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Advocates for American Indian Children  (InactiveLink is to an archived page from the Wayback machine
In addition to much other good work, "The Advocates for American Indian Children has supported the Los Angeles American Indian Education Commission in its effort to remove Indian mascots from three Los Angeles Unified School District high schools..."  Advocates for American Indian Children is affiliated with the Southern California Indian Center.  (InactiveLink is to an archived page from the Wayback machine


Alliance Against Racial Mascots (ALLARM) (InactiveLink is to an archived page from the Wayback machineThis California group has sponsored legislation that would ban "Indian" sports team tokens from California schools.  A letter of support from their site states, "We believe that the use of such images on public school campuses creates unhealthy learning environments, perpetuates racial stereotypes and subjects Native American students to derision and discrimination. We further believe that the elimination of these images can help create school communities in which the traditions and identities of all cultures are valued equally."


Anti-"Chief" homepage  (InactiveLink is to an archived page from the Wayback machine
Dedicated to the controversy surrounding the "Chief Illinwek " mascot at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this website is sponsored by the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative (PRC)(InactiveLink is to an archived page from the Wayback machineA sizable collection of articles on this issue from the school's "Daily Illini" newspaper can be found by clicking here.  Also see the 2000 resolution passed by the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.


Blue Corn Comics is not only a unique and creative endeavor in its own right but features a number of thoughtful provoking sections related to stereotyping and "Indian" sports team fetishes.  Among these pages are The Harm of Native Stereotyping and Fighting Sioux vs. Fighting Irish


B.R.I.D.G.E.S - (Building Roads Into Diverse Groups Empowering Students) is a group working to change the "Fighting Sioux" moniker at the University of North Dakota.  Additional information and a news article archive on this longstanding controversy can be found at Money, Moniker, and Morality


Buncombe County Native American Intertribal Association
This group, faced with a school that uses a 25 foot tall "Indian" mascot statue and that calls its girls sports teams the "S ***ws",  is addressing the issue in the Ashville, N.C., area with support from Western North Carolina Citizens For An End To Institutional Bigotry (WNCCEIB)


Cartoons concerning American Indian Mascots is a collection of nine cartoons that provide some interesting insights and perspectives into this issue.  Also see Propaganda Images which draws parallels between World War II propaganda and American Indian sports team mascots and symbols.  Warning: May contain items offensive to some people.


Charlene Teters "is a founding Board Member of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media, an artist, activist, and lecturer... In 1988 she and her artwork became politicized at The University of Illinois, a school that uses as their mascot the image of a "Chief." Her history of public challenges is the subject of a nationally aired award winning documentary "In Whose Honor?" by Jay Rosenstein."


Common themes and questions about the use of "Indian" logos and the Wisconsin Indian Education Association Position Paper are two insightful documents found on the Wisconsin Indian Education Association "Indian" Mascot and Logo Task Force web site.  Additional resources on Wisconsin mascots and other First Nations' issues can be found at the Midwest Treaty Network


Coyote Goes to Hollywood is a short but insightful story by Rennard Strickland, Ph.D., that touches upon the history of Hollywood movies relating to "Indians" and the influences these distorted, simplistic portrayals have had upon the American public's perceptions of Native Peoples. 


The Cyber Hall of Shame
This page presents some statistics such as the top 10 states using American Indian related sports team tokens.


Erasing Native American Stereotypes  "How can we avoid stereotypes about Native Americans when we are teaching, selecting textbooks, or designing exhibits and public programs?"  In this article, the Anthropology Outreach Office of the Smithsonian Institution offers some suggestions.


Hank Aaron Steps Up to the Plate on the Use of Native American Names and Mascots in Sport by Richard E. Lapchick, founder and director of the Center for Study of Sport in Society.


 Images of American Cultures in the 1870s
Telling images from "Harper's Weekly, Journal of Civilization" include these two by Thomas Nast which depict American Indians as warlike savages. "Patience until the Indian is Civilized---So to Speak.and "The Noble Red Man." - The Annual Plague of Chief "Bloody Murder"


An introduction to the Sami people
Illustrated at this site are the remarkable parallels between the struggles of the indigenous Saemieh, "Reindeer People," and American Indian peoples. Native to parts of what are now Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, the Sami are fighting racism, stereotypes and appropriation of their traditional lands.


In Whose Honor?
This site is sponsored by Jay Rosenstein whose documentary film "In Whose Honor" covers Charlene Teter's efforts addressing the "Chief Illiniwek" mascot. 


LIST OF CRITERIA
for Evaluating Bias and Stereotypes of Native Peoples in Literature
"provides non-Native persons, teachers, parents, librarians or students possible directions and Criteria for choosing non-racist and undistorted literature about the lives and Histories of Native American People. It examines the bias and stereotypes of Native Peoples in literature."  Originally from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.


