Devoid of Facts? Or Concerned about Racial Misrepresentations?
By Aaron Bird Bear, Dr. Ned Blackhawk, Casey Brown
Mark Baumgardner’s recent Op-ed “Chief Illiniwek More than a Mascot” praises the University of Illinois for its continued use of its American Indian mascot, Chief Illiniwek, arguing that the Chief symbolizes the beautiful spirit of the state and the University of Illinois. “Something special, almost spiritual,” he argues, occurs every time the Chief performs his half-time “Indian” dance.
While clearly concerned about the importance of school pride, Mr. Baumgardner’s celebration of the use of Indian imagery at Illinois fails to recognize the demeaning and hurtful effects of racial imagery on Native American students and communities. Nowhere in his article, for example, does he recognize that the people whom Illinois (mis)represents take strong offense to the Chief. Many Indians find the Chief culturally offensive.
The continued use of Indian imagery in sports perpetuates cultural stereotypes and furthers misunderstanding between Native Americans and non-Native peoples. Indian mascots like the Chief homogenize the diverse Native peoples of North America under a common, aggressive caricature.
Several gross simplifications pervade Baumgardner’s text. First, his claim that opponents of the Chief are “completely devoid of facts” conveniently dismisses tens of thousands of Native Americans and their supporters who have marched, written and spoke against the use of Indian mascots. Furthermore, he fails to mention that the Chief is limited to half-time presentations at Urbana.
University of Illinois administrators and faculty have decided not to use the Chief in athletic competitions away from Urbana because they feel that the Chief disrespects both Indian peoples and also their institution. In fact, Illinois administrators and faculty regularly push for the elimination of the Chief, passing departmental legislation and faculty senate resolutions against him.
The English department, for example, “strongly believe[s] that such representations are out of place in a university environment, where they miseducate the wider public perpetuating a distorted cliché of Indian people and perpetuating the notion that Indian cultures are a plaything for the dominant culture.” (www.english.uiuc.edu, under Announcements) Such missing facts are essential to understanding the Chief’s controversial place at Illinois. (Illinois alumni and state regents remain the primary supporters of the Chief.)
Second, Baumgardner’s claims about Native American culture and history are severely distorted. Contrary to Baumgardner’s experience as a Boy Scout, all Indian cultures are not the same. The use of plains Indian regalia and customs by a costumed representative of a woodlands people is both historically and culturally inaccurate as well as offensive.
Most importantly, Baumgardner’s celebration obscures historic and contemporary inequities between Native and non-Native Americans. Indians simply become teachers of vague cultural values rather than historic and contemporary actors whose communities have been adversely impacted by American conquest. Indians become simple, quaint, and instructive, not complicated, diverse, and human.
Ultimately, Baumgardner fails to see Indians as everyday citizens who might object to such racial representations. Had he simply asked members of Madison’s Indian student, staff, and faculty community he undoubtedly would have heard deep concern about the misuse of Indian imagery in American society. As a university committed to maintaining cultural development, responses such as Baumgardner’s can only hinder such mutual understanding and exchange.
Aaron Bird Bear (Mandan-Hidatsa/Diné), American Indian Student Academic Services ([email protected])
Dr. Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) is assistant professor of history and American Indian studies ([email protected])
Casey Brown (Ho-Chunk) is co-president of the Wunk Sheek American Indian Student Group ([email protected])