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Friday, March 15, 2002In Colo., Fightin' Whities play hardball Basketball team picks unusual nickname in protest of Indian mascots By Chryss Cada, Globe Correspondent, 3/15/2002 REELEY, Colo. - Besides handling all the media attention, the biggest challenge facing the Fightin' Whities is coming up with a battle cry. ''It's interesting to sit around and think, what noise does a white person make?'' said Solomon Little Owl, a member of the Fightin' Whities intramural basketball team at the University of Northern Colorado. ''When you say that about a white person, you realize how ridiculous the whole idea of having people as mascots is. This is our way of making that point.'' Little Owl, director of Native American Student Services at the university, suggested adopting the mascot to draw attention to the use of American Indians as mascots for sports teams. All 10 team members - three Native Americans, two Hispanics, and five Anglos - supported the move. ''I grew up in the Indian world, learning the traditions, learning what an eagle feather means,'' said Charles Cuny, the Lakota Indian who organized the team. ''And then I turn on a [Florida State University] game on a Saturday and see a blue-eyed boy dressed up in eagle feathers throwing down a spear and dancing around like a fool.'' Cuny said that he, and most other young Indians, are more interested in larger issues, such as health care and land rights, but that taking on offensive mascots is a good starting point to bring awareness to more substantial issues. The use of American Indians as sports mascots has been an issue for at least three decades. It was in 1968 that the National Congress of American Indians launched a campaign to address stereotypes in the media. The National Congress has approached the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins. ''Officially, the NCAI can't really sanction what they're doing, but it's definitely a new and unique approach,'' said Adam Bailey, the legislative associate who handles the mascot issue for the Indian Congress. ''They've certainly opened the eyes of a lot of Americans.'' About 1,200 school teams have changed their mascots in the last 38 years, said Dan Ninham, founder of Coloradans Against Ethnic Stereotypes in Colorado Schools. ''We've still got about 600 who haven't.'' Ninham, a graduate student at UNC, launched a campaign at the start of the year to change the mascot at nearby Eaton High School. The school's teams are called the Reds, and the logo is of a big-nosed American Indian. His coalition got a boost when the UNC intramural team, officially named ''Native Pride,'' adopted the ''Whites'' mascot to draw attention to the issue. The coalition provided the team with T-shirts with a cartoon mascot of a white male with slicked-back hair and wearing a tie and dark coat. The T-shirts are imprinted with ''Every thang's going to be all white!'' on the front and ''The Fighting Whites '' on the back. The nickname has since evolved to the catchier ''Fightin' Whities.'' ''We've tried to open a dialogue for over two months with the [Eaton] School District,'' Ninham said. ''But to them, we're invisible. Maybe this will get their attention.'' At the University of Northern Colorado campus in Greeley, where grain towers serve as the skyline, only 76 of the 11,000 students on campus are officially identified as American Indian. But UNC's small American Indian population is making a big impact with the Fightin' Whities. Hundreds of e-mails and voice messages have poured into Little Owl's office since the local paper did a story on the team. A march by those supporting a name change for the Reds is being organized for late April. Marchers shouldn't expect a warm welcome in the community of 1,900. Among the farmers gathered at Eaton's North Bean and Seed, the consensus is that the high school's mascot shouldn't be of concern to anyone outside the town limits. ''I've lived here all my life, and that Indian is a part of Eaton,'' said one resident who asked not to be identified. ''Some yahoos from out of town want to come in and take that away.'' At the high school, where about 80 percent of the 416 students are Anglo, the sentiment is the same. ''You'd think they'd [American Indians] would be honored to have some kids wanting to fight in their name,'' said sophomore Mallory Bailey. ''It's not something were putting down. In fact, we're very proud of it.'' Bill Mondt, Eaton High's assistant principal, said there has been no discussion on changing the mascot. ''Our students and our community stand behind using the Reds,'' he said, ''and that tradition and support is what matters.'' Fightin Whitie Ryan White disagrees. ''They talk about tradition that goes back, what, 70 years?'' he said. ''Well, we've got our own traditions, and they go back, well, forever.'' This story ran on page A2 of the Boston Globe on 3/15/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. posted by Webmaster@ AIM Support 2:24 PM
