EDITORIAL: Nashoba pride or prejudice?

CLINTON TIMES & COURIER
June 6, 2007

Indians? Those were the bad guys, right? The ones who in early Hollywood westerns would just as soon scalp you as look at you. Mean guys you wouldn’t want to cross paths with. What perfect symbolism for a football or basketball team, right?

That’s just part of the racist view American culture has thrust upon Native Americans. And hundreds of years after we’ve pushed them from their homes many around the country are still fighting these stereotypes.

The Native American Anti-Mascot Coalition has asked Nashoba Regional High School and many other schools in the state to consider renaming their sports teams — removing Native American names and logos.

The request touches on school tradition, and that’s not an easy thing to mess with. But just how racist is the use of the name Nashoba Chieftains?

There’s little outcry over the Clinton Gaels. Why? Because the name and symbolism is a respectful nod to the Irish American culture that has dominated much of the town’s history. A drunken Irishman, however, would be an inappropriate and insulting mascot. There’s a fine line between honoring and dishonoring.

By in large, groups that have called for the removal of Native American icons in sports that are offensive are right to do so. Much of the use — or misuse — of Native American culture by mainstream America only warps our distorted view of these cultures that once dominated this continent. They perpetuate racist views of Native Americans that either demonize or romanticize them with little regard for the truth. Why don’t most of us see it as racist? That’s what happens when a distorted view becomes such a part of society. Replace the Cleveland Indians’ crazed red-faced Indian mascot with an equally exaggerated African American, and suddenly your perspective may change.

But what about Nashoba’s Chieftains? Can you lump them in with the Warriors, Red Raiders, Tomahawks, Sachems and Indians? Those are just a few of the 44 schools in Massachusetts that have adopted Native American names and logos for their sports teams.

Dr. Cornel Pewewardy, a Comanche and Kiowa, is an assistant professor at the University of Kansas.

“There’s nothing in indigenous cultures that I’m aware of that aspires to be a mascot, logo or nickname for athletic teams,” Pewewardy says on the Anti-Mascot Coalition’s Web site. “… Indigenous peoples would never have associated the sacred practices of becoming a warrior with the hoopla of a pep rally, half-time entertainment, or a sidekick to cheerleaders. Even though this issue has become as American as apple pie and baseball, making fun of indigenous peoples in athletic events across the country is wrong!”

But does the use of such names and symbols constitute a mockery? In the case of the Cleveland Indians, yes. But the Chieftains? Nashoba did away with its logo of an Indian chief several years ago (although it has been replaced by a spear and feather). You don’t see Nashoba fans parading around at games in headdresses, making war-whooping sounds and doing the tomahawk (a chopping motion with the hand). Instead, the name of the high school — and its teams — is a respectful, albeit incomplete, reminder of the cultures that once flourished right here in the Nashua River valley.

And Nashoba doesn’t lay claim to the only bit of Native American homage in the area. Names like Nashua, Ponakin and Wataquadock dot our roads, rivers and ponds today. It would be a shame to see such names disappear forever to be replaced with Anglo-American ones that strip the land of its pre-European history. The naming of these places with Native American names is appropriate and so to the use at a school if done appropriately.

Native American names and images should not be used carelessly, but to assume any reference at all is negative paints this issue with too broad a brush.