March 9, 2001
A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Alvin Deer

The Rev. Alvin Deer is director of the Native American International Caucus, an unofficial United Methodist organization with offices in Oklahoma City. He is writing in response to the uproar over the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race giving a $10,000 grant to the Illinois Chapter of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media to help eliminate the Chief Illiniwek logo and mascot at the University of Illinois.

"So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 21:9)

It has been said that when the first Indians saw the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria, they exclaimed, "Well, there goes the neighborhood."

Modern-day Native Americans have looked at history and lamented, "If only we had better immigration laws back then."

The battle over Native lands began as soon as Christopher Columbus stuck the Spanish flag on North American soil. Over the centuries, many Native tribes fought desperately to keep their homeland, in the face of a huge flood of Europeans. So we became known as "savages," "braves," "warriors," "chiefs," "redskins," "Indians," "fighting Sioux."

The Native American was both demonized and romanticized in 19th-century novels. We became "noble savages," and finally, at the dawn of the 20th century, we were the "vanishing Americans." Estimates for the 15th-century Native American population vary greatly, from 11 million to 50 million. Wars, disease, starvation and mass murders decimated the Native American population during the ensuing centuries, and the American Indian of the United States was counted at only 120,000 in 1920. Since then, Native Americans have come back in great numbers. Nevertheless, in the 20th century, the defeated Indians were largely relegated to reservations and became known as "drunkards," "lazy," "dumb."

A phenomenon arose as schools around the country began naming their athletic teams. Usually the name would embody some fierce or aggressive spirit of the object they chose as their "mascot." And many schools chose Native American mascots.

The average American did not get a good history lesson when it came to Indians. As a high school student, I recall the only mentions of Indians in my history books were "Custer's Last Stand" and Sacajawea with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

And so, when the mascots and the fans that follow these schools began to invoke the aggressive spirit of their logo, in order to gain an athletic advantage, they would paint their faces, jump around, holler, and pound out some Hollywood-style Indian beat on a bass drum. The message: Indian people are savages, and it takes a savage spirit to beat this team.

The media found a ready stable of stereotypes to report their stories: "Utes scalp BYU," "Illini massacres Indiana," "Indians attack Detroit." The argument that the schools are "honoring" Native Americans is hard to believe when you see headlines like that.

A child once asked me why Indians were "mean." Where did he get that idea? By schools such as the University of Illinois "honoring" my ancestors? An adult once told me that she had Indian blood. She said it didn't come out in her, but her uncle, oh, he had a temper! This person didn't even realize that she was saying that it must be genetic for Native people to be "mean," and that this mean gene can be passed on to future generations. Where did this ingrained thought come from? From the image of a "fighting Sioux"?

The Chief Illiniwek mascot issue in Champaign, Ill., is not an isolated one. It is nationwide.

In the state of Oklahoma, the issue was settled long ago. The University of Oklahoma, when it had its championship teams of the '50s and the '70s, had an Indian mascot, "Little Red." In the 1970s, the school bowed to Native American pressure and changed the mascot to a miniature Conestoga wagon. In 1998, United Methodist-related Oklahoma City University changed its team name from the "Chiefs" to the "Stars."

The official United Methodist position is " ... [W]e strongly believe the continued use of Native American names as nicknames is demeaning and racist; we urge all United Methodist-related universities, colleges and schools to set an example by replacing any nicknames that demean and offend our Native American sisters and brothers; and we support efforts throughout our society to replace such nicknames, mascots and symbols." (2000 Book of Resolutions, pp. 329-330.)

General Conference is the only body that can speak for the United Methodist Church, and it has spoken. United Methodists who are upset over the church's stance on the Chief Illiniwek issue should understand that the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race and the Native American Ministries Committee of the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference are only following the denomination's stand.

The Native American International Caucus has a newspaper, The Echo of The Four Winds, and we could have filled our last issue with stories from around the country about this issue. For example, on Feb. 26, the Boston Globe ran an article, "College considering dropping Mohawks nickname." The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' team name is Mohawks. It had been the "Teachers," but it was changed in 1961 because the trustees thought "Teachers" was too tame. What does that tell you about stereotypes?

A Feb. 23 article in the San Francisco Chronicle was headlined, "Cherokee Mascot Goes, Sequoia Keeps Nickname; School District Bans All Visual Symbols of Tribe." The mascot was a 76-year-old tradition at the school. Another Feb. 26 article, from the California State University at San Diego's Daily Aztec, reported that the university's academic senate will vote in April on a resolution to push all 23 of the school's campuses away from racial mascots. The resolution was put forth not in response to Native American mascots, but because the college team at Sonoma was "The Cossacks." Jewish students had protested that Cossacks, a sub-ethnic group of Russians, had slaughtered Jews as far back as the 15th century.

People who criticize efforts to change such mascots complain that society is becoming too politically correct. As a Native American, I find that argument offensive. Eliminating racist symbols is not a liberal ploy. It is God calling upon America to be a godly nation.

The word "mascot" has its roots in sorcery and witchcraft. It comes from the French word "mascotte," which refers to a charm. In Latin, the word "masca" means "mask" and "witch."

In a land that is often called a Christian nation, we have Christians who defend all these mascots and even put them on a pedestal, giving them more worth than the people the mascots portray. What else can it be but idolatry when Christians say they will leave the church rather than give up their mascot (idol)?

We hear the prophet Samuel saying in 1 Samuel 7:4 "...[T]he children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only." If this country will put away the Baals, or mascots, then it will begin to be the godly nation it wants to be. Not one Christian minister or congregation has looked at mascots as symbols of witchcraft.

The modern definition of mascot is "a good luck charm." Our luck isn't derived from a red-faced student jumping and hollering to invoke some charm over the opposing team. Our "luck" is found in the cross of Calvary.

Why is this issue being raised all over the nation now? Is it a coincidence? No. This is one of many fronts where God is calling His church into accountability.

Native Americans have been demonized in history, and that demonization has found its way into the very social fiber of America: its sports institutions. Thank you for listening to the voice of one Native American.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

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