said Jan Hammil, who contacted the fair's publicity director and requested that the symbol be removed. "Their response appears to be that this is how they see the American Indian today," said Hammil. "What they have done is simple. Out of ignorance, they have chosen to look at a minority group in this light. They would not do this to a black person or a Chicano person." - 1981 Aug 12, Journal and Courier
August 13 - August 13 - Indiana State Fair publicity Chairman Defends 'Injun Andy' - Lewis A. Breiner - whose idea is was to use the symbol, says he is part Shawnee and isn't insulted. Breiner said one of his ancestors was captured by Shawnees as a youngster in West Virginia, raised by the tribe in Ohio and married an Indian woman. He is also a Sagamore of the Wabash ---- an honorary title bestowed on prominent Hoosiers usually by the governor [a terms - that means tribal chief - appropriated from by Algonquian-speaking American Indian tribes of the northeastern U.S. and the state river of Indiana, the Wabash. This has NOTHING to do with Native people.] --- so he felt qualified to determine whether the use of the Injun Andy character was suitable. - 1981 Aug 13, The Times
The Daily Journal Editor Bud Herron editorialized "He is probably right. The Indians probably are over-sensitive. They are over-sensitive the same way blacks would be "over-sensitive" if the mascot were "Nairobi Ned" - a banjo-playing, watermelon-eating, do-dah-do-dahing cotton picker. .. Such stereotypes are the fertile soil in which prejudice grows; "prejudice" meaning to pre-judge an entire group of individuals on the basis of them "all being alike." - 1981 Aug 15 - The Daily Journal
August 18 - "Some Indians in the area feel Indian Andy could be a good thing for the American Indians," said Leroy Malaterre, chairman of the American Indian Council. "We want him to continue but possibly changing the language that he uses a little bit." "We definitely want him reinstated," Lora Siders, representing the Miami Nations of Indians of Indiana Inc said, "It's a caricature, it draws attention, cute attention." Miami Chief Larry Godfroy said, "I think it should be carried on. People should be behind it because the Indian is the only true native American. I'm one of them and I'm proud I am." - 1981 Aug 18, The Republic
August 19 - Keith Bratton, the artist who designed Injun Andy, said "You generally think of Indians as towering, solemn figures and in my estimation that wouldn't be good to greet people at the fair. I wanted to make something that could help people realize maybe Indians aren't all solemn, maybe they do tell jokes and laugh." Bratton said he lives in Mohawk Hills and once he and his wife adopted an Indian girl in Oklahoma, sending her support. "I even went to Redskins High School." "Everything is sensitive these days."Jan Hammil launched a campaign against Injun Andy, said the character is an insult to Indians. "It's insensitivity that is the issue here," she said. - 1981 Aug 19, Quad City Times
August 20 - Minority groups protesting the "stereotyped" Indian caricature used to publicize the 1981 Indiana State Fair picketed the gate as the fair opened for an 11-day run today. .. About 20 members of minority groups, including Indians and blacks, began marching outside ... Cries of "Down with Injun Andy" were raised by the demonstrators who said the Indian caricature used in fair promotion is an unfair stereotype "representative of exploitation of Indian people."..... "The state fair is using Indian people as a gimmick to attract people to come to the fair and spend money," said Brian Johnson, treasurer of the American Indians Council of Indianapolis. - 1981 Aug 20 Logansport Pharos Tribune
August 21 - Walter Barbour called the critics narrow-minded and said "Injun Andy will stay. We build this fair around the Hoosier atmosphere, and fairgoers are happy people. Barbour said Injun Andy "is light in character and he wants kids to have fun and there's no intent to portray anything else. This is a happy time -- fair time. And that's what it's been traditionally over the years." - 1981 Aug 21, The Courier Journal
August 21 - Headline says 'Injun Andy' Survives Attack - and that he showed up (as a mascot) on opening day, though American Indians were protesting. - 1981 Aug 21 Pensacola News
August 21 - Gov. Robert D. Orr said that the Injun Andy cartoon is "representative of nothing" though the radio and television commercials were "poorly made... in poor taste." Now he wants this to an "an episode that is in the past" so everyone can enjoy the fair. - 1981 Aug 21, The Indianapolis Star
