Guest Writer Christine Rose

Christine Rose, a talented and dedicated speaker, writer, graces us once again with her unique words of wisdom.  She understands and walks the talk in the area of uplifting the lives of American Indians.  She is a genuine caring woman of integrity, courage and quiet wisdom.  I recommend you find a quiet spot and read this article through.  Then take time to reflect and read it again this time with firm deliberate resolve to really "hear" the message and see through the eyes of our worthy American Indian citizens.  Knowledge is power my friends only when understood and applied.  In that light I invite you to say the above Hawaiian "E ho mai ."   I would love to know your comments on this most misunderstood subject and I shall forward responses to Christine.  Thanks Christine I am honored to print your words.   Nani

The Tears of Strangers Are Only Water:
The Refusal of America To Understand the Indian Team Name Issue

Christine Rose
Students and Teachers Against Racism
www.racismagainstindians.org


All across America, schools are grappling with whether or not to eliminate Indian team names and mascots.  Discussions of their removal is resulting in violence, oppression, threats, hate mail-activities we have not seen the likes of since the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Many schools attach great emotion to their right to keep these symbols.  Stories abound of the honor they feel they have bestowed upon Native Americans by using them as mascots. In their defense, they want to represent their schools with Indians because they were proud, fierce, even because they were spiritual.

Schools say these images have been around for years and have never hurt anyone before.  Many people who hold tightly to these images say that they are tired of being politically correct, and that it all must stop somewhere.

Between the 1930s through the 1950s, schools began adopting the use of Native American names and imagery, including the use of feathers, which had always been considered sacred by Native Americans and had always been used in Native ceremonies, even during the period of time their religion was forbidden.   But, with the onset of the use of the Indian team names, these feathers were suddenly being sported by caricatures of Indian people in a most unsacred way.

     This movement to end the use of Indian team names began in the 1970s by the National American Indian Congress (NAIC), the same decade when the Freedom of Religions Act of 1978 granted permission, in a land based on religious freedom, to Native people to practice their religion and ceremonies.

Perhaps the passage of the Freedom of Religions Act brought hope and a sense of determination when the NAIC decided it was time to bring about change. Since then, almost 600 schools and colleges have changed their names in recognition of the racism inherent in the appropriation of another peoples' image.   Some schools even refuse to play against teams with Indian team names and mascots and some newspapers refuse to print the names of Indian teams.   But there are still at least 2,700 schools nationally with names that many Native Americans find offensive.

While some schools have welcomed change, many more fight tooth and nail to retain a symbol they feel belongs to them.  Within these communities it is almost as if a silent war is raging.  At a pep rally at the Win-E-Mac High School in Bemidji, Minnesota, the basketball team was preparing to play against an Ojibwe school whose mascot is the Red Lake Warriors.  Teachers from the Win-E-Mac school dressed as stereotypical Indians, while another teacher waved his guns at them and told them to get back to the reservation.  After the rally, Native students were assaulted in the alley behind the gym.   In Little River, Kansas, an activist who was involved in removing the name "Redskin" from local signs and schools received criminal threats of physical harm including the threat of rape of his wife.   Local law enforcement agencies were able to determine that the emails originated from the high school and two students were eventually arrested for sending these extremely vile threats.

Underlying violence and tension surfaces in many communities that face this issue.  Cars are keyed, lug nuts removed, and headlights are flashed into the living rooms of supporters.  But denial of problems within any community is common and most people in quiet suburban towns prefer to view these types of threats as isolated incidents.  In fact, the school superintendent of Little River blamed the man who sought the name change as the culprit, rather than the boys who perpetuated the rape threats.

Some people argue that Indian team names are acceptable because most people find nothing wrong with them.  They assume that the majority should rule.  But in all civil rights issues, it has always been the minority who seeks change; abolitionists were in the minority, as were those who fought for women's rights. Clearly, their cause was not any less right simply because they were in the minority.

In the 1500s and 1600s, Native people were not regarded as people but rather as primitive savages of the wild.   From 1850 to 1859, almost a million dollars in bounties were paid for killing Indians.   Many people believe that the name "Redskin" was actually the term used for the scalps and the skin removed from the backs and legs of Indians.  These skins were used for belts, reins,  and purses, and their genitalia were used for souvenir tobacco pouches and hatbands.   This horrific use of Native people as products is a little known fact in our nation's history.

This dehumanization is similar to the way that Hitler viewed the Jews in Germany, resulting in the blind acceptance of a holocaust.   But Germans have been forced to own up to their mistakes while Americans largely remain complacent about the millions of people that were killed mercilessly within our own boarders.

Names like the Red Hordes, the Fighting Sioux, the Red Men, the Red Devils, and the Marauders reflect the opinion of early American settlers and bear little resemblance to the reality of Native people in the past or today.  These names perpetuate stereotypes of frightening, wild people that strike terror in the hearts of children.  Even less offensive names such as the Warriors, the Braves, or the Chiefs still bring forth images that originated in the imagination of the fearful settlers who journeyed west. These images did not accurately reflect all Native people, many of whom held spirituality in far higher esteem than the warrior attributes that our country has since glorified. 

