Rennard Strickland
The University of Oregon
Tue, May 13 2008
—
As a 1962 graduate of Northeastern State University, I strongly endorse the decision to retire the Redman mascot. We can then select a new and less controversial mascot, one better suited to represent the 21t century heart and soul of our alma mater.
Over the years I have often disagreed with the college administration. Indeed, I was a leader in the group that confronted the university to preserve the historic WPA Indian painted murals in Seminary Hall. This time I believe that President Williams, the NCAA and national Indian leadership groups are right. It is time to stop dehumanizing native peoples as stereotypic pep symbols.
As someone who has just retired, let me say that retiring the Redman as mascot should not be taken as a sign of failure or that the Redman mascot did not serve with distinction and honor. As a dean emeritus, I am enjoying my new life. Perhaps in recognition of long service we should proclaim our Redman as mascot emeritus and move forward with the selection of a successor. Individuals and institutions change and selecting a new symbol for NSU is an appropriate recognition of that fact.
There is no question that those who advocate retention of the Redman mascot do so with good will and the highest regard for Northeastern and for native people. Many, no doubt, support this tradition out of respect for Indian heritage, their own and others. And yet, many Indian people are deeply offended by these “nicknames.” Indian mascot defenders often ask, “Why is the native mascot different from The Fighting Irish or the Vikings?"
The answer is simple: It is the result of U.S.federal Indian policy. You see, there is no Bureau of Irish Affairs. No Viking agent holds “trust title” to the lands of these national descendants. There is in the case of Native Americans. Perhaps, at this point, one should note that there is certainly no movement to “honor” other social, ethnic or religious groups such as African American or Asian Americans by transforming them into sports team captions. Many years ago the National Conference of Christians and Jews created a satirical T-shirt with such fictional mascots and the protest was so great that they quickly withdrew the shirts.
The major reason for the growing national movement to retire Native mascot names such as warriors, redskins, braves, squaws and redmen is deeply rooted in personal and tribal values. Equally important there is a significant policy, legislative and social justification for this change. In the final analysis, the difference between the Vikings and the Indians is found in the historical reality of the continued legal treatment of native peoples.
The question of mascots is significant for Native Americans. It transcends sports and entertainment. It influences law. It dominates resource management. It profoundly impacts every aspect of contemporary American Indian policy and shapes both the general cultural view of the Indian as well as Indian self-image. No groups other than the Indian face the legal situation in which their land, as well as their economic, political and cultural fate, is so completely in the hands of others. That is so because of the way in which substantial tribal resources are held “in trust,” with the management and regulation, if not always operation, resting with the federal government as “trustee.” The result is that the non-Indian in the U.S. Congress and in the executive branch control the fate of Indian peoples and their resources when they legislate and administer practices and policies.
The Indian image is, therefore, an especially crucial and controlling one because it is that image (often reflected in mascots like the Redman) which looms large as non-Indians decide the fate of Indian people. If the non-Indian decision makers continue to view native people as dinosaurs, as redskins or warriors, as happy hunter on the way to extinction, the policy will be different from what it would be if the decision–makers saw beyond the mascot and the stereotype.
There is no college or university in America with a more distinguished history of higher education for American Indians. Rooted in the historic Cherokee Male and Female Seminaries, Northeastern has graduated Indian and non-Indian aerospace pioneers, lawyers, doctors, tribal judges and chieftains as well as teachers, accountants, optometrists, business entrepreneurs, congressional leaders, artists, musicians and writers not to mention Miss Americas and American Idols, Olympic athletes, winning coaches and inventors of key tools of the modern age. The use of the Redman stereotypic Indian-gaming mascot for Northeastern misses the mark in honestly portraying the heart and soul, as well as the intellect, of this great institution.
As Daniel Webster said of his alma mater in the Dartmouth College Case, it is a small college but there are those of us who love her.
I believe the time has come for those of us who love and cherish Northeastern to follow Dartmouth College and Stanford University in retiring our historic Native mascots and selecting a new athletic symbol.
Rennard Strickland is dean emeritus and Philip KNight professor of law at The University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.