August 22 - "I guess Indians can't talk," a small boy said to his father, while having his picture taken with Injun Andy, the speechless controversial mascot of the 1981 Indiana State Fair. .. "We thought it would be easier for him not to talk," said Lew Breiner, fair spokesman. "His head is covered by a big Styrofoam piece and when he talks it sounds like he's down a well." The kid with him (he has an escort) is supposed to say Injun Andy doesn't understand English or he talks Indian or something like that," Breiner said. .... and the fact that Injun Andy is mute has nothing to do with the controversy over the fair symbol. - 1981 Aug 22, Muncie Evening Press
August 23 - Letter to the editor from the writer of the 'Injun Andy' commercials who said said that her fun image and jargon were incorrectly taken "as a prejudicial plot against Indians." She compared the Indian character to cowboys and Hoosiers - and said that the Native people were protested "for publicity for their own organization" and they are not working for the good of the Indian people. - 1981 Aug 23, The Indianapolis Star
September 18 - The billboard below wins an advertising award and named of the monthly Naegele Outdoor Advertising Creative Award. - 1981 Sep 18 The Indianapolis News
1982
January 4 - American Indians Against Desecration asked the Indiana Governor to send the awards to their "Injun Andy" advertising campaign to be returned. "The governor should send the damn things back. We'll pay the postage," said Jam Hammil. But state fair officials still insist that the promotion was not meant to malign any group, instead it was intended to recognize the state's Indian heritage. "The awards show that the campaign was appealing, not offensive," said Walter Barbour, fair board president during 1981. Lew Breiner, publicity supervisor for the fair - 1982 Jan 4, The Republic
January 4 - "It is a stereotype of a group of people and no more appealing than Stepin Fetchit is to black people," said Jan Hammil, vice-president of American Indians Against Desecration and the leader of the dump-Andy effort. ... "I wish it were a closed chapter," Lt. Gov Mutz of the Injun Andy matter. --- 1982 Jan 4, The Indianapolis Star
January 5 - An editorial in The Tribune states
- We liked Injun Andy. We also like Deputy Dog but do not think him offensive to policemen. We like Ricky Ricardo but do not find him offensive to Latin's. Ditto for Fat Albert and Old Weird Harold and blacks; Speedy Gonzales and Mexicans; Inspector Clouseau and Frenchmen; Tattoo and dwarfs' "Absence of Malice" and newspaper reporters.
- In raising such tedious objections on such pettifogging issues as Injun Andy, the country's over-sensitive minorities are only creating antagonisms more detrimental to their cause than a hundred Injun Andys.
January 11 - Response to Editorial - written in disagreement. "This "Injun Andy" cartoon character is a total farce. Not only is this not good art work, but it was done in very poor taste considering the plight of the aborigines of this country." .. "This cartoon character is a satirical as the fancy rhetoric of the article in the Tribune which supported it. " .. "And reading this offensive article made me feel antagonism toward whoever wrote it. You better get your wagons in a circle cause we don't need this stereotyping at all. "
June 8 - The Indiana State Fair will have The Sun as its new symbol
August 23 - Beryl Grimme, retiring from the Indiana State Fair Board, noted that the toughest moment of the job was last summer's controversy over the Injun Andy cartoon character chosen for the fair's promotional material. Civil rights groups called the character racist, and Gov Robert Orr ordered the materials withdrawn but didn't consult the fair board first. "I didn't know about it until I saw it on the news," Grimme said. "Injun Andy wasn't racist, and the people against him weren't even Indians - they were Hispanics. The governor made the wrong decision."
1983
August 16 - Keith Bratton, an Indianapolis advertising and promotions expert.. [was the person] who came up with the "Injun Andy" theme for the 1982 fair. That idea almost got him scalped when Indiana's Indians went on the warpath because they thought the theme was demeaning to Redmen everywhere... Journal and Courier
November 16 - Gov Robert D. Orr appointed James Buchanan III to the State Fair Board, making him the first black to serve in that position... The selection [of Buchanan]... fulfills Orr's commitment to appoint a minority member to the board... [an issue that] came up in 1981, when the group approved an advertising campaign featuring the character "Injun Andy."
1984
April 13 - A Letter to the Editor is published about how Native people are portrayed on television: "I am sick and tired of being portrayed as a killer savage, dumb, lazy, ignorant, ughum-speaking, like the infamous Injun Andy or Tonto. "
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