It is good thing Eastern Michigan dropped Huron as its nickname. Now, what about that damn lake? That is so offensive.

And that car brand, Pontiac. When will GM drop it becuase it so offensive? And that town in Michigan, Pontiac. When will it get dropped?

Since Illini and Ute is offensive, when will we force Illinois and Utah to change their names?

Our country cannot rest with such offensive names bantered about so casually. Today, nicknames. Tomorrow, car brands.

George, at 9:07 am EDT on August 12, 2005

An Amazing Debate

I am somewhere around 1/32 Native American. One of my ancestors married a Native American about five or six generations ago. Legally and intellectually, I am not Native American, however.

I live in Indiana. (There’s one of those “Indian” states!) The capitol is Indianapolis, where the best minor league park in America is located — home of the Indianapolis Indians.

The great Chief Tecumseh once roamed the area of the state where I live. There is a memorial near here commemorating his defeat by an army led by William Henry Harrison. It is a favorite picnic spot for many. Every child in this area knows the story of Tecumseh and his brother, The Prophet.

I grew up in this area. In elementary school, I was a Durgan Arrow. In jr. high, I was a Tecumseh Brave. Other schools bear Native American names and mascots. In the southern area of my town are neighborhoods built during the post-WWII housing boom. The streets are named after Indian tribes — Iroquois, Choctaw, Dakota and countless others.

I was in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, which contain some Native American symbolism. Most recently, I and my daughters participated in the YMCA’s Y-Indian Guide program. We belonged to the Fox tribe. We took Indian names. The girls earned feathers for special projects, one of which required writing a report on a Native American tribe. They wore their feathers in a special headband. That program has now been revised; the Indian symbolism is gone. But it was never about pretending to be an Indian, it was about spending time with my daughters.

Native American symbols are indeed part of the fabric of my life. I’m certain that in no way are (or were) any of the symbols used as a tool to marginalize or degrade Native Americans. I’ve always seen them as respectful. So when the NCAA ruling became public, I was dismayed.

Carol Spindel’s August 9 essay was very thoughtful and I learned something. Maybe I have become “numb” to the symbols that are part of my everyday life. So much so that it’s possible I’m unable to understand why it’s an issue.

Recently, I watched “Into The West,” Steven Speilberg’s western saga. I was saddened by the depicted treatment of Native Americans. Maybe Speilberg manipulated my emotions — but isn’t that what films are supposed to do? What opened my eyes were the scenes involving the school where the children were “assimilated.” I kept thinking, “There was a better way to do this. There HAD to be a better way!”

And I have been aware of the truth of the treatment of Native Americans for some time. How can I not be? Through media, books, films, etc., the story has been told countless times. No one can say they don’t have at least a cursory understanding of the truth.

Yet, if the streets in my town are changed under pressure from Native Americans, I will still be dismayed. I can’t make the connection between a street sign, or a picture of my daughter wearing her Indian Princess headband, and the degradation experienced by Native Americans that continues even today.

I hope my simple understanding of that awful degradation, and my prayers for Native Americans today, will be enough.

Tom McCool, at 10:47 am EDT on August 12, 2005

Sticks and stones

A government—or any lesser governing body—that begins by censoring words or images will end by censoring ideas. Brutally. Savagely. This paraphrase of Supreme Court Justice John Harlan’s words in COHEN v. CALIFORNIA (1971) captures a profoundly distressing truth, a truth pointedly ignored or misunderstood by ideologues convinced their scrubbed speech should squelch every other.

And less than a year ago, without governmental sponsorship (not that it is difficult to find such), an Islamic madman slaughtered Theo Van Gogh on the street in Amsterdam because the killer was “offended” by Van Gogh’s expression of his ideas. I know that there is a difference in degree between such behavior and what “purists” in America insist upon, but I fail to see any distinction in kind. Unchecked, their vision inevitably generates a proliferation of red skins, skins saturated in blood.

John Bonnell, Professor of English at Macomb Community College, at 12:39 pm EDT on August 12, 2005

Censorship? He he.

Professor Bonnell, your post is poetic but fails to point to any example of government censorship related to the Indian mascot issue. Only one of the schools mentioned in the article, I believe, is even related to a state government, and the article gives no indication that it censored anyone in dropping its Huron mascot.

The Theo van Gogh reference is absurd. Are commenting on some other article, perhaps one about government censorship in the Middle East?

Scott, at 1:28 pm EDT on August 12, 2005

mascot names

Evan, you crack me up. Your idea was similar to my own: I wanted a team just called the White Christians. Their mascot would be a guy in a long white gown, flowing hair, a soft beard, and bleeding wrists. Whenever the team scored he could run out to the 50 yard line and lie down with his arms spread and his feet crossed. Up in the stands, the crowd would be waving big foam hands with nail holes in the palms. They could shower the field with white bread or crackers when they got angry at the ref.

What? That would be incredibly offensive? Yeah, it sure would. Even if someone said they were doing it to honor the culture and religion of white folks and/or Christians.

The only reason this is even a debate is that American Indians don’t (yet) have the numbers to act as ignorantly and arrogantly as the rest of us do and impose their prejudices on other groups. It’s not about being “politically correct” (which, you know, is a phrase almost exclusively by people who’ve been caught out being offensive jerks, know it, and don’t want to admit it). It’s about being grown-ups, and about extending the same rights to self-description and self-determination to others as you would want for yourself.

If a Cherokee-majority high school wants to call themselves something like the Sequoyahs, they have the right. If Notre Dame wants to remain the Fighting Irish, they can. But for a majority-white school to get its back up and whine about its “heritage” is unbelievable—it’s NOT their heritage! It’s someone else’s! (Or at least they could be honest and call themselves the Indian Killers, or the Smallpox-Blanket Givers, how about those?)

And on a slightly different tack, “Hawks"? “Storm"? Snooze. Why not look for a local name like Cornhuskers, Wheatshockers, Ichabods, Packers, Boilermakers, Longshoremen, etc.? Those are all great names that really do speak to the heritage of the people who wear their logos. They’re distinctive, creative, and cool. If someone makes fun of you for being a Cornhusker, you have a heck of a lot more right to kick their butt defending the honor of Cornhuskerdom than you ever did in defending the “honor” of a cariciture of the people who got removed from the land-grant at the point of a bayonet.

Sheryl, at 3:37 pm EDT on August 12, 2005

Genius

There is a guy in Iowa sitting very smugly right now thinking he outsmarted them hippie trouble makers when he decided to change the name of his college mascot from the Blackhawks to the Black Hawks. Genius. Simply genius.

Daniel, Genius, at 4:57 am EDT on August 13, 2005