Native American Symbolism In Sports : Respect Or Ridicule

In a majority of cases, this view is even endorsed by the tribes themselves (Morrison). They argue that the restriction and ultimate elimination of the Native American mascot would also abolish the nation’s historic view of this cultural entity as characters of strength, determination, boldness, resourcefulness and courage. They contend that these same positive attributes are not only required by athletes, but are held expectations of the sporting community. The pursuant argument entails that there is an inherent oddity in the suggestion that naming a team after an Indian tribe is a calculated insult.

The Native American people have been apart of America ever since the “white man” came over from Europe. There traditions have been around for as long as they have been alive. They were the first people on the land we call home today. The Native American people have done more for this land than we have and we do not appreciate them at all for that. It is crazy how some people just blow them off like they are less than us and do not get anything special, but they do not also need to be disrespected in the public eye. Professional sports teams that have Native American mascots are used in a way that disrespects the people of Native American descent. It also happens at the high school level and gives the young adults with an biased outlook on the culture and history of these people. Any sports team name with an Native American mascot should have to change there name.

Roppolo insists, “The real problem with the kind of dysconscous, symbolic, abstract racism that is perpetuated today by sports mascots… is that it enables very real, very concrete, and very conscious acts of violent racism that American Indian people still face in this country and this hemisphere on a daily basis”(228). This demonstrates how the mascot does have a detrimental impact towards Native Americans. People who are subjected to seeing Native Americans through these mascots already have fallacious perceptions of what Native Americans behave like. Due to this, people will start to react accordingly to how they feel the Native Americans are supposed to act due to the distorted stereotypes that are presented to the public. People do not even realize that they are acting this way towards Native Americans, because Roppolo claims that Americans have gotten used to being racist towards Native Americans for so long that it is now invisible, aka dysconscious racism(226). People do not realize that it is ingrained in them, so when they come into contact with a Native American they may perceive the situation different than what actually happened. Roppolo justified this by going on to add, “One young man had his brother nearly beaten to death - his skull cracked open, not just cracked - when several bouncers at a local nightclub had to control his ‘rowdy’

Sports teams use "Indian," as well as many other mascots with related themes, to honor those who are native to

The controversy over the naming of sports teams after ethnic groups has been boiling since the mid-twentieth century. Sports teams in America, ranging from Pee-wee leagues, high schools, and colleges to Professional sports, have used any enumeration of nick names and mascots by which to represent their team with pride and sometimes even comedy. However, the lines of political correctness have been greatly and maybe even intentionally blurred in terms of the use of specific ethnic groups within team names and the use of the stereotypical image of those teams’ caricatures, the native-American in particular. Of the four major professional sports team franchises included in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL that do possess ethnic monikers, only two are of Caucasoid based ethnicity, whereas the other 5 are direct references to Native American ethnicity or stereotypes

Thus, it seems odd to suggest that naming a team after an Indian tribe is a calculated insult. A team or school embraces a mascot that represents the favorable traits and characteristics of its members. Such is the case with the Florida State Seminoles, who are named after a tribe with its origin in that southern state. The Seminole tribe optimistically favored the use of the Indian mascot and even facilitated the design of authentic dress that is proudly worn at sporting and community events. Similar to the Seminoles, the University of Illinois preserved their mascot, Chief Illiniwek, for almost 80 years. Named after the indigenous Illiniwek tribe, the Chief was a customary sideline figure at football and basketball games until 2007 when the NCAA forced the University of Illinois to remove this historic mascot. Unfortunately, the collegiate governing body failed to realize what this symbol meant to the collegiate Illinois community. Illini students were polled regarding the action and a majority disapproved of the decision. Sixty-nine percent of the students voted to keep Chief Illiniwek as their mascot. (Haugh). These students believed that removing Chief Illiniwek as the University of Illinois’ mascot would diminish the passion associated with their university. After the forceful removal of the Native American mascot by the NCAA, the students felt

