Indians explain why some mascots are offensive

SEANNA ADCOX

Associated Press

NEWBERRY, S.C. - Newberry College students left a forum on American Indian heritage Wednesday with a better understanding of why their Indian mascot is considered offensive.

The NCAA has banned the college and others that use Indians for their sports teams from using the mascots in postseason events, saying they are offensive.

Several speakers at the standing-room only event told the students they don't like Indian mascots because they feel they are grounded in stereotypes that have nothing to do with facts.

"Institutions who use Indian mascots overwhelmingly say they respect their Indian mascots. But their actions in ignoring the concerns of Indian people suggests that they do not respect Indian people," said Keith Pounds, coordinator for the South Carolina Indian Mascot Project.

About 70 elementary, middle and high schools across South Carolina have Indian-related mascots like Newberry, said Pounds, who lives in Orangeburg and is of Choctaw decent from Louisiana.

Pounds also thinks it's silly for people to defend using Indians as mascots because it honors them. "There are no schools named the blackskins or the Hispanics," he said.

If the schools truly wanted to show their respect, they would support Indians as they seek recognition from the state or help when Indians hold events like film festivals, Pounds said.

Newberry also disrespects Indians by improperly using items from their heritage, said Newberry resident Vedia Counts, who is of Cherokee decent. She especially doesn't like the large Indian headdresses she sees around campus, which were never worn by the Cherokees.

"How are you honoring us when we're telling you to your face that you're not," Counts said.

After the NCAA rejected Newberry's appeal to keep its mascot off the banned list, college president Mitchell Zais said the ruling was "unjust, coercive and perhaps illegal."

Neither Zais or the athletic director were at Wednesday's forum. Some faculty members who attended say they have disagreed with using the Indian mascot for years, but administrators have forbidden them from speaking publicly.

One of the 160 or so students at the forum was Richard Bush, a junior football player from North Augusta. Before the meeting, he said the mascot doesn't need to be changed because it's not disrespectful. After the meeting, Bush said, "I can see where they're coming from."

Casey Faulkenberry, a sophomore from Camden, said thinks the school should make more of an effort to portray Indians in the state more accurately.

"But I don't agree with getting rid of the Indian name," Faulkenberry said.

One of the dancers at the event, seventh-grader Questa Bald Eagle, who is of Sioux decent, said she isn't so bothered by Newberry's Indian mascot.

"Some of it is OK, some of it's not," she said. "At least they are recognizing us."

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www.beaufortgazette.com
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Native American leaders pushing to eliminate school
mascots
Published Sun, Feb 29, 2004

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - Native American leaders say
they've had a difficult time persuading schools in
South Carolina to change mascot names they find
offensive.
Keith Pounds, a Native American activist, says there
are 73 elementary, middle and high school teams in the
state that used Indian-related mascots and nicknames
such as Braves, Chiefs, Indians, Mohawks, Papooses and
Warriors.

Pounds, a Choctaw who puts out an Internet newsletter
for South Carolina's Native Americans called
"Redcopy," says he wrote to all those schools to
consider a mascot change.

"I think I had two schools that even responded," he
told The Greenville News.

The reasons aren't hard to figure out, experts say.

Only 0.3 percent of South Carolina's 4 million
residents are American Indians or Alaska Native
persons, according to the U.S. Census Bureau - just a
fraction of African-American (30 percent) or white (67
percent) populations in this state.

"I think it's pretty clear they just don't think
Indians exist," Pounds said.

Paul Guy, president of the Greenville NAACP, says if a
school used an African warrior as a mascot, that would
be offensive to blacks. "And we have the political
clout to get something changed," he said. "But the
Native Americans have no political clout."

Robert Chastain, state director of the national civil
rights group, American Indian Movement, says there's a
lack of education about Native American culture. He
says it's still considered fun to put on war paint and
dance around with a string of dyed turkey feathers
pretending to be an Indian at high school games.

Jenny Elliott, principal of West-Oak High in Oconee
County, said the nickname "Warriors" isn't meant to
demean people. She wasn't sure if the school's Indian
images like the mural on the cafeteria depicting an
Indian village with tepees were of the Cherokees who
once populated the area.

"In our school we have a lot of pride in being the
Warriors," she said. "We count it as a heritage type
thing."

Riverside High in Greer also uses the nickname
"Warriors." Its sports complex is known as "The
Reservation.

Riverside athletic director Don Frost says the school
tries to be as politically correct as possible. "We
don't mean anything derogatory by it," he said.

Michael Coggeshall, a sociology professor at Clemson
University, has studied Native American culture. He
said reservations in the past were "little more than
concentration camps" and in the present are "an
international embarrassment."

"Even today, native Americans on reservations are
Fourth World peoples," he said. "They have extremely
high unemployment rates, extremely high dropout rates,
extremely high infant mortality rates. The conditions
of reservation life for Native Americans today are
deplorable."

Will Goins, chief executive officer for the Eastern
Cherokee, Southern Iroquois and United Tribes of South
Carolina, compared using "Reservation" to having a
Jewish mascot and call the stadium, "Auschwitz," one
of the Nazi death camps during World War II.

"I can't imagine anyone that has taken time to think
about it making those decisions," Goins said.

Goins doesn't think most people of "the dominant
population" are racist. He says they are sometimes
"unwilling to alter or even recognize that unfair
system. In the case of mascots, people refuse to see
that these stereotypes are insults to us."

James Bryan, who coordinates social studies for the
state Education Department, says more information
about American Indian culture and history is planned
for social studies curriculums.

Keowee Elementary School near Seneca phased out using
its Indian mascot several years ago, principal Ann
Miller says - partly because it no longer has sports
teams and partly "out of respect for the Indian tribes
who just seem to have some concern about that mascot."

Elliott, the West-Oak principal, said she'll gladly
sit down with Indian leaders to discuss the issue.

"I guess I don't really understand it," she said, then
added, "We're not trying to offend anybody."

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