The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. Photo from Barney Hillerman Collection / Oklahoma Historical Society
'Sooners' - Offensive Native American mascot name?
By Jay Daniels
Roundhouse Talk The mentality of too many folks today is to find a cause in life to be counted for, to be heard by, and seen by others, as a protector and defender against the social ills of this world. Most of these social ills have no real substance and don't create a better situation, but merely antagonize others. I try to avoid the Native American mascot issue as it serves no real purpose in changing personal feelings and minds which have been shaped and embedded by those around them throughout life. A person's feelings won't change "just because" groups organize, hold protests, or carry signs with a catchy slogan. When opposition of a sports team mascot name first became a trendy protest cause, I refrained from entering this foray into forcing someone else's thinking and belief to match mine. Sounds like the missionaries of old who came to our camps and villages and tried to force us to assimilate to their way of worship and beliefs. We spend more time on these issues than we do on fighting against the diminishment of tribal sovereignty, reduction of federal treaty rights meant to provide us health, education and reimbursement for the "unjustly" taking of our ancestral lands and moving us to other lands where we had no connection or cultural tie. Minnesota tribes became South Dakota tribes. North Carolina tribes became Oklahoma tribes. New York tribes became Wisconsin tribes, North Dakota tribes became South Dakota and Montana tribes, and Nebraska tribes became Oklahoma tribes. Federal funding has been reduced for health, education, welfare assistance programs, housing programs, law enforcement programs and too many federally contracted programs and grants. During the beginning push of protests against Native American mascot names, my first fear was that my children, and other Native American children, would be penalized at Indian reservation schools and communities where use of Native American mascot names wasn't a stereotype, but rather a source of pride. My children grew up being Poplar Indians athletes. When our teams showed up at athletic and academic events, they marched proudly onto the stage representing the "Poplar Indians" among non-Indian counterparts. Our children are proud to be known as an Indian and a class of people with a distinct knowledge of beliefs and culture. One state, and possibly even more behind close doors, are now contemplating withholding all federal state educational funding to any public school who refuses to change Native American mascot names. Did we actually want to go this far with our cause? The very protest and denunciation of Native American mascot names by our Native American organizations and grass roots movement may be contributing to the insult and shame of who "we" are and who we are not. Some of us like to be called Indians, braves or warriors. Yes, there are some offensive Native American names which shouldn't be uttered or repeated. No doubt about that. But are we majoring in the minor and minoring in the major? Our Indian soldiers come home from the front lines of foreign battlefields defending us and other Americans and we honor them as a Veteran Warrior, We create Warrior societies less it be forgotten what they have done for us. But no more "Warrior" mascot names as many deem it as offensive. Can you even still use the word "Indians" as a class of people? I do and always will, but for the sake of those who get offended, I now try to say "Native Americans." Even though our very existence is defined as "a member of a federally recognized tribe of Indians." Our homelands are designated as Indian reservations or Indian Country. But now we have become so insensitive and dignified that we prefer to be called Native Americans. I apologize but these terms confuse me sometimes and leave me unsure about what I can appropriately call myself. The federal government and states have diminished our reservation boundaries, sold our land for $0.25 an acre to non-Indians, exploited our sacred lands for uranium and gold mines, ravaged our lands with horrendous energy and mineral developments practices, foreclosed on our Housing & Urban Development guaranteed loan programs, force sold our Indian Allotments due to tax forfeiture when we tried to "assimilate" into the white man's world of unrestricted ownership absent governmental permission requirements telling us what we can and can't do with our land. States make every effort to tax our economic developments and the courts rule that they can't. They pursue our tenants or lessees to offset loss of their tax income base. They extort public safety services on Indian casinos even through these casinos have in-house security, tribal law enforcement, detention facilities, tribal court services, and fire and safety services to provide everything needed in almost every instance. We pay states a percentage of revenue and collect their taxes, but yet they permit non-Indian casinos where they (states) provide public safety needs, except for in-house security, using state funding. Now here in my beloved state of Oklahoma, Native American students, mostly out of state folks who haven't grown up in Oklahoma and don't understand how important our Sooners are to most of us, look for a cause and means to express themselves. Expressing yourself is a good thing. But subjecting it upon others who choose not to think that way is a bad thing. "Boomers" were settlers who favored the opening of unassigned lands in the Oklahoma Territory and lobbied the U.S. government to open up the unused lands. Promoting the "Boomer's Paradise," early advocates of settlement in the Unassigned Lands began what is referred to as the "Boomer Movement. They pressured President Benjamin Harrison to no end and he eventually agreed to open the lands for non-Indian assignment. The OU Daily wrote "The term “Sooner” has negative connotations for many Native American students who suffer transgenerational trauma from displacement of Native peoples following the Oklahoma land rush, Indigenize OU member Sydne Gray said." Were Native American people displaced from the lands included in the Oklahoma land rush? No. Were we traumatized by something that didn't happen to us but used to speak negatively about non-Indians ? No. The very student groups opposing the use of the mascot name "Sooners" enrolled as a student at a school where the the mascot name was already Sooners. Was that hypocritical? Yes. Many OU students are out of state students who have no knowledge or history of our beloved University of Oklahoma Sooners and want to speak on behalf of us local Native Americans. Their rights implode upon our rights, but it serves their purpose and need to protest so they can feel like they are making good use of Mom and Dad's scholarship payments. Sooners come from a term used to identify land grabbers who jumped the starting line before the beginning date of the government sanctioned Oklahoma Indian Territory land run, thus stole land sooner than they were supposed to. These folks "jumped the gun" before the starting date and time. About two million acres of land was opened up to non-Indian settlement. It was originally thought to be of no value to the non-Indians, but an ideal place to relocate Native Americans who were removed from their traditional lands to make way for the insurgence of non-Indians to their homelands. Sooners didn't steal Indian lands and force any tribe onto other lands, but rather took advantage of a federal program to give away surplus lands which weren't being used or pursued by Indian tribes. There are more important issues we need to be vocal about and active in pursuing if we are truly going to make our lives better. But, to be called a Sooner is a bad thing? I only know that we were moved here first and chose the best of the land available and the Sooners took what we didn't want. That wasn't such a bad deal. So, Sooner isn't a Native American Mascot name, it's a non-Indian mascot name. Let the non-Indians take on that fight. Like us true Sooner fans always say as an acknowledgement of our support to other Sooner fans, "BOOMER SOONER" literally meaning "a good moment." Jay Daniels has 30 years of experience working in Indian Country, managing trust lands and is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. You can find resources and information at Roundhouse Talk.
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