Dear Sticky Wicket,
I don’t understand why Indians are offended that sports teams use Indians names and images for their nicknames and logos. Teams say they’re just honoring Native Americans when they use such names.
~Wondering in Washington D.C
Dear Wondering in Washington D.C,
There was a lot of talk in the mid 1990s and early in 2000 about the removal of Native American mascots and names from professional sports teams, as well as, colleges and public schools. While such protests began as early as 1950, it wasn’t until 1992 that the subject really became mainstream as not only an ethnic, but cultural issue.
In 1992, seven Native Americans filed a lawsuit against the Redskins and petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the cancellation of federal registrations for the terms Redskins and Redskinettes. Washington Redskins Senior Vice-president, Karl Swanson, responded in an article in Sports Illustrated, stating that the team’s name, “symbolizes courage, dignity, and leadership. Redskins symbolize the greatness and strength of a grand people.”
Swanson’s opinion of what the term Redskin means however, is in stark contrast to that of Native American history and the dictionary. According to American Heritage Dictionary, Redskin (noun) is, “an offensive slang used as a disparaging term for a Native American.”
Redskin also has historically been used in direct reference to the skin color of Native Americans, and is even said to be used by bounty and scalp hunters to describe the bloody skins and scalps of the Native American they slaughtered, and sold for profit. These definitions hardly, ‘symbolize courage, dignity and leadership,’ or the ‘greatness and strength of a grand people.’
In 1999, the Trademark Trail and Appeal Board unanimously canceled the federal trademark stating, “that ‘Redskin’ was an offensive term historically and remained so from the first trademark license in 1967, to the present.” The board further ruled that the term “Redskin,” “may disparage Native Americans and may lead into contempt or disrepute.”
A win for the Native American’s you say? Not so fast, said the Washington Redskins who appealed the decision and has the case still pending in federal district court; once again pulling the rug from underneath the Native Americans.
The win, then appeal, seemed to take some of the fight out of the Native Americans and their supporters who protested the misusages, which is probably why you haven’t heard or seen any changes. The Redskins are still the Redskins.
The Cleveland Indian baseball team’s mascot, Chief Wahoo, with his toothy grin, red skin, triangle eyes and headband with a single feather in the back is still a source of anger and disrespect for Native Americans and those who support their cause. As are the more than 3,000 other schools, colleges and professional teams that adorn Native American mascots or names.
It’s not difficult to conclude that the real reason why schools, colleges and, especially professional sports teams, fight these protests and lawsuits so vigorously, sadly, money.
Let’s not kid ourselves. Changing nicknames and logos would cost teams millions of dollars. Apparel with current team logos and names on them would no longer be useful to sell, scoreboards, schedules, uniforms; anything with the logo would have to be replaced. Plus, the fans would have to find new chants. And if there’s one group in America that no one wants to upset, it’s sports fans.
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The first European Americans
The first European Americans encountered western tribes as fur traders. As United States expansion reached into the American West, settler and miner migrants came into increasing conflict with the Great Plains tribes. These were complex nomadic cultures based on using horses and traveling seasonally to hunt bison. They carried out strong resistance to American incursions in the decades after the American Civil War, in a series of "Indian Wars", which were frequent up until the 1890s. The coming of the transcontinental railroad increased pressures on the western tribes. Over time, the U.S. forced a series of treaties and land cessions by the tribes, and established reservations for them in many western states. U.S. agents encouraged Native Americans to adopt European-style farming and similar pursuits, but the lands were often too poor to support such uses.
A team sport is an activity
A team sport is an activity in which a group of individuals, on the same team, work together to accomplish an ultimate goal which is usually to win. This can be done in a number of ways such as outscoring the opposing team. Team members set goals, make decisions, communicate, manage conflict, and solve problems in a supportive, trusting atmosphere in order to accomplish their objectives. This can be seen in sports such as hockey, football, baseball, soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, water polo, lacrosse, rugby league, rugby union, cricket, and many others.
When the concept first
When the concept first emerged in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it connoted a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture. In the nineteenth century, it came to refer first to the betterment or refinement of the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national aspirations or ideals. In the mid-nineteenth century, some scientists used the term "culture" to refer to a universal human capacity. For the German nonpositivist sociologist, Georg Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history".
Similar examples may be found
Similar examples may be found in Irish poet William Butler Yeats' poem The Wild Swans at Coole where the maturing season that the poet observes symbolically represents his own ageing self. Like the natural world that he observes he too has reached his prime and now must look forward to the inevitability of old age and death. French poet Paul Verlaine's "Chanson d'automne" ("Autumn Song") is likewise characterised by strong, painful feelings of sorrow. Keats' To Autumn, written in September 1819, echoes this sense of melancholic reflection, but also emphasises the lush abundance of the season.
The first European Americans
The first European Americans encountered western tribes as fur traders. As United States expansion reached into the American West, settler and miner migrants came into increasing conflict with the Great Plains tribes. These were complex nomadic cultures based on using horses and traveling seasonally to hunt bison. They carried out strong resistance to American incursions in the decades after the American Civil War, in a series of "Indian Wars", which were frequent up until the 1890s. The coming of the transcontinental railroad increased pressures on the western tribes. Over time, the U.S. forced a series of treaties and land cessions by the tribes, and established reservations for them in many western states. U.S. agents encouraged Native Americans to adopt European-style farming and similar pursuits, but the lands were often too poor to support such uses.