Some civil rights agencies report a high correlation between the use of Indian images and civil rights violations. Research by Stephanie Fryberg proves that Indian team names and mascots negatively effect the self-esteeem of Native children and can contribute to their lack of success in schools that maintain these names and images.
The mainstream media and common ignorance has convinced people that having a Native American mascot for sporting teams is acceptable. We would like the opportunity to educate the public that we, the undersigned, feel that "Indian" Mascots are racist and insulting to Native People and we would like all such racist, degrading material and behavior toward Native people halted within all sports venues.
There are Vikings, Fighting Irish, bison, bulldogs, horses, cowboys, steelers, packers, or boilermakers and so much more. If the fans of these teams choose to honor these symbols for their sports teams, so be it. But when they take real life American Indians and turn them into cartoon caricatures and then mimic them by painting their faces, donning feathers, and doing the tomahawk chop, they cross that thin line called racism.
To most American Indians it is absolutely abhorrent for a professional football team to use the color of their skin as their team mascot. As a matter of fact, we oftentimes refer to the mascot of the Washington professional football team as the N word because to us it is as hideous as the R word is to African Americans. W ask you, how can a supposed civilized nation in the year 2007 still use a racist logo and name like Redskin and feel that it is an honor to Native Americans? What a terrible way to be honored!
When the four minority media organizations, the National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, National Association of Asian Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association meet at the UNITY Convention in Chicago in 2008, we pray that the use of American Indians as mascots for American Indians as fun and games is high on the list of subjects they bring to the table.3. If one happened to be in Champaign/Urbana, Illinois before a big sporting event, in order to laud their mascot, Chief Illiniwek, a white boy dressed up in Native attire, one could see images of bleary-eyed, drunken Indians painted on the windows of the downtown bars. On sale in the local markets and drugstores, one could purchase rolls of toilet paper with images of Indians imprinted on every sheet.
4. Before a big football game between the Minnesota Gophers and the University of Illinois Fighting Illini, stuffed Indian dummies could be seen with ropes around their necks hanging from buildings and trees on the Minnesota campus.
5. We cannot end this letter without reiterating the Sunday a few years ago when the fans of the Washington professional football team (We will not use the "R" word here), painted a pig red, placed a feathered bonnet on its head, and then chased it around the football field at halftime. If they had painted a pig black and placed an Afro wig on its head and chased it around the football field at halftime, how many African Americans would have considered that an "honor?"
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