March 13, 1991 - “I just think it leaves a bad image in kids’ minds,” Adrian Cook

Teams disregard 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 Blackhawks, many institutions at the college and high school level have opted to drop American Indian references and mascots.

      Here are some of them:

• Dartmouth. In the early 1970s, Dartmouth College, long known at the Indians, officially became the Big Green.  Kathy Slattery, Dartmouth's sports information director, said the original nickname arose because the college was founded in 1765 with the specific purpose of “educating the natives of the area.” However, riding a wave of sensitivity to racial and cultural issues during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Dartmouth went to “voluntary discontinuance” of the nickname. And in 1972, Dartmouth trustees formally voted that the school’s Indian mascot was, “inappropriate with the mission of the college.”
• Stanford. Also in 1972, pressure from concerned groups moved Stanford University in California to change its nickname from the Indians to the Cardinals – and then in 1981 to the Cardinal, thereby maintaining the school’s color – red. 
• Syracuse. In the mid 1970s, Syracuse University dropped its Saltine Warrior mascot after students approached the administration with their concerns. The Indian mascot that had roamed the Syracuse sports’ sidelines for years was replaced, first by a gladiator and then by a large orange with legs. This lent an entirely different meaning to the nickname “Orangemen,” which originally was a reference to Indians. Irving Powless, a chief of the Onondaga Nation, was one of three American Indian representatives who met with Syracuse officials about the issue over about a year’s time before the change was made. “How would you like to be defined as a mascot?” Powless said. “I don’t care how you try, you cannot dignify a mascot.” 
• St Johns. The St Johns University Redmen for years had an Indian mascot, but a few years ago, as a result of pressure from Native American groups, the mascot was changed – to a man in a red tuxedo. That mascot was also dropped, and the school hasn’t had one for two full seasons. A university committee looking into a new nickname and mascot hasn’t come up with a decision yet. And, although the university’s women’s basketball team is now called the Express, the men’s squads still use the name Redmen.
• Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan. A pair of rival universities in Michigan have faced the same issue. Eastern Michigan, formerly the Hurons, has changed its moniker and its neighbor, the Central Michigan Chippewas, are in the midst of rethinking theirs. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission voted in 1988 to ask colleges and high schools across the state to drop Indian names for their sports teams. Although many high schools have done so, the two universities held out – until recently. Central Michigan’s logo used to be a letter C with a spear through it. About a year ago, the university dropped the spear but kept the nickname Chippewas. “We are in the process of a three-year evaluation to see if the name is appropriate,” said Central Michigan sports information director Fred Stabley Jr. “In the past two years, we’ve eliminated any kind of arrow, spear, feather, etc. We’re just the generic Chippewas.” But, said Stabley, “I wouldn’t double that we’ll eventually be forced to change it.”
        Eastern Michigan already has. But it took time. A university first used an open forum, a written survey, and personal interviews to look into the issue and came up with a recommendation for keeping the nickname Hurons. At the same time, it proposed backing new programs to study Native American culture and boost American Indian enrollment. “That’s like continuing investments in South Africa and bringing black South Africans to your school to study,” Cornell University Professor Don Barr said recently. However, a group of American Indians continued to protest the name and asked Eastern Michigan to reopen discussion on the issue.
        The school’s board of regents put the matter in the university president’s hands. In his speech to the school’s board of regents on Jan 30 of this year, President William Shelton gave his answer: “We cannot decide for other people what is offensive to them. Nor can we mandate that they accept our good intentions, overlooking and denying their feelings and needs. Social justice demands more of us that that…. As an educational institution, I do not believe we can justify the continued use of symbols which we now know offend and denigrate, however unintentionally, members of our community.” The board of regents voted 6-0 to accept the president’s recommendation and the nickname was dropped. Eastern Michigan has yet to decide on a new nickname or logo. But when uniforms, letterheads and other insignia are replaced, they will not bear the Huron name or an Indian figure, said Jim Streeter, sports information director.
• Siena. At least one college recently made a name change without any pressure exerted from outside groups – Siena College in Loudenville near Albany. Siena had called its athletic teams the Indians for almost half a century. But after a study into diversification on campus, a committee suggested the name could be perpetuating stereotypes. In 1988, Father Hugh F. Hines, then president of the college, agreed the nickname should be changed. “Because we are a Catholic institution founded by Franciscan friars, we found that stereotyping one people is not in keeping with what they teach,” said John D’Argenio, the school’s sports information director. Siena played an entire athletic season (1988-89) without a nickname before embarking on a campus-wide search for a new one. The school eventually decided to change its name to the Saints. “The problem is not always with the name ‘Indian’ itself, but with what goes on around it.” D’Argenio explained. “If it is the right thing to do, you should be able to do it without outside pressure.” 

High schools. Lee Bailey, an associate professor of religion at Ithaca College, believes it may be even more important for high schools to drop Indian nicknames and mascots. “It’s a good idea to start at the high school level because those kids are more subject to those kinds of influences,” he said. “If a university has the power to change, you’d have to think it would be a lot easier for a high school to do it,” said Scott Burnam, a midfielder on the Cornell lacrosse team. 

      Phil St. John, a Sioux Indian from Brooklyn Park, Minn, led a fight more than three years ago that resulted in his local high school dropping its Indian nickname and mascot. 

      The crusade started when St John’s 8-year-old son was confused and embarrassed by the activities of a white student in the stands dressed as an Indian.
      “Sure, we’re proud of our heritage, but we want to move on, too,” St John said. “Let’s stop freezing us in time.”
      The Minnesota state Board of Education saw the issue the same way. In 1988, the board requested the state’s school districts change all names with Indian references.
      “They felt it was discriminatory, insensitive and degrading,” said Will Antell, state director of equal educational opportunities and a Chippewa Indian.
      “The responses ranged from very cooperative to extremely opposed,” he said.
      More than a dozen school districts have complied with the request, but more than three dozen have not.
      New York state’s Board of Education made no such attempt to rule on Indian nicknames, although Adrian Cook, associate director of civil rights and intercultural relations for the state, receives occasional phone calls on the subject.
      Cook, a Mohawk Indian, is opposed to the use of Indian nicknames.
      “I just think it leaves a bad image in kids’ minds,” he said. “Many people from my reservation fell the same way.” 

1991 March 13, The Ithaca Journal