[PEN-L:279] NCAA v. ILLINIWAK

["James Michael Craven" <cravjm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From:          "Boyle, Francis" <FBOYLE@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:            "<Mailing List>" <maillist@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:       NCAA v. ILLINIWAK
Date:          Mon, 28 Sep 1998 17:15:08 -0500




 The following Editorial  is from the September  28, 1998 issue of The NCAA
 News.  I am very pleased to forward it to you.

 Stephen

 The NCAA News
 September 28, 1998

 Guest editorial -- Use of Indian mascots shows lack of respect

 BY CHARLES WHITCOMB
 NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee

 The charge of the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee is
 to increase opportunities for ethnic minorities in intercollegiate
 athletics, and our primary focus is the education and welfare of the
 ethnic minority student-athlete. The committee also oversees the
 enhancement of opportunities for ethnic minorities in coaching, athletics
 administration, officiating and within the NCAA governance structure.

 The committee was established to enhance the NCAA commitment to foster
 racial equality and diversity in collegiate athletics. Thus, we strongly
 support the elimination of Indian names and mascots as symbols for our
 member institutions' sports teams. We also support the elimination of
 Native American rituals for entertainment purposes.

 Member institutions with Indian mascots that promote Indian caricatures
 and mimic ceremonial rites do not comply with the NCAA's commitment to
 ethnic student welfare. The use of these symbols and mascots is not
 respectful to Native American culture and is considered by that culture to
 be sacrilegious. No other race of people in America is used for mascots or
 nicknames for sports teams.

 The continuation of this practice sends a clear message that
 administrators, who have the responsibility of nurturing our students,
 have an insensitive disregard for the native culture of this country.

 For Native Americans, dance is the ceremonial embodiment of their
 indigenous values and represents their response to complex and often
 profound historical experiences. Their dance depicts a vital means of
 surviving culturally and a powerful means of asserting cultural identity,
 fulfilling family and community obligations while
 celebrating the group.

 American Indian dance is performed throughout America, in venues from the
 most traditional and private spaces to those that are very public.
 Thousands of dances are performed every day -- not to satisfy paying
 audiences or fans, but to assure the continuation of ancient customs, to
 honor deities and each other, to associate with friends
 and kin, and toaffirm an Indian identity.

 The half-time show that mimics this heritage denigrates the culture and
 demeans an entire people. This is not entertainment to those who are a
 part of the culture.

 Institutions that have continued to use stereotypes of Indians and justify
 their actions as a way to honor the Native American have failed to listen
 to the protests of the Native American population.

 We must all listen and learn to respect what all cultures respect, not
 just what some of them cherish. Institutions that have heard the request
 and eliminated the symbols -- institutions such as Stanford University,
 Dartmouth College, Marquette University, Syracuse University, Miami
 University (Ohio), the University of Oklahoma and Bradley University --
 recognized the significance of this concern. I applaud these and other
 institutions that have stopped the egregious abuse of the culture of our
 indigenous brothers and sisters.

 The efforts of the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee serve to
 encourage and support collegiate environments that welcome and respect
 differences. We believe that accountability for the success of our
 student-athletes and the successful welfare of the student body as a whole
 must include our efforts to educate our students to cultural sensitivity.
 If we offer our students anything less, we have hindered their growth.

 When we choose not to speak out against the perpetuation of disrespectful
 images of Native Americans, we fail to respect ourselves. Far too many of
 us have denied our insensitivity and have tried to justify our actions
 with a delusional belief that we do not dishonor Native Americans with
 these stereotypical mascots. Instead, these mascots are perpetuating
 negative stereotypes of an ethnic group and diminishing the right and
 opportunity of Native Americans to appropriately identify their culture.
 It is simply another form of institutional racism.

 To end this debauchery requires an extraordinary commitment to devote our
 efforts to identify the abuse and eliminate it.

 The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee joins with
 organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians, the
 Inter-Tribal Council of United Indian Nations in Oklahoma, the National
 Rainbow Coalition, the NAACP, the Center for the Study of Sports in
 Society and others in advocating the
 elimination of Indian mascots and ceremonial rituals in conjunction with
 collegiate athletics.

 Our charge as administrators in higher education is to develop our
 students so they can maximize their learning experiences to become
 effective contributors to our society. This is an impossible task if we
 continue to dishonor Native Americans by using them as mascots and
 conducting parodies of their scared ceremonies for entertainment purposes.


 Charles Whitcomb is chair of the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests
 Committee and is faculty athletics representative at San Jose State
 University.


 James Craven
 Dept. of Economics,Clark College
 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663
 jcraven@xxxxxxxxx; Tel: (360) 992-2283 Fax: 992-2863
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"The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards Indians; their land and
property shall never be taken from them without their consent."
(Northwest Ordinance, 1787, Ratified by Congress 1789)

Those who take the most from the table,
teach contentment.
Those for whom the taxes are destined,
demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry,
of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss,
call ruling difficult,
for ordinary folk.
(Bertolt Brecht)

*My Employer  has no association with My Private and Protected Opinion*
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