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The American Indian Quarterly 29.1&2 (2005) 156-177



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The Elimination of Indigenous Mascots, Logos, and Nicknames

Organizing on College Campuses

In this article a brief history of activism on the American Indian mascot issue in Minnesota will be discussed with a specific focus on college campuses. The approaches taken at St. Cloud State University (SCSU) to create awareness on this issue and the successes and failures of actions taken to push for meaningful changes at the policy level at scsu and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) will also be discussed. Possible responses to arguments made by opponents of these changes as well as tactics for organizing on campuses that play schools with American Indian mascots and nicknames will be considered.

Minnesota History

The first documented evidence of activism on this issue in Minnesota was in 1967 when Mankato State University began a ten-year debate to change its logo and nickname from the Indians to the Mavericks.1 A new president and the efforts of university activists ended the debate in 1977 when the Indians became the Mavericks on July 1, 1977.2 Thus, the long history of activism on issues of American Indian mascots and nicknames in Minnesota seems to have found its roots on the Mankato campus, not far from the location of the largest federal execution in U.S. history when thirty-eight Dakota Indians were hanged in 1862.3 The origins of activism on this issue in Minnesota sprang from the same geographic area that silenced the voices and extinguished the lives of American Indians a century earlier.

There is little documentation of activism in Minnesota regarding American Indian mascots from 1977 until the summer of 1986 when [End Page 156] three students in the Department of Human Relations and Multicultural Education at scsu wrote letters to the Sauk Rapids Rice School District superintendent asking that the school board address the racist use of the school's nickname, "The Indians."4 The students asked that this issue be placed on the school board's next agenda, and a St. Cloud Times reporter at that meeting wrote a story about the controversy that was picked up by the Associated Press. Subsequently, the executive director of the Minnesota office of the American Civil Liberties Union decided to pursue some type of action to require that all Minnesota schools using American Indian mascots and nicknames cease this practice.5 In June of 1987, Phil St. John, a parent at Southwest High School in Minneapolis, challenged the school regarding its Indian nickname and logo. He formed Concerned American Indian Parents (caip) and successfully lobbied the school district to change the school nickname to Lakers in June of 1987.6 In 1988 the Minnesota Board of Education, with courageous leadership from Will Antell, White Earth Anishinaabe and State Director of Equal Educational Opportunities in the State Department of Education, worked collectively with the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union, caip, and the Minnesota Dakotas Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, to draft a policy that required all school districts in Minnesota with American Indian nicknames to cease using them.7

Minnesota, specifically Minneapolis, is also the birthplace and national headquarters of the American Indian Movement (aim).8 In October of 1991, members of aim along with caip and American Indian dignitaries founded the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media.9 This coalition planned and coordinated protests in Minneapolis in October 1991 during the World Series and again in January of 1992 during the Super Bowl.10 Although the hundreds of demonstrators were derided and heckled by fans, the protests received national attention and helped sharpen the issues for many social justice activists in p–12 settings as well as on college campuses.11 Scholarly journal articles and commentaries in newspapers forced schools and universities to examine their level of commitment to issues of diversity and to creating more welcoming environments for students, staff, and teachers.12

A setback occurred in May of 1992 when the Minnesota Board...

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