Today, the stereotype of Native people as war-like people is perpetuated by the Indian-based team names and there is no modern media representation of contemporary Native Americans to counteract that.  Just ask any child to describe an Indian and you will surely hear the perfect description of the Indian mascot.

In war-times,  it is common to deride the opponent. Condescending names for the enemies come to mind when we think back to World War II or the Vietnam War.  But when those wars were over, and the battles were relegated to history books, we discarded those "nicknames" and eventually accorded those people respect.  So why do we insist on maintaining these condescending names for Indians?  Is it because the war is not over? 

Certainly, aspects of this war remain alive and controversial. In South Dakota, the Commission on Civil Rights determined that incidences of racial profiling, hate crimes, and discrimination have not declined in twenty years.  Indeed, each year in South Dakota several murders of Indian people go unsolved.

At the University of North Dakota, where the Fighting Sioux mascot has been the subject of intense scrutiny, some Native American students have anonymously requested transfers to other colleges.  For these students as well as the supportive faculty, the overall feeling of oppression, of wondering who was walking too closely behind them, of suffering death threats, of intimidation by professors when they are the only Native representatives in the class, and of seeing the destruction of student projects and property were simply too much to endure.  In fact, several tribes discouraged Native students from pursuing an education at UND.

Most Native students who attend UND will not participate in sporting events or attend them with their children.  The garish new hockey rink boasts thousands of images of the Indian head logo, while announcers repeatedly cry out "get your Sioux-venirs," and "Sioux-per hot dogs!"  Supporters of opposing teams wear t-shirts portraying obscene images of Indians and buffalo, mocking both Native culture and religion. The callous war cries of "Scalp the Sioux" are far too hurtful for almost any Native American to attend or to comfortably bring a child to a game.

The stereotypical image of Indian people based on myths of cowboys and Indians prevents Native Americans from being recognized as people today. From 1493 through 1900, an estimated 100 million Indian people were killed.    There is probably not one Indian  today that did not have ancestors who were killed during that time.

The use of the Indian mascots is a symbol of genocide, a souvenir of war, a trophy.  And just as we hang deer heads in our dens, so too do we hang Indian heads in our gymnasiums.  These Indian team names and mascots can never truly honor Native people, regardless of even the best intentions.

We may have to teach the true history of Native Americans in schools just as we now teach about the Jewish Holocaust in Germany.  And perhaps we may have to ask, as a neighbor recently asked in a whispered hush, "What do they want?  Do they want their land back?"

It seems Native people would be happy to have recognition; of the suffering of their ancestors, of their right to honor their customs and religion, of their role in the development of this country's true history, and finally of their continued presence as our neighbors and friends, co-workers, and spouses.  With the elimination of Indian team names, this recognition can finally begin to come to pass.

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University Of Life & Hope Offers A Celebration of Cross Cultural Immersion Summit   

Please call our office and get yourself on our schedule for cultural immersion training supported by the Executive Board Council of the Assisiniboine - Sioux Tribes of Ft.Peck Montana.  Read a few comments from students who earned two cr. in May.

Question?  What one thing stood out for you in this class? Be specific!

The interaction!  Theresa Knoble, Wolf Point, Montana

Instructor very knowledgeable on variety of subject areas.

                         Roxann Bighorn, Ft. Peck Community College

How can I get started doing something like this?  Because this workshop makes me feel so good, I want others to feel the same.  Robin Perry FPCC Career Ladder

Nani's firm ground standing-very strong! Ramey Growing Thunder, FPCC

When will you be back?  Quinn Bighorn FPCC Career Ladder

Consenting with silence and how many people do it. Alberta Wright, Poplar, Mt. 

Feel free to call me and ask about getting our team into your school, community college or business for training needs.   509-467-7714 or email nani@universityoflife.info

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                              Important Last Word

  Remember, the hungry need your help more than at Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are 30-31 days in the month. My friends you will be blessed 10 times ten thousand for every bit that you give and or share.   I thank you in advance for all the happy smiles and filled tummies you will bring about.  Wendy's, McDonalds, Burger King, Arby's all have $5 gift certificate books.  Grocery stores sell certificates.

Know of a shut in?  Have an elder (na kupuna) or parent?  Be sure to call at least once a day just to make sure their heater is working, they have adequate food supplies etc.  Have a spare hour?  How about visiting the nearest veteran facility, visit and shake the hand and say thanks for their service.  Visit a hospital and volunteer to rock a new born babe who maybe has been born addicted or is abandoned.  Babies need the same 10 to 12 loving touches a day that every human needs to thrive.  So go ahead, hug a needy baby. 

Visit a pet shelter and bring a bag of food to share with a homeless pet.  Put your  own pet inside or provide adequate food and shelter for your furry friend.  It only takes a moment to extend your kindness.  The blessings come in the giving first.