Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy over American Indian Mascots

The Controversy

The Controversy At school board meetings, at universities, in professional sports, and on the editorial pages of widely read newspapers, objections are being raised to teams named the Warriors, Braves, Chiefs, Indians, and Redskins. Teams named after specific tribes such as the Apaches and Mohawks have also been criticized. Six teams—the Florida State Seminoles, the Fighting Illini at the University of Illinois , the Atlanta Braves, the Washington Redskins, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Cleveland Indians—have been targeted by an organization of Native American activists, the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media. Of all minority groups, only American Indians, they point out, are still depicted in stereotypes and caricatures. In the 1970s, in response to student protests, the Dartmouth Indians became the Big Green, the Stanford Indians became the Cardinal (singular), Syracuse University retired its Saltine Warrior, also known as Big Chief Bill Orange, and University of Oklahoma retired its “Little Red” mascot. Since then, dozens of universities have replaced mascots based on American Indians. The Miami University Redskins in Oxford, Ohio, are now the RedHawks, in response to a request from the Miami tribe of Oklahoma; the St. John’s Redmen are the Red Storm; and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has retired Chief Moccanooga . Marquette University’s sports teams, which had Indian themes, have become the Golden Eagles. Eastern Michigan students and fans are no longer the Hurons. Hundreds of high schools have changed their team names and symbols. And at least two minor league baseball teams have transformed themselves: the Chiefs of Syracuse became the Skychiefs and the Akron Indians are now the Akron Aeros. Of all these teams, only Syracuse University seems to have struggled 13 to find a new identity. The Saltine Warrior, an Indian chief invented in a hoax in the student newspaper in 1931, was replaced with a parade of unpopular mascot wannabes. The school finally settled on Otto the Orange in the 1990s. Newspapers including the Oregonian of Portland, Oregon, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, the Akron Beacon Journal, the Seattle Times, and the Salt Lake Tribune have established an editorial policy of not printing Indian-inspired team names. They refer to the Braves, for example, as the Atlanta baseball team. Two radio stations in Washington, D.C., have followed their lead. The Los Angeles School District gave its three public high schools with Indian mascots one year to come up with replacements. The policy was upheld by a court decision. Dallas , Texas, also mandated a change. State boards of education, civil rights commissions , or state commissions of Indian affairs in Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska , Kansas, Maryland, South Dakota, and Wisconsin have asked schools in their states to rename their teams, retire their mascots, and redesign their logos. The New York State Education Board, after a two-year review, urged its public schools to make changes as soon as practically possible. The owners of professional teams—the Braves, Indians, Chiefs, Blackhawks , and Redskins—insist that their teams are private businesses and refuse to bow to pressure. In Cleveland at the first game of each baseball season, Native Americans protest outside the stadium. “We are people, not mascots,” their signs say. Twice, demonstrators have been arrested. They were shown on national television burning an effigy of Chief Wahoo, whose bucktoothed grin and big nose can be seen on the Cleveland team’s uniforms and on the licensed pennants, hats, and T-shirts sold to fans. The teams also face legal challenges. Legislation has been proposed in Cleveland, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C., to deny public funds for stadiums if minority groups will be disparaged within. Many American Indians refuse to pronounce the name of the Washington football team. To them it is the Native American “n-word.” When the Washington Redskins played in the Super Bowl in Minneapolis in 1992, they were greeted THE CONTROVERSY 14 by three thousand protesters, although the temperature was seventeen below. Later that year a legal proceeding was filed against them. Seven prominent Native Americans petitioned to have the team’s trademarks canceled under a clause of the trademark law that says that disparaging or scandalous terms cannot receive federal trademark protection. They pointed out that the nation’s capital city should not use a racial slur to name its team. Seven years after the petition was filed, three judges of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled for the...