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DEBATE

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The controversy over sports mascots that some consider offensive is not new. Encouraged by the civil rights era’s increasing emphasis on tolerance, equality, and diversity, the National Congress of American Indians began a campaign against these stereotypes in 1968. In the late 1960s, Dartmouth College became one of the first colleges to drop its Indian mascot. The school was responding to concerns expressed by its Native American undergraduates, who found the war-paint-and-feathers imagery offensive, and also to the Dartmouth board of trustees, who considered this symbolism incompatible with the school’s academic mission. Not everyone supported this action, however. For some Dartmouth faculty, undergraduates, and alumni, the school’s disavowal of its Indian mascot undermined tradition and represented a drift toward hypersensitive identity politics. Since that time, many college athletic programs and sports organizations have dropped their Native American mascots. Others, however—including professional teams such as the Atlanta Braves, the Cleveland Indians, and the Washington Redskins—have not.

The broad contours of the debate have remained the same throughout the decades. For their detractors, these mascots evoke offensive, dehumanizing ethnic stereotypes and the specter of historical oppression. Viewed in this light, the Cleveland Indians’ red-faced “Chief Wahoo” logo is insulting to Native Americans. In contrast, defenders of these mascots argue that they capture the collective spirit of a college community, support sports traditions, and even honor the heritage of Native Americans. They argue that, at the college and professional levels, the importance of team logos goes well beyond their value to the giant merchandising industry that has developed around them, and maintain that because these logos are central to regional sports identities, eliminating them is akin to erasing Native American heritage from the broader culture.

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The two essays that follow explore the key issues of this debate. Jack Shakely acknowledges that the subject of Indian sports mascots may seem “trivial” on the surface, but he argues that these stereotypes are an assault on human dignity. For Ellie Reynolds (who, like Shakely, is Native American), the controversy surrounding the continued use of Indian mascots seems overblown, fueled by political correctness; therefore, she opposes a local bill that would change longtime sports mascots.