Friday, June 23, 2006
Honoring
I have read Nick Coleman's article of June 21, for the Minnesota newspaper, the Star Tribune and wanted to voice my support for him. It was an excellent article, and I would like to counterpoint the three letters that appeared in your newspaper defending the name, "Fighting Sioux" on June 23rd.
Brett Dyste, of Hamel said "[w]hy don't we change the name of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish?" I know an Irishwoman who hates the stereotype of the Irish. She hates the Notre Dame logo, she hates the stereotyping of Irish in Irish Spring and Lucky Charms commercials as well.
Brett also states that a third of Indians in North Dakota support the name. There is a book out called, "How to Lie with Statistics." If one chooses to think critically, one should ask questions like; What questions were asked in this poll? How was this poll conducted? How, if any, was outreach done to attract these Native Americans? How were these Native Americans identified as such? Etc. I assume this was the poll taken by the Fargo Forum, as according to Larry Pederson of St. Michael. Since I don't have a credit card, I cannot access that information over the internet.
Larry Pederson also states that the Spirit Lake Tribe passed a resolution in 2000 to support the team name. In 2001 there was a challenge to that resolution but it was tabled. As well, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe created a resolution against the use of the name "Fighting Sioux" in 2001. This is not mentioned.
After reading Nick's article, I didn't hear Nick say anything about knowing what is best for Native Americans. Using the same logic, one could say Larry knows what's best for Natives as well.
Why Larry found it necessary to mention that the name was in place before Engelstad got involved with the university is unclear to me. I believe what Nick was attempting to point out was the fact that Engelstad, during a debate about changing the name, said he would remove his $100 million dollars from the school to build a new hockey rink if they changed it. I believe that is called "extortion."
Matt Noah states that there is "indisputable...respect for Native American Culture and history at [UND]." But, with just a little research I found a 2001 article about a civil rights suit from Native students against UND, as well as an article about how Mary Schneider, head of the Indian Studies Department, resigned because of the "Fighting Sioux" name and logo at UND in 2001.
Brett alleges that Nick suggests that if you support the name "Fighting Sioux" you are a racist Nazi. What Nick actually mentioned was Engelstad is a known collector of Nazi memrobelia. However, there is a connection between what happened to the nations misnamed the Sioux and what the Nazi's did to the Jews and others:
Adolf Hitler got many of his ideas for his Final Solution from what the U.S. Government did to the Indians in this nation. His Ghetto system was designed in part from the reservation system. His sterilization program was designed directly after the U.S. sterilization program against the Indians. There is also the famous Julius Stryker drawing of a stereotypical Jew for propaganda, which looks very similar to the logo of the Cleveland Indians.
I find it interesting that people simply state that the racist portrayal of Indians is OK because some Indians say it doesn't bother them. But the same could be said for anything. I'm sure there are many people out there that think rape is OK. Does that make rape OK? You can make anything OK because you can find someone who is for it. It is also an attempt to divide Indians on this issue by those whom the racist name of "Fighting Sioux" benefits.
Using racist mascots like the "Fighting Sioux" dehumanizes the group they are portraying. This makes it easier to do inhuman things to your fellow human beings for the benefit and profits of others. Matt seems to think that "respect for Native American culture and history" is simply shown by naming sports teams like the "Fighting Sioux." Nevermind returning sacred objects, honoring treaties, getting your foot off of the necks of our economies, cleaning our rivers, respecting our sacred sites, stopping hate crimes against Indians, helping in programs to save our languages that survived the destruction in the boarding schools, etc. None of that has to be done because the UND has chosen to call their sports team the "Fighting Sioux."
If you really want to have some serious "killer" names that strike fear into your opponents, how about names like, "The Fighting 7th," "Chivington and the Gang," "Custer's Chargers," Etc. What? Aren't you proud to be white? Why don't you want to honor the names of such great baby killers as these? They are thrown in our face as great American Heroes. Since I am an Indian, I'd say that I would be scared just to hear the name "The Fighting Whities." Being Indian, I know what you people are capable of.
