Next week, the Fighting Illini of Illinois will travel north to the Kohl Center to play our Badgers in men’s basketball. When this happens, the politically-correct crowd of Madison often moans and groans not only about the fact that a sports team has the name of an Indian tribe for its nickname, but they also object to Chief Illiniwek, the longstanding symbol of the University of Illinois.
The arguments frequently made against Chief Illiniwek are often not only completely devoid of facts, but the people who make them often have no appreciation of what Chief Illiniwek symbolizes.
Many people often mistakenly refer to Chief Illiniwek as the mascot of the Fighting Illini team. Chief Illiniwek is not a mascot, but rather, a symbol. A mascot does pushups after touchdowns, and it is something that Bucky Badger, our mascot, engages with on the sidelines.
Essentially, a mascot serves as an extra, more visible, cheerleader who stands on the sidelines throughout the game. Chief Illiniwek is nothing like that — he only makes a brief appearance at halftime.
One of the biggest objections to the chief centers on his dance at halftime. A column that appeared a year ago in this paper described this event as follows: “Chief Illiwinek [sic] prances — yes, prances — around the basketball court at halftime doing some indecipherable dance and making what I can only assume are supposed to be Native American gestures.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Iliniwek (which the French renamed “Illinois”) tribe for which the State of Illinois and the University of Illinois teams are named for, became extinct years ago, having its last member killed in a war with a neighboring tribe.
However, officials at the University of Illinois and the honored student who is Chief Illiniwek consult extensively with surviving members of the Sioux Nation, making trips to their reservation in South Dakota to ensure authenticity in their dance. Before wearing the Chief’s outfit (also created by the Sioux Nation), the student honored to be the chief practices extensively until he achieves perfection.
The decrease in young men in scouting is perhaps one of the reasons for misunderstandings about the chief. In scouting, particularly when attending summer camp, we learned the important lessons that the Native Americans taught us — respect for our brother scouts, our land and all of the resources that we are blessed with.
In fact, scouting has such respect for the values of the Native Americans that its national honor society, the Order of the Arrow, models its operations and ceremonies around the Native American way of life. Lester Leutwiler, the founder of the tradition and the first Chief Illiniwek, started the tradition of the chief after being so inspired by his scouting experience. Virtually all of his successors were also involved with scouting, many of them Eagle Scouts.
I will never forget our Order of the Arrow ceremonies at summer camp. After spending most of the week goofing around by the campfire, one could hear dead silence throughout the campground as we watched the ceremony. None of our adult leaders told us to quiet down — they never had to. We all recognized that something special, almost spiritual, was taking place that commanded our respect.
When I lived in Champaign, Ill., my family and I attended games and I witnessed a lot of similarities when Chief Illiniwek came out. Nobody told us to end our conversations and stand in respect of the chief — everyone just did it. He commanded respect, and the fans all understood that the chief was a great symbol of the state and the university. It is truly an experience that most sports fans in other places cannot relate to.
Rick Legue, Chief Illiniwek XXVIII, says that students at the University of Illinois “walk away with a degree, but they [also] walk away with something else.” That something else, he says, is the “spirit” that Chief Illiniwek stands for.
This clearly begs the question: what does Chief Illiniwek stand for? The Chief Illiniwek Educational Foundation answers this best: “He is a tangible symbol of an intangible spirit, a spirit filled with qualities a person of any background can aspire to — goodness, strength, bravery, truthfulness, courageousness and dignity. He is all men, … he is every man.”
What a beautiful thing this is, and what a great lesson the story of Chief Illiniwek can be for all of us — if only we truly understand it.
Mark Baumgardner ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.
