Let me begin by saying that the fact I even have to write an article concerning Native American Mascots is a shame. These racist images and names offensive to American Indian people should have been long gone by now. Yet here they are, still tomahawk-chopping us with racism in sports and media while they grin at us like that red-faced racist "chief wahoo,"who just moved into Templeton last year and is the reason that I have to explain what is wrong with Native American Mascots. I get a little sick and tired of trying to explain what is racist about these names and mascots. This is not about political correctness. It is about racism on a national scale, and it must stop.
The Northern Chumash Tribal Council is asking the team to change their name. We also would like to see this be a community lead effort. NCTC is willing to negotiate with the team and help build a scholarship fund for a contest for grade school students to write an essay with a new name for the team. The winning essays would be given to the team for them to pick from. What a great way to build community support, teaching our children that there is no place for discrimination in our world today. The Templeton Indians have a choice to make — take advantage of the move to change the name of the ball club or lose the support of the community and county that they have moved into.
There are many other pathways that this team could take, but they are all filled with racism. Take, for example, Daniel Snyder, owner of the NFL team the "Washington Reds [Racists]," who was made acutely aware, back when he purchased the team, of the fact that the team's name is a nasty racial slur which is just as ugly as the "N" word. He chose to do nothing, and by doing so, announced to the world that he was a racist, because everyone with a brain knows that "inaction to racism is racism".
Do I really need to explain why the "N" word is not used as the name for a sports team? Probably not. And does it need to be explained why using racist caricatures of other minority groups as a team mascot would be unthinkable? Again, probably not. These things are now commonsense for most people. Yet, for reasons deeply ingrained in American culture, First Nations people are expected to explain why certain words and images are racist to us. If that weren't enough of an insult, the reaction we often get from people who have had these issues brought to their attention is to either do nothing to change it, or worse, to actually argue with us in defense of the racism.
American Indians are a race of people, not ANIMALS, OBJECTS, or PROFESSIONS. So how does this equate to racial oppression?
Let me begin by addressing the obvious first. The terms 'redskin' and 'brave' are, by their definition alone, racial slurs. 'Redskin' is a historic word which came into use during the times when Indian men, women, and children were hunted like animals and murdered, then scalped. These scalps or 'redskins' were then turned in for a bounty. The term 'brave' is a demeaning word used for many centuries in reference to Indian men. It stems from the once popular belief that Indians were less than human. Indian men were also referred to as 'bucks', and Indian women as 'does.' These
terms dehumanize and insult. The continued use of these demeaning words leads me to believe that this 'less than human' belief still exists today.... These 'Indian' mascots/team names, antics like the 'tomahawk-chop, mock 'Indian war-chants,' non-Indians painting their faces and dressing-up like 'Indians,' and mascots performing mock 'Indian' dances or throwing fiery spears oppress Indian people. They oppress because they continue in the use of extreme negative stereotypical antics, words, and images.
Indian children cannot possibly look at a stadium full of thousands of people mocking their ethnicity and making fun of their traditions and feel good about being Indian. This is what 'Indian mascots' do. They glorify all the stupid old stereotypes and steal the pride our children could have in the beauty of their race. They insult the entire Indian race, the very real definition of racism.
We are people, not objects for America's amusement. We have been idealized, demonized, and romanticized by America long enough. It must stop. Here in San Luis Obispo County we have several businesses that use Native American imagery to sell and promote their products. NCTC is asking all in San Luis Obispo County to tell these establishments that use insulting imagery is no longer appropriate.
A.J. Spurs
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 Cigarette Store in San Luis Obispo "The Sanctuary"
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Here in my homeland, the land that I and my family have been taking care of for over 15,000 uninterrupted years. Treat us as people, not mascots.
The agenda behind Indian mascots and logos is about cultural, spiritual, and intellectual exploitation. It's an issue of power and control. These negative ethnic images are driven by those that want to define other ethnic groups and control their images. To me, power and control is the ability to make you believe that someone's truth is the absolute truth.
Furthermore, it's the ability to define a reality and to get other people to affirm that reality as if it were their own. As long as such negative mascots and logos remain within the arena of school activities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children are learning to tolerate racism in schools and in communities.
Indian people are still involved in what has described as the longest undeclared war against the American Indian, here in our own homeland. This war, no longer on battlefields, is now being fought in the courtrooms, corporation boardrooms, and classrooms over the appropriation of Native American names and spiritual and cultural symbols by professional sports, Hollywood, schools, and universities. The issue for us is the right to self-identification and self-determination defined clearly in the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Cayucos Tavern (see detail on right)
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The American Indian community for 50 years has worked to banish images and names like Cleveland's Chief Wahoo, the Washington Redskins, the Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Braves and cigar store Indians. We work to remind people of consciousness of the use of the symbols resemblance to other historic, racist images of the past. Chief wahoo offends Indian people the same way that Little Black Sambo offended African Americans and the Frito Bandito offended the Hispanic community and should have offended all of us. It assaults the principle of justice.
For Native leadership and allies working on the mascot issue, the call nationwide is to work towards the elimination of the misrepresentation and abuses of Indian images, names and spiritual way of life today forever. The rallying call is "American Indians are a People, Not Mascots" for Americas fun and games. We are human beings.
Fred Collins