MY skin is not red...
Discusses efforts of a young woman working to change "Redskins" name at her high school. Found at the First Nations website.


National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media was formed in 1991 and "exists to fight the powerful influence of major media who choose to promulgate messages of oppression."  These pages for NCRSM are found on the AIM Grand Governing Council website


The National Congress of American Indians is the oldest, largest, and most representative of all First Nations' advocacy groups.  In addition to several resolutions calling for the retirement of "Indian" sports team tokens, a position statement on this issue can also be found here.


North Carolina Educators for the Elimination of Racist Mascots  "is an organization of educators in North Carolina who believe that the use of imagery associated with the indigenous people of this country as mascots is harmful. NCEERM is both an opportunity to voice such opposition to the use of Indian mascots and a chance to learn more about what is happening around the nation in regard to this issue."  8/20/05-Webmaster note-The link to this group is from Archive.org and the group itself may no longer be active.


The Only Good Indian is a Dead Indian
A scholarly, detailed and annotated analysis of this most infamous anti-Indian proverb and other demeaning American Indian related clichés.


Portraying the Indian is Chapter 3 in a paper by Diane Camurat entitled, The American Indian in the Great War: Real and Imagined.  As its title implies, Portraying the Indian provides an excellent background synopsis of various symbolic and frequently stereotypic personas assigned to First Nations peoples from the time of Columbus until the beginning of the twentieth-century. Another insightful section AMERICAN INDIAN SYMBOLS IN WWI  includes provocative subheadings such as The "Redskins" Against the "Huns,"  Savage against Savage: A Civilizing Process, and The Primitive Warrior.


Racism, stereotyping, discrimination, offensive behavior Addresses several important issues with special emphasis on related practices of the Boy Scouts of America and similar youth groups.


A Season of Brilliance is an insightful essay that documents the remarkable athletic talent and tragically short career of Louis Francis Sockalexis, the Penobscot man after whom the Cleveland baseball team is erroneously said to have been named.


"Some 'Honor'"   is a slide-show .gif animation that uses images of various "Indian" sports team tokens.


Stereotypes of Native Americans Very useful information (especially see commentary "Appropriation of Culture").  This page also includes a number of related links such as Stereotypes Online.


A few examples of public schools using "Indian" mascots
Note that since first being linked to these pages several of the schools have
sanitized their web pages by removing stereotypic images.  In such cases currently
active links in this section are drawn from Archive.org and identified by
* 

Mohawk Local Schools, Sycamore, OH
These examples come from Ohio, a place that not only boasts of  the Cleveland MLB team's egregious "Chief Wahoo," but also has more  public school "Indian" sports team 
tokens than any other state.  Significantly, there is not one single State or Federally recognized American Indian tribe in Ohio.  

warrior.gif (10407 bytes)
* Mount Gilead, OH, "Home of the 'Indians'"

Norwood, OH Norwood High School

Port Jervis Public Schools, Port Jervis, NY

* James I. O'Neill High School, Highland Falls, NY

Wantagh High School, Wantagh, NY
(Image is at bottom of page)

* Peru High School, Peru, NY 
Several schools in this district use "Indian" tokens including one with a page that ironically features a sign showing the classic "Indian head" logo and the words "We expect respect."

Syosset High School, Syosset, NY

Watkins Glen Elementary School, Watkins Glen, NY
Replying on 9/28/00 to an inquiry about it's "Li'l Seneca" nickname the writer noted " Yes......all is changed. We agree with you, at last."  Hopefully this district's high school will follow suit and change its "Senecas" nickname.

Toms River High School South, Toms River, NJ Southern Trinity High School, Bridgeville, CA

  Kelseyville High School, Kelseyville, CA

  Arcadia High School, Arcadia, CA
Although not reflected in its sanitized web site, this school is still the focus of much negative publicity over its "Apaches" nickname and associated practices

Happy Valley High School, Johnson City, TN Loveland High School, Loveland, CO
Conneaut Valley High, Conneautville, PA

Radnor High, Radnor, PA

McMinn County High School, Athens, TN
Choctawhatchee High School, Walton Beach, FL
  Home of the "Big Green Indians," this site has also attempted to gloss over the school's use of an "Indian" sports team token.
Shawnee Mission School District, Overland Park, KS
While this site is yet another "cleaned up" version of an earlier one that shamelessly displayed its "Indian" tokens, the district it highlights still has teams such as "Indians" and schools such as "Tomahawk Elementary."
South Vigo High School, Terre Haute, IN
Collinsville High School, Collinsville, IL  
"'Indian Trail' is the official school song, and the mascots are Chief Kahok and Princess Kahok.

"To Return to this page in any menu, click the Kahok Head."

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