The Mascot Issue: Decapitating the Indian Image. How did FN People get turned into Sports logos and What do these logos signify? Book: “The Last of.

The Mascot Issue:Decapitating the Indian Image

How did FN People get turned into Sports logos and What do these logos signify? Book: “The Last of the Mohicans” James Fenimore Cooper, 1826 During French Indian War Painted Image: Indians = Ignoble Savages

(attack women / children) Sole-less beings (Christianity) Violent Sports: Football / hockey

(also (also basketball/baseball) 8 of top 10 college sports teams have animal nicknames Other 2 = “Warriors” and “Indians” Degrades Indians makes them appear as less than

human

Discourses Represented: Why were these images invented? Icons/pictures not representative of people/cultures Offensive caricatures Claimed to “honor” FN people Created by population that almost obliterated them Used to belittle culture… Create stereotypes

Would a German soccer team honoring holocaust survivors by naming soccer team “The Fighting Jews” be appropriate?

UND Fighting Sioux

Sioux = “Snake” (Lakota/Dakota tribes) Sioux Never asked for this “honor” Heated rivalry with NDSU Bison'sReasons for name change:1. Sioux are a good exterminating agent for Bison

2. Sioux are warlike, of fine physique and bearing

3. The word Sioux is easily rhymed for yells and songs

Cleveland Indians

“We’ll have the Indians on the warpath all the time, eager for scalps to dangle at their belts”

- Cleveland Sportswriter, 1915

“Honor” Louis Sockalexis Quit due to racial discrimination Died as an alcoholic beggar Is “Chief Wahoo” an accurate depiction?

Movie: “Major League Baseball” Scene: 9th inning of last game Thousands of white people dressed

in Indian garb Indians facing Yankees = colonial

narrative Indians win well after fact they are

raped/pillaged by western culture Ultimate act of appropriation Metaphor: Can’t even win own

battles against Yankees

White people had to do it for them

Not simply Mascots/Logo’s… Also Racist Practices FSU Seminole’s Home Games: Chief Osceola rides onto field Plants fiery spear into turf Before battle: Once you go past this line you declare war

On Campus: “Unconquered” statue of

Chief Osceola Both images of savagery

FN people stuck in the past…

Like wild beasts to be conquered

Similarities between Logos All Decapitated Chiefs or Images of

Violent Weapons

Good Indian Mascots:How do they get selected and are they really good?

2010 Olympics Winter logo Ilaanaq the Innunguaq Ilaanaq = Inuktitut word for “friend” Inuits not asked permission to use knowledge/ name for logoOlympic committee benefits off their beliefs

and the Inuits see none of the profits

Who Profits from these logo’s? James Sinclair: Not the Indians themselves…

Major Indian territory Make money by keeping Indians depressed Influences ways land titles are claimed Assists in continuing conquering and

dispossession of Indigenous people

Effects on Youth

All children harmed by mascots (not just native children)

Once stereotype is established, very difficult for students to learn about present day Indians afterwards

Many children believe that Indians have

been killed off long time ago and that’s why

their school logo is an Indian: to be

remembered .: Crucial for educators to teach school

age children about sports team logos

How are FN People responding to the Mascot Issue? Mostly through writingClaimed offensive because: Reinforces cultural stereotypes Perpetuates violent war-like icons Denigrates native spirituality Created uproar in NCAA 18 teams banned from post season

competition in 2005 due to logos/nicknames considered “hostile or abusive”

Resistance movement

Vernon Bellecourt: "We are saying - start playing football and stop playing Indian. Stop this dehumanizing, degrading, and despicable exploitation of our culture and spiritual life."

Clyde Bellecourt, National Director, AIM: "We don't want to be mascots for America's fun and games."

Mike Wicks: "We need to educate the educators. Show them the harm that is being done to all children.“

Charlene Teters, Spokane: “This war, no longer on battlefields is now being fought in the courtrooms, corporation boardrooms, and classrooms over the appropriation of Native American names, spiritual and cultural symbols by professional sports, Hollywood, schools, and universities. The issue for us is the right to self identification and self determination this is the fight of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media.”

Conclusion

James Sinclair: “We must take it upon ourselves to educate people, especially the youth, about how much harm is being done to the Native community through exploitation and false representation of our people. It is time to speak up, through our actions and through literature so that one day, First Nations People will be recognized as equal beings with the rest of our society”