Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mrs. Erskine
English 111
15 December 2017
The use of Native Americans as mascots by professional sports teams is demeaning, has a
negative impact on Native Americans, and demonstrates a culture dominated by the white
enormous difference that exist between tribes. The Native American community has spent
millions of dollars in the last two decades trying to fight the racism propagated using these
demeaning mascots.
Native American mascots illustrate a perceived hierarchy between racial groups. Since
1970, the American Indian Movement has advocated to remove Native American mascots, logos,
and names. Examples of sports teams that use these mascots include; “Redmen,” “Fighting
Sioux,” “Utes,” “Savages,” Atlanta Braves, Chicago Blackhawks, Washington Redskins, and
Cleveland Indians (Eitzen and Zinn 48-51). Some behavior of fans associated with these team
names are offensive. Fans carrying rubber tomahawks, wearing colorful headdresses, face
painting with “war paint” and, shouting mockery war whoops with a beer in one hand and a
tomahawk in the other show perpetuation of stereotypes of Native Americans by the dominate
non-native culture.
This depiction of Native Americans as bloodthirsty warriors distorts history, since whites
invaded Indian lands, oppressed native peoples, and even employed and justified a policy
Native Americans and animals are the only groups made into mascots by professional sports
teams, leaving many Natives experiencing feelings of insensitivity toward their culture and rich
history. Native Americans should be honored for the vast history and successes they have
brought to America. Americans should honor them instead of demonizing them through these
mascots.
The use of “Indian” sports brands by professional sports teams started when most
Americans were accepting of racism and bigotry. Since then, branding of sports teams has
become a marketing strategy to incite cultural superiority of one group over another and in doing
so it has perpetuated racial tensions. The Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins are
examples of derogatory and harmful professional sports mascots. The use of the derogatory
term, Redskins, is harmful to Native American youth and adolescents and used as a racial slur;
therefore, it is imperative that the mascot must change ("It's Time to Change the Redskins' Racist
Name"). Many Native Americans the use of Indians as a mascot offensive, outdated, derogatory,
Louis Sockalexis a member of the Penobscot tribe and the son of a tribal chief, had huge
success on the baseball field leading him to become a national sensation. He is said to have
inspired the Cleveland Indians logo of Chief Wahoo. The logo depicts a firetruck red, grinning
caricature. Chris Sockalexis, a relative of Louis Sockalexis and the Penobscot tribe has historic
preservation officer, thinks this mascot is simply demeaning. The Penobscot tribe is strongly
supporting Major League Baseball officials who are encouraging the Cleveland Indians to move
away from the logo. In October of 2016, the effort to remove the logo took on urgency when
Bob Manfred, the Major League Baseball commissioner began to discussions with the Indians.
The Cleveland's have changed their primary logo to a block C but this does not satisfy the
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Penobscot tribe, the Cleveland Indians still display this horrifying logo on merchandise
(Macquarrie B.1). Many Native Americans do not understand why this baseball team feels they
mascots. The Washington Redskins do not hesitate in using a hurtful racial slur as their team
name. The term Redskins originates from the historical practice of trading Native American
scalps and body parts as bounties and trophies. Simply put, European settlers were paid to
collect Native American scalps, or Redskins. The bounty for a male Penobscot older than 12
years of age was 50 pounds and the bounty for his scalp was 40 pounds. The bounty for a female
or male Penobscot under the age of 12 years was 25 pounds, while the bounty for their scalps
was 20 pounds.
The use of the term Redskins by the National Football League is unneeded and has a
profound negative effect on Native American youth and young adults. Redskins owner, Dan
Snyder, refuses to change the name of his football team. Dan Snyder’s argument to keep the
Redskins name is the 81year history the team has had with the name and believes the name acts
as the heritage of the team. One could argue, Native Americans have been the target of this
racial slur for much longer than 81 years. He also claims the term Redskins describes the team's
goals for the future and expresses who they are (Demby). Wade Henderson is the president of
the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights which represents over two hundred
national organizations. In December of 2013, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human
Rights supported a resolution in calling upon the Washington team to drop the offensive racial
slur. Henderson, claimed that, “A slur is a slur is a slur . . . Celebrating and commodifying
stereotypes should have no place in 21st century America” (qtd. in Vargas). Studies have proven
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the harmful and negative ways “Indian” sport mascots play in emphasizing racial inequity and
perpetuating feeling of inadequacy among Native American youth. These feelings of inadequacy
contribute to Native Americans ranking highest for all minority groups in youth suicide.
There may be some progress in reversing the use of Native American mascots.
Massachusetts lawmakers are considering banning Native American mascots in schools after the
town of Tewksbury rejected efforts to change the name of its high school to the Redmen
(Leblanc and Salsberg). Adidas, a clothing, and shoe manufacturer, wants to help high schools
move away from harmful Native American mascots. Adidas has promised to offer financial aid
and design support to schools willing to change their hurtful mascots. The brand has projected
over 2,000 high schools nationally have mascots that are insensitive to Native Americans
(Wagner). However, many say the brand is only doing this to be politically correct and does not
actually believe in the cause due to their sponsoring of a Redskins football player. Although
court cases, protest, companies, and regional political offices have advocated for the removal of
all offensive Native American mascots nothing has changed. The National Football and baseball
leagues have the ability to utilize their monetary advantage to slow down and undermine the
importance of the removal of these mascots. High schools and community colleges are not being
fined or punished for having harmful mascots, leaving them to naturally not care.
People simply need to educate themselves on the harmful effects of using caricatures of
people as mascots. Multiple psychological studies on American Indian youth have documented
the negative effects of Native American mascots and sports visual symbolism. The problem
arises when the white majority thinks they have the right to decide Native American history is
their own history and put “their” history into mascots. The bottom-line is, Native Americans are
Works Cited
Demby, Gene. “An Uphill Battle To Push An NFL Team To Change Its Name.” NPR, NPR, 7
push-an-nfl-team-to-change-its-name.
Eitzen, D. Stanley, and Maxine Baca Zinn. “The Dark Side of Sports Symbols.” USA Today
(Farmingdale), 2001, pp. 48–51. SIRS Issues Researcher, sks.sirs.com. Accessed 27 Nov.
2017.
“It's Time to Change the Redskins' Racist Name.” Indian Country Media Network, 31 July 2013,
indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/its-time-to-change-the-redskins-racist-
name/.
Leblanc, Steve, and Bob Salsberg. “Massachusetts Bill Would Ban Native American School
Nov. 2017.
Macquarrie, Brian. “Tribe Wants Indians' Logo Called Out.” Boston Globe, 2017, p. B.1. SIRS
Vargas, Theresa. “For Native American Activists, a New Post Poll on Redskins Name...”
Washington Post, 2016. SIRS Issues Researcher, sks.sirs.com. Accessed 1 Dec. 2017.
Wagner, Laura. “Adidas Offers To Help U.S. High Schools Phase Out Native American
way/2015/11/05/454902114/adidas-offers-to-help-u-s-high-schools-phase-out-native-
american-mascots.
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