Native American Mascots

Prior to reading A Question of Honor, I had never considered the effects of Native American mascots outside of the two parties – that is, the organization using the mascot and the Native American community. My upbringing was conducive to internalizing all the positive aspects of Native American mascots. Like most American children, as soon as I was old enough to do so, I began playing little league baseball, pee-wee football, etc. Team names in those youth leagues were generally adopted from professional or college teams so it was normal to see and hear of Native American mascots and imagery. Many of the schools in my area utilized Native American mascots, including my own, the Shawnee Braves. That meant four more years of internalizing the use of Native American symbolism, iconography, terminology, and imagery as a good thing. Like the article states, I saw our mascot and the many like it as a tribute to the Indigenous Peoples of America and our adoption of it as a way to honor them. Part of me still feels this way. However, another part of me has started to question the practice of using these mascots. If these native cultures are so filled with positive qualities that are worthy of admiration and honoring in the present day, why were they so vehemently destroyed, suppressed, or assimilated by the culture now praising them?

While A Question of Honor does not answer this question, it does present the case that not all of these Native American mascots honor Indigenous People as advertised. Specifically, the Chief Wahoo mascot of the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball organization was empirically proven to be associated with negative stereotypes of Native Americans. I would argue the Chief Wahoo image is a blatant caricature of Native Americans and thus, it is expressly designed to elicit negative connotations of Native Americans. It interests me that Chief Wahoo was the Native American mascot chosen for this study as is it such a blatant negative...