Team Spirits

by King, C. Richard

• ISBN13: 9780803277984
• ISBN10: 0803277989
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

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.C. Richard King is an assistant professor of anthropology at Drake University, and Charles Fruehling Springwood is an assistant professor of anthropology at Illinois Wesleyan University. King and Springwood are coauthors of the forthcoming book Beyond the Cheers: Race As Spectacle in College Sport.

Author Biography

C. Richard King is an assistant professor of anthropology at Drake University, and Charles Fruehling Springwood is an assistant professor of anthropology at Illinois Wesleyan University. King and Springwood are coauthors of Beyond the Cheers: Race As Spectacle in College Sport.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Vine Deloria Jr.
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: Imagined Indians, Social Identities, and Activism	1	(24)
C. Richard King
Charles Fruehling Springwood
PART 1. INVENTIONS
Chief Bill Orange and the Saltine Warrior: A Cultural History of Indian Symbols and Imagery at Syracuse University	25	(21)
Donald M. Fisher
Becoming the Indians: Fashioning Arkansas State University's Indians	46	(18)
Mary Landreth
Wennebojo Meets the Mascot: A Trickster's View of the Central Michigan University Mascot/Logo	64	(18)
Richard Clark Eckert
Sockalexis and the Making of the Myth at the Core of Cleveland's ``Indian'' Image	82	(27)
Ellen J. Staurowsky
PART 2. WHITENESS
The Fighting Braves of Michigamua: Adopting the Visage of American Indian Warriors in the Halls of Academia	109	(20)
Patrick Russell LeBeau
The Best Offense....Dissociation, Desire, and the Defense of the Florida State University Seminoles	129	(28)
C. Richard King
Charles Fruehling Springwood
At Home in Illinois: Presence of Chief Illiniwek, Absence of Native Americans	157	(32)
David Prochaska
PART 3. ACTIVISM
Fighting Name-Calling: Challenging`` Redshkins'' in Court	189	(19)
Suzan Shown Harjo
Last of the Mohicans, Braves, and Warriors: The End of American Indian Mascots in Los Angeles Public Schools	208	(13)
Ann Marie (Amber) Machamer
Escaping the Tyranny of the Majority: A Case Study of Mascot Change	221	(20)
Laurel R. Davis
Malvina T. Rau
PART 4. INTERVENTIONS
In Whose Honor?, Mascots, and the Media	241	(16)
Jay Rosenstein
Educators and Mascots: Challenging Contradictions	257	(24)
Cornel D. Pewewardy
PART 5. COMPLICATIONS
Uneasy Indians: Creating and Contesting Native American Mascots at Marquette University	281	(23)
C. Richard King
Playing Indian and Fighting (for) Mascots: Reading the Complications of Native American and Euro-American Alliances	304	(24)
Charles Fruehling Springwood
Epilogue: Closing Arguments, Opening Dialogues	328	(9)
Charles Fruehling Springwood
C. Richard King
Contributors	337	(4)
Index	341