Print
Subscribe
Harjo: Mascots preferred over real Indian people
Monday, June 12, 2006
"It seems that you have to be an ''Indian'' mascot or an Abramoff-like high roller in a skybox to get the attention of some members of Congress.
At the same time that Native Americans are still denied full access to the justice system, some legislators want to throw open the courthouse doors to those who stereotype Native peoples.
Usually, it doesn't matter when a few congressmen drop a private interest bill. But when one of the sponsors is Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, it matters.
The Hastert bill would hand a few schools a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which has ruled that its members' ''hostile'' and ''abusive'' sports signifiers are not permitted in championship games. The bill is an admission that the schools don't have a legal leg to stand on.
Hastert's May 4 bill was introduced in reaction to the NCAA's April 28 decision to retain three universities on the list of those ''subject to restrictions on the use of Native American mascots, names and imagery at NCAA championships.''
Among the objectionable ''Indian'' references is one in Hastert's home state, ''Chief Illiniwek,'' mascot of the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign."
Get the Story:
Suzan Shown Harjo: Note to Congress: Stop shielding 'Indian' mascots and start defending Indian people
(Indian Country Today 6/9)
Related Stories:
Harjo: Poarch Creeks worked against Native
people (6/5)
Harjo: Indians forced to pay
price for Abramoff (04/28)
Suzan Harjo:
Girl-empowerment for Indian Country (04/15)
Harjo: Scientists study Ancient One but learn
nothing (03/17)
Harjo: NY Times story on
drugs accurate but untrue (02/27)
Harjo:
Pseudo-Indians should pay for identify theft (02/10)
Harjo: Indian art world suffered severe losses
(01/20)
Harjo: The Mantle of Shame Awards
for 2005 (1/4)
Harjo: Indian people have
no word for 'mascot' (12/9)
Harjo: My
photo album of Vine Deloria Jr. (11/24)
Harjo: 'Scooter' Libby scandal and Rosa Parks
(11/11)
Harjo: White man's words trump
Native views (10/21)
Harjo: Native
nations stand up to 'Fighting Sioux' (10/03)
Harjo: Indian people know what it's like to be
uprooted (9/23)
Harjo: We can prove that
Native people ate corn (08/26)
Harjo:
Hanging onto mascots, toys of racism (08/12)
Harjo: Elite group wants control over dead
Indians (08/05)
Harjo: O'Connor trampled
on Native religious rights (07/08)
Harjo: Ruling expected any day on use of R-word
(06/17)
Harjo: NCAA should ban all 'Native'
imagery (05/27)
Harjo: Native people,
like 'extinct' bird, survive (05/13)
Harjo: Native women aren't safe in Indian
Country (04/29)
Harjo: Characteristics
of the non-Indian Indians (04/08)
Churchill tells Suzan Shown Harjo: Kiss my ---
(02/17)
Suzan Shown Harjo: Churchill went
'tribe-shopping' (2/11)
Anti-fry bread
column stirs Indian Country passions (02/07)
Harjo: Eliminate fry bread and other 'Indian'
foods (01/21)
Harjo: The 'good' Indians
versus the 'hostiles' (12/17)
Harjo:
Pine Ridge election about character (10/29)
Harjo: Anderson harassed Indian reporter over BIA
death (07/02)
Copyright © 2000-2006 Indianz.Com
