Team spirits : the Native American mascots controversy

Book

Team spirits : the Native American mascots controversy / edited by C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood ; foreword by Vine Deloria, Jr.

King, C. Richard, 1968- (Added Author). Springwood, Charles Fruehling. (Added Author).

Summary:

A growing controversy in recent years has arisen around the use and abuse of Native American team mascots. The Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Florida State Seminoles, and so forth—these are just a few of the images and names popularly associated with Native Americans that are still used as mascots by professional sports teams, dozens of universities, and countless high schools. This practice, a troubling legacy of Native–Euro-American relations in the United States, has sparked heated debates and intense protests that continue to escalate.

Team Spirits is the first comprehensive look at the Native American mascots controversy. In this work activists and academics explore the origins of Native American mascots, the messages they convey, and the reasons for their persistence into the twenty-first century. The essays examine hotly contested uses of mascots, including the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, and the University of Illinois's Chief Illiniwek, as well as equally problematic but more complicated examples such as the Florida State Seminoles and the multitude of Native mascots at Marquette University. Also showcased are examples of successful opposition, including an end to Native American mascots at Springfield College and in Los Angeles public schools.

Record details

ISBN: 0803277989 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 9780803277984 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Physical Description: xv, 356 pages ; 22 cm.
Publisher: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c2001.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Introduction, Imagined Indians, social identities, and activism / C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood -- Chief Bill Orange and the Saltine Warrior : a cultural history of Indian symbols and imagery at Syracuse University / Donald M. Fisher -- Becoming the Indians : fashioning Arkansas State University's Indians / Mary Landreth -- Wennebojo meets the mascot : a trickster's view of the Central Michigan University mascot/logo / Richard Clark Eckert -- Sockalexis and the making of the myth at the core of Cleveland's "Indian" image / Ellen J. Staurowsky -- Fighting Braves of Michigamua : adopting the visage of American Indian warriors in the halls of academia / Patrick Russell LeBeau -- Best offense ... : dissociation, desire, and the defense of the Florida State University Seminoles / C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood -- At home in Illinois : presence of Chief Illiniwek, absence of Native Americans / David Prochaska -- Fighting name-calling : challenging "Redskins" in court / Suzan Shown Harjo -- Last of the Mohicans, braves, and warriors : the end of American Indian mascots in Los Angeles public schools / Ann Marie (Amber) Machamer -- Escaping the tyranny of the majority : a case study of mascot change / Laurel R. Davis and Malvina T. Rau.

In whose honor? : mascots and the media / Jay Rosenstein -- Educators and mascots : challenging contradictions / Cornel D. Pewewardy -- Uneasy Indians : creating and contesting Native American mascots at Marquette University / C. Richard King -- Playing Indian and fighting (for) mascots : reading the complications of Native American and Euro-American alliances / Charles Fruehling Springwood -- Epilogue, Closing arguments, opening dialogues / Charles Fruehling Springwood and C. Richard King.