Wednesday, March 13, 2002Hoops Team Called 'Fighting Whities' .c The Associated Press GREELEY, Colo. (AP) - The University of Northern Colorado intramural basketball team has been inundated with T-shirt requests in the wake of publicity about its name: ``The Fightin' Whities.'' The team chose the moniker after players were unable to persuade a local school to change a mascot name that offended them. The players said they want to raise awareness about cultural stereotypes. On Tuesday, the team set up an e-mail account to start taking T-shirt orders. They plan to charge $20 per shirt and will donate profits to a yet-to-be-determined American Indian organization, player Jeff Van Iwarden said. The players are trying to figure out how to mass produce their shirts, and are working with copyright and university rules. The T-shirt bears the team mascot - a 1950s-style caricature of a middle-aged white man - and the phrase ``Every thang's gonna be all white!'' Solomon Little Owl, team member and director of Native American Services at UNC, has been fielding phone calls from talk shows and news organizations around the country. ``The attention is overwhelming,'' Little Owl said. ``It's gone beyond all of our intentions.'' The team is made up of American Indians, Hispanics and Anglos. Ryan White, a team member and member of the Mohawk Nation, said many people don't understand how it feels to be victims of a stereotype. ``Walk in someone else's shoes, and then you can make a judgment,'' White said. Players criticized Eaton High School for using an American Indian caricature on the team logo. The team is called the Reds. Eaton School District superintendent John Nuspl said the logo is not derogatory and called the group's criticism insulting. AP-NY-03-13-02 1140EST posted by Webmaster@ AIM Support 11:45 PM
Tuesday, March 12, 2002From Sioux Falls' Argus Leader: "Students put twist on mascots; Colorado intramural team names itself 'Fighting Whities'" By Staff & Wire Reports "Indian students in Colorado have turned the tables in a debate on racism by naming their intramural basketball team "The Fighting Whities." The students, at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, chose a white man as a mascot after failing to persuade nearby Eaton High School to drop a nickname they say offends them. "The message is, let's do something that will let people see the other side of what it's like to be a mascot," said Solomon Little Owl, director of Native American Student Services at UNC. The intramural team includes Native Americans, Hispanics and Anglos. They wear jerseys that say, "Every thang's going to be all white." "It's not meant to be vicious; it is meant to be humorous," said Ray White, a Mohawk team member. "It puts people in our shoes, and then we can say, 'Now you know how it is, and now you can make a judgment.' " The Eaton school uses an Indian caricature on its logo and calls its teams the Reds. Superintendent John Nuspl said the logo is not derogatory. "Their interpretations are an insult to our patrons and blatantly inaccurate," he said. "There's no mockery of Native Americans with this." In South Dakota, the issue has simmered for years. Harold Salway, former Oglala Sioux chairman in Pine Ridge, said some believe the names are meant to honor Indians. "Others look at it as a gross denegration. I fall into the second camp," Salway said. "We, as Native Americans, have too much reverence for ourselves to parlay our likenesses into the sports arena." Of the Colorado team, Salway said, "Maybe it's their way of fighting fire with fire." Perry Ford, men's basketball coach at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, said, "I don't think any group should use any nickname that other people find offensive." Charles Cuny, a member of the team in Greeley, went to a high school called the Red Cloud Crusaders, named for a Lakota leader. "We live in a politically correct society, and sometimes Indians get overlooked," he said. "There are so few Indians who have clout that there are a lot of things that go unsettled." posted by Webmaster@ AIM Support 3:20 PM
Sunday, March 10, 2002**Some good news** http://www.freep.com/news/childrenfirst/indian8_20020308.htm Y's Indian programs likely to end Guides and Princesses considered insensitive March 8, 2002 BY BILL DOW FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER Big Glen stands in a circle around a fire at Camp Copneconic near Grand Blanc, sporting a colorful Indian headdress. The chief of the Three Fires Federation welcomes father and son braves, who throw corn into the flames and promise to be "pals forever." Although Big Glen -- Bill Peirce of Birmingham -- and the other participants are not Native Americans, they are part of a 75-year-old YMCA-sanctioned activity that uses an Indian theme to foster bonds between parents and kids. For generations, the YMCA