Native American Mascots
Some will argue that using Native Americans
as a mascot is honorable, which in some cases they are, but sometimes it can be
a huge slap in the face to Indian people. It can be hard for some people to
understand why Indians get offended, but it only comes down to a few different
things. Native people have been plagued with numerous stereotypes, and some of
the mascots have given life to a few of the many stereotypes and assumptions
made about Indian people. They can be derogatory, forms of oppression, disrespectful,
but there are those schools that are more in touch with their culture make
having an Indian mascot an honorable thing to their tribe and people.
“The term ‘Redskin’ is the most
derogatory term you can call Native people. This term has a very violent
historical reference to Native people. At a time when the United States
government had a bounty on Native American people. You could earn money by
killing Indians. The tomahawk was the took that was used to collect the bounty
to scalp Native people and was in fact issued by the United States government
for the purpose of scalping Indians so they could collect bounty. If you
brought in the bodies of Indian people you could collect bounty. When it became
to cumbersome to bring in the bodies, they would bring in the heads, and when
it became to cumbersome to bring in the heads, they would bring in the scalps
or the redskins of Native people and that is where this term comes from.” –
Charlene Teters, acting president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports
and Media. The term “redskin” is a racist image of the past. It has nothing but
awful and disrespectful ties to it, but yet the NFL is fighting to keep the
name. The name has been protested on several different accounts, the most
recent being in Green Bay when the Redskins visited for a week 2 game. But the
Redskins owner Dan Snyder states, “We will never change the name of the team.” The
franchise seems to be more concerned about the fans and the tradition of the
name, and less about how the group of people being depicted by their racial
mascot feels. You would also think professional sport associations would also
be interested in helping to get rid of stereotypes.
Chief
Wahoo, the logo/mascot of the Cleveland Indians, is a yet another controversial
topic. The Native American head has red skin and a big nose, the typical
stereotype of an Indian. They make it seem like all Indians are categorized as
one and there is no difference between tribes. Every tribe has it’s own
language, culture, traditional regalia, and that should be respected.
Stereotypes need to fade away already, but when we have all these Native
American heads as mascots that all look remotely the same, it kind of makes
that hard.
Although
there are some Native American mascots that are disrespectful, there are also a
few that are very honorable. The teams that use them, though, tend to be more
in touch with the different Indian cultures and have grown up to respect them.
The Browning Indians, who are located in Browning, Montana on the Blackfeet
reservation, are a really good example. I consider Browning to be my second
home, and I know first hand how people in the tribe, community and the students
themselves are proud of their name. They work hard to make a good name for
themselves and their people across the state of Montana. When they make it to
state for basketball, wrestling, or any really any sport, they are given war
bonnets to wear to show their strength and how highly honorable they are. It’s
a part of their culture, and really that’s what the difference is between them
and professional and collegiate sports teams that use Native American themed
mascots.
I’m
not saying that we should get rid of all these mascots, and just let schools on
reservations keep them. I’m saying that we need to learn how to respect them
more and try to stop making them so stereotypical. We need to consider the
feelings and thoughts of Indian people when it comes to this controversy and be
more understanding.