     Many people do not consider themselves supporting Native American mascots that depict them in a bad manner. But when people walk around with a Atlanta Braves shirt on with a Indian with a tomahawk in his hand, it is degrading to the Indians. It is stereotyping them. School mascots and Sports team’s mascots are named after groups of people for no reason known. Notre Dame was founded by Irish Catholics, but their sports team was named the Fighting Irish. The name Fighting Irish has nothing to do with the Irish Catholics, it depicts them in a wrong way.(Price, 3). Team names can be changed to similar names that do not depict certain groups of people. Like the Redskins can be called the Red Hawks or the

Former chair of the Los Angeles Native American Commission, Jack Shakley, in his argument, “Indian Mascots-You’re Out!” disputes whether Native American mascots should be allowed to be the face of American sports teams. Shakley’s purpose is to convey the idea that is insensitive to have Native Americans as mascots. Jack Shakley uses a passionate tone to show readers that not only is using a Native American mascot racist, but it is wrong and should be changed to a less offensive mascot. Shakley starts off using pathos to the readers by telling a story from his childhood. In the article, Shakley demonstrates the ability to use strong pathos and logos arguments to support his claims that we should get rid of Native American mascots and steam names.

Almost everybody loves going to sporting events and seeing all the excited fans as well as the energized mascots. There has been quite a variety of mascots and logos seen in schools whether it be high schools or colleges and in professional leagues. According to a search done by an ESPN FiveThirtyEight reporter through a database known as MascotDB, out of the 42,624 teams in the database at the time there were 2,129 sports teams that have reference to Native Americans (Munguia). That’s about a five percent of all mascots while Native American only make up roughly two percent of the population of the United States in 2014 (US Census). There has been much debate and controversy around mascots and team names that reference Native American throughout the years and gaining more attention especially with the most public debate regarding National

The National Congress of American Indians feel that sports teams with Native American related team names and/or mascots are offensive and unnecessary. The changing of these names has become an enormous debate in today’s world. A fact from “Washington Redskins Name Controversy” says it has since become a prominent civil rights issue and that the American Indian people consider these names a harmful racial epithet. Offensive team names and/or mascots is truly an intense topic with two points of view. Many believe that these teams should keep the names because they show respect and honor, but truly they are racist and offensive to the American Indian culture and need to be changed as soon as possible.

The first Indigenous media source was an article from aptn.ca titled, “Indigenous architect Douglas Cardinal in Ontario court trying to ban Cleveland’s baseball team name”. This was a very short article, outlining the facts of the court case as well as a brief description of Cardinal. This article also mentioned others who refused to use the team’s name including Jerry Howarth, a sports announcer.

Though there are millions of examples of negative stereotyping, this paper will focus on the negativity associated with stereotypes concerning Native American mascots used to represent sports teams across the United States. Mascots, logos, and team chants are a powerful platform that symbolizes unity and pride. However, when that platform is used to single out and exaggerate sacred cultural rituals of minority groups through inappropriate stereotypes there are harmful social and personal consequences. To fully understand the impact Native American mascots have on the Native

American Mascots have been around for a very long time and are a big part of American history. Whether it be the identity of a high school, college or professional sport, mascots know how to excite a crowd and make adoring fans follow them. But for Native American people mascots have become a tool of oppression as million dollar franchises plaster fake images of their people across American stadiums claiming to “honor Native Americans”.

Many people look at the Washington Redskins and think nothing of the name and logo, yet many people also look at it with pain and sorrow. When you have lived with, and know what the Native peoples look and act like, and their rich history, then when you hear the Kansas City Chief's mascot name, it will be a very confusing moment. However, that is not considering the Red Skin's mascot with the red skin, toothy smile, and, "the stereotype of Native Americans as a bloodthirsty savage" (Davis, 2011). The mascots may have been made in a different time, but that does not stop them from being racist, inaccurate, and outdated.

When having a sports team named after someone’s ancestor or deity, it turns out to be negative for that person and or group. Most sports teams believe that using Indian mascots is a symbol of victory and strength. The Native Americans are not able to portray accurate images of what their culture and spirituality should be as a team and associations make them look bad as they don’t follow what the traditions have made them out to be, this has been a reason to why the Native American culture can be found as disrespectful to their spirituality. Kevin