Indian Guides (father-son) and Indian Princesses (father-daughter) programs have formed neighborhood tribes that participate in activities ranging from camp-outs and community service to bike trips and learning about Indian culture. But the days of wearing Indian headbands, borrowing the names of genuine tribes, and taking on Indian-sounding names like Big Bear and Little Wolf are likely numbered. More than 180,000 participants nationwide -- including 1,200 in metro Detroit -- could lose the program after the Chicago-based YMCA of the USA's recent decision to phase out the Indian theme that was first adopted by a YMCA director and his Indian friend in 1926. Responding to charges of racial stereotyping by Indian activists while acknowledging that the change will not be popular, the organization is faced with informing YMCA professionals, volunteer parents and their children. "The Indian Guides program has been widely praised these past 75 years for building character and family relationships," says Arnold Collins, a YMCA of the USA spokesman. "Our intent was always to honor Native Americans and their traditions while urging our participants to exercise the greatest sensitivity. Nevertheless, as we continued to embark on our cultural sensitivity initiative, it became increasingly more difficult to ignore members of a race telling us the program is offensive," he says. Bobby Scruggs of Harrison Township, known as Yellow Wolf, is not happy about the decision. "The Indian program does more good than any harm it might do," says Scruggs, whose daughters Breeana (Singing Waterfall) and Brittany (Yellow Fox) are members of the YMCA Indian Princess Ojibwa tribe. "It is a beautiful medium, a wonderful culture that we respect and emulate that helps us facilitate a bonding with our kids." "It just wouldn't be the same," Breeana, 11, said. "We have learned a lot about Indians. My friends and I have fun exploring on camp-outs and pretending we are Indians." Two Native American leaders see it differently. Bill Memberto, an Ojibwa, is the director of Michigan's Urban Indian Affairs Office. "The denigration of native people is so interwoven into the fabric of our society that folks can't grasp that the YMCA's program has its roots in racism, irregardless of what they talk about honoring. "Most people only relate to a monolithic movie mythology which is stereotypical and degrading. Folks need to start teaching their children about their own cultures instead of trying to live by and imitate somebody else's culture, which is a real falsehood." Vernon Bellecourt is the spokesman for the American Indian Movement, a group based in Minneapolis that has been battling sports teams' use of Indian mascots. "I am sure that in many cases these YMCA people are well-meaning and they like the Indian culture, but they are ignorant on how it offends native people," he says. "We simply don't like the superficial behavior of children and their parents playing Indians because it renders them incapable of understanding that the original people are still struggling and that it is compounded by racial stereotyping." Is dropping the program the only solution? "I would rather see adjustments than dropping the program entirely," says Reg Pettibone of Livonia, a full-blooded Ho-Chunk (formerly Winnebago) who lived on a Wisconsin reservation until he was 18. He says education is the key. He travels to schools and organizations, including the Birmingham Guides and Princesses program, and demonstrates traditional dancing. "The YMCA program has triggered an interest in children to learn more about the indigenous people. It would be helpful if there were more contacts with Native Americans." Although the national organization can't force the more than 540 national YMCA branches with Indian Guides programs to drop them, the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit will likely require the seven of 17 tri-county branches with the theme to do so. "I have not received a staff recommendation yet to eliminate the Indian theme, but if I were to predict, I believe we would follow the lead of the national YMCA," says Reid Thebault, president and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit and a former Indian Guide participant. "Perhaps a Pioneer program would allow us to move to a more cultural sensitive theme. The real strength of the parent-child programs are in the relationships that are formed, not the theme itself." ============================= Please note the change in e-mail address to aimsupport@earthlink.net Please update your address book. Our apologies for the inconvenience. ----------------------------- Support the American Indian Movement Support Group of Ohio and Northern Kentucky Go to http://aim_support.tripod.com/ and find out how to order AIM Supporter stickers! ----------------------------- posted by Webmaster@ AIM Support 10:55 AM Last updated:
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