Native American Mascot Controversy - History

History

Americans have had a history of drawing inspiration from native peoples and "playing Indian" that dates back at least to the 18th century. This practice led directly to the origins of many nicknames and mascots. Like the Boy Scouts (in particular, the Order of the Arrow) and many summer camps, university students in the late 19th and early 20th centuries adopted Indian names and symbols for their group identities, not from authentic sources but rather as Native American life was imagined by Euro-Americans.

Profession team nicknames had similar origins. Founded as the Boston Red Stockings, the team became the Braves for the first time in 1912. Their owner, James Gaffney, was a member of New York City's political machine, Tammany Hall, one of the societies originally formed to honor Tamanend, a chief of the Delaware. The success of the Braves in the 1914 World Series may have been the reason for the Cleveland team, which was looking for a new nickname, to become the Indians in 1915. The story that the team is named to honor Louis Sockalexis, the first Native American to play major league baseball, cannot be verified from historical documents. The football team now in Washington, DC was originally also the Boston Braves when formed in 1932, since it was the custom at the time to have the same team names when baseball and football shared the same stadium. Moving to the home of the Boston Red Sox, the name was changed to the Boston Redskins in 1933 before moving again to Washington. Thus the use of Native American names and imagery by this team began before the hiring of Lone Star Dietz as coach in 1933.

In the 1940's the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) created a campaign to eliminate negative stereotyping of Native American people in the media. Over time, the campaign began to focus on Indian names and mascots in sports. The NCAI maintains that teams with mascots such as the Braves and the Redskins perpetuate negative stereotypes of Native American people, and demean their native traditions and rituals. Proponents of Native American mascots, however, believe that Native American mascots pay respect to these people and promote a better understanding of their cultures. Despite this issue gaining prominence during the civil rights movement, it still continues today as many teams continue to possess mascots with controversial names and images.

The stereotyping of Native Americans must be understood in the context of history which includes conquest, forced relocation, and organized efforts to eradicate native cultures, such as the boarding schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which separated young Native Americans from their families in order educate them as Euro-Americans. As stated in an editorial by Carter Meland (Anishinaabe heritage) and David E. Wilkins (Lumbee) both professors of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota: "Since the first Europeans made landfall in North America, native peoples have suffered under a weltering array of stereotypes, misconceptions and caricatures. Whether portrayed as noble savages, ignoble savages, teary-eyed environmentalists or, most recently, simply as casino-rich, native peoples find their efforts to be treated with a measure of respect and integrity undermined by images that flatten complex tribal, historical and personal experience into one-dimensional representations that tells us more about the depicters than about the depicted."