JOUR 4250: Feathers, face paint and football

The term “symbolic annihilation” couldn’t apply more appropriately to Native Americans, unless were talking sports.

Native Americans as a group are basically left out of traditional media. This is a group that lacks exposure and is extremely underrepresented in our society. The importance of symbolic annihilation is what happens after the fact. When Native Americans become so underrepresented as a whole, we start to think differently of them. Symbolic annihilation is important because it links this underrepresentation to people thinking this certain group of people must not be important.

Somewhere Native Americans are actually represented, although controversially, is in the world of sports. The Florida State Seminoles, Kansas City Chiefs and the Washington Redskins are just a few team names bearing Native American symbols.

Some of these teams have been around for awhile. In fact, some people may claim they have been around so long they barely notice the controversy in it. Well, some Native Americans are raising their own voices against these team names today.

The controversy comes from the fact that many of these teams are stereotyping Native Americans. Some team mascots are shown with feathers in their hair, making it seem like every Native American wore feathers in their hair. Another stereotype may be tomahawk symbols or chants the fans participate in. This, again, goes back to stereotyping Native Americans as a whole. Native Americans who are against Native American mascots say these teams make generalizations out of an entire group and pick certain traits to be important.

In class, our teacher pulled up a website dedicated to the “Fightin’ Whities” an intramural team created in an effort to raise awareness on the stereotyping of Native Americans in sports. Apparently the “Fightin’ Whities” was an intramural team formed by students at the University of Northern Colorado in 2002. Without surprise, it caused quite the stir. That’s exactly what the students wanted, however. The students at Northern Colorado took it upon themselves to act as catalysts for the movement against Native American mascots.

So, how do the teams feel about this? There seems to be more action starting at the lower level. According to a USA Today article, the Washington State Board of Education has been encouraging state schools to change their mascots. The article said 10 schools in the past 10 years have already chosen to do so.

Changes, even at the local level, have been met with resistance. Even some Native Americans are against the movement. The same USA Today article quoted a Native American member of the Makah tribe in Washington saying the movement is “ridiculous.”

Resistance or not, the movement to ban Native American mascots has had momentum. More and more people are talking about it. Schools, for example, are starting to lecture on the subject. I have already had two classes at UNT teach about the movement. From looking at the action taking place at the local level, it will be interesting to see how it affects professional sports in the near future.