Flak Magazine: Kick Out the Sports! 05.10.04

Etiquette books will tell you there are three topics to avoid in polite conversation — politics, religion and the use of Native American images as sports team mascots.

It's generally accepted that people will never agree on politics and religion, but it would seem, with so many teams having dropped them, that the debate should be settled on Native American mascots — they're a bad idea. Like the old joke about subdivisions being developments in which all the trees are cut down and the streets named after them, America was a land in which the natives were cut down and the sports teams named after them.

With the notable exception of holdouts like the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, most teams, particularly at the collegiate level, have dumped their Native American imagery. You can argue that such imagery is meant as a honor, and that other cultures don't take offense — look at the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. However, Native American mascots for the most part have been received by those being "honored" as a hurtful stereotype, as if the Fighting Irish's leprechaun also was portrayed as unemployed, having 12 kids and stinking of whiskey and beer. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in April 2001 put out a statement that "the use of stereotypical images of Native Americans by educational institutions has the potential to create a racially hostile educational environment that may be intimidating to Indian students."

But some people still take umbrage at such discussion. Unless you want those little Swedish meatballs flying by party's end, you might not want to bring up, say, Chief Illiniwek among anyone with some connection to the University of Illinois.

Chief Illiniwek is a paleface male student who wears a headdress, war paint and no shoes to dance around during breaks at Illinois Fighting Illini sporting events. He's been around since 1926; he even got a gig at President Eisenhower's second inauguration. He's also been dominating the university's time and energy since about when the current Illinois freshmen were born.

Responding to demands that the chief be retired, Illinois' Board of Trustees in 1990 affirmed its support for Chief Illiniwek. Ten years later, the board affirmed its support for vigorous debate — not like the two sides in the debate needed their affirmation, what with voluminous and acrimonious debate over the mascot in the interim.

Right there, I've ticked off one side of the debate by using the word "mascot." To the chief's supporters, Chief Illiniwek is a "symbol." A mascot is something treated like a joke, but a symbol is something treated with honor. Such supporters as the Chief Illiniwek Foundation promote themselves as offering Native American culture education to mitigate their support for a dancing white college student disguised as an Indian doing the funky chicken.

As recently as March, the chief got a 69 percent to 31 percent approval rating in a student vote. Urbana-Champaign isn't the only place in Illinois with a Native American mascot. Such symbolism still plays in Peoria, literally — Bradley University recently reaffirmed its support for the Braves nickname, although years ago it had dropped any human representation of it.

As for Chief Illiniwek, he's facing his biggest threat yet. State Senate President Emil Jones is threatening to, ahem, examine the University of Illinois' budget a little more closely if the Board of Trustees doesn't vote to evict the chief. Because the board doesn't meet until after the current legislative session ends, the university could be facing some significant financial difficulties just ahead.

Should things really come to this? Why is it so hard to let go of the Native American imagery? Hearing some alumni speak, you'd think Chief Illiniwek was such an integral part of their campus lives, he must have tutored them in biology and tapped their kegs. Then again, there are certainly plenty of other high school, college and pro teams across the country who are adamant about keeping their Warriors, Braves, Chiefs, Redskins or the name of the tribe that was booted out long before the college "honoring" it existed.

I don't see the big deal in changing a school's nickname, especially if it's a divisive issue. Maybe that's because my school, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, changed its nickname in 1998 to the Jaguars from the Metros. When I was going to IUPUI, Metros seemed like an appropriate nickname for an urban university, especially because Metro at the time was the name of the city bus system.

No one argued for a name change on account of the Metros dishonoring public transportation, but the powers that be figured that with IUPUI moving to NCAA Division I athletics, Jaguars was more big-time sounding than Metros. I don't recall any passionate movements to save the name. Then again, had IUPUI had a Native American nickname, maybe there would have been.

E-mail Bob Cook at bobc@flakmag.com.