Nick's article:
http://www.startribune.com/357/story/505411.html
the three letters
http://www.startribune.com/563/story/510171.html
http://www.startribune.com/563/story/510172.html
http://www.startribune.com/563/story/510175.html
Brett Dyste, of Hamel said "[w]hy don't we change the name of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish?" I know an Irishwoman who hates the stereotype of the Irish. She hates the Notre Dame logo, she hates the stereotyping of Irish in Irish Spring and Lucky Charms commercials as well.
Brett also states that a third of Indians in North Dakota support the name. There is a book out called, "How to Lie with Statistics." If one chooses to think critically, one should ask questions like; What questions were asked in this poll? How was this poll conducted? How, if any, was outreach done to attract these Native Americans? How were these Native Americans identified as such? Etc. I assume this was the poll taken by the Fargo Forum, as according to Larry Pederson of St. Michael. Since I don't have a credit card, I cannot access that information over the internet.
Larry Pederson also states that the Spirit Lake Tribe passed a resolution in 2000 to support the team name. In 2001 there was a challenge to that resolution but it was tabled. As well, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe created a resolution against the use of the name "Fighting Sioux" in 2001. This is not mentioned.
After reading Nick's article, I didn't hear Nick say anything about knowing what is best for Native Americans. Using the same logic, one could say Larry knows what's best for Natives as well.
Why Larry found it necessary to mention that the name was in place before Engelstad got involved with the university is unclear to me. I believe what Nick was attempting to point out was the fact that Engelstad, during a debate about changing the name, said he would remove his $100 million dollars from the school to build a new hockey rink if they changed it. I believe that is called "extortion."
Matt Noah states that there is "indisputable...respect for Native American Culture and history at [UND]." But, with just a little research I found a 2001 article about a civil rights suit from Native students against UND, as well as an article about how Mary Schneider, head of the Indian Studies Department, resigned because of the "Fighting Sioux" name and logo at UND in 2001.
Brett alleges that Nick suggests that if you support the name "Fighting Sioux" you are a racist Nazi. What Nick actually mentioned was Engelstad is a known collector of Nazi memrobelia. However, there is a connection between what happened to the nations misnamed the Sioux and what the Nazi's did to the Jews and others:
Adolf Hitler got many of his ideas for his Final Solution from what the U.S. Government did to the Indians in this nation. His Ghetto system was designed in part from the reservation system. His sterilization program was designed directly after the U.S. sterilization program against the Indians. There is also the famous Julius Stryker drawing of a stereotypical Jew for propaganda, which looks very similar to the logo of the Cleveland Indians.
I find it interesting that people simply state that the racist portrayal of Indians is OK because some Indians say it doesn't bother them. But the same could be said for anything. I'm sure there are many people out there that think rape is OK. Does that make rape OK? You can make anything OK because you can find someone who is for it. It is also an attempt to divide Indians on this issue by those whom the racist name of "Fighting Sioux" benefits.
Using racist mascots like the "Fighting Sioux" dehumanizes the group they are portraying. This makes it easier to do inhuman things to your fellow human beings for the benefit and profits of others. Matt seems to think that "respect for Native American culture and history" is simply shown by naming sports teams like the "Fighting Sioux." Nevermind returning sacred objects, honoring treaties, getting your foot off of the necks of our economies, cleaning our rivers, respecting our sacred sites, stopping hate crimes against Indians, helping in programs to save our languages that survived the destruction in the boarding schools, etc. None of that has to be done because the UND has chosen to call their sports team the "Fighting Sioux."
If you really want to have some serious "killer" names that strike fear into your opponents, how about names like, "The Fighting 7th," "Chivington and the Gang," "Custer's Chargers," Etc. What? Aren't you proud to be white? Why don't you want to honor the names of such great baby killers as these? They are thrown in our face as great American Heroes. Since I am an Indian, I'd say that I would be scared just to hear the name "The Fighting Whities." Being Indian, I know what you people are capable of.
Nick's article:
http://www.startribune.com/357/story/505411.html
the three letters
http://www.startribune.com/563/story/510171.html
http://www.startribune.com/563/story/510172.html
http://www.startribune.com/563/story/510175.html
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