So the suggested topic is whether or not schools should use "indians" or some for of the term as mascots for their use. Even our University of Illinois is considered the Fighting Illini, although the university has done away with the indian face/head as well as the mascot that would perform a type of ceremony before contests. Another professional team that has changed a little is the Cleveland Indians baseball team. While they retained the name indians, they did do away with the Chief Wahoo caricture that was part of the team's logo.
I'll be honest, since I've worked with teaching students about literature contributions from Indigenous people through my teaching years, I find myself uncomfortable going into gyms that have indians as a mascot. I say this now, but my first teaching and coaching job was at Westmer Secondary School, which is now part of the Mercer County School District, and the mascot for Westmer was the warriors, but as far as pics of the mascot, pretty much everyone just picked some picture of some "indian" and used it. In that gym, there was a large painting of an indian hanging abouve the north basket. I remember even having basketball camp shirts and basketball shirts promoting the team using some type of indian head for the purpose of selling shirts.
So I'm not suggesting that while now I have a heightened degree of sensitivity, that I've always been that way. In a documentary will be watching starting tomorrow, one of the topics will be the use of mascots.
Cole McCabe, Nathan Petriekis, Jayce Kopp
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