This spring break, I had the privilege of working with the vibrant, vast Native American community in Denver alongside 11 other members of the College as part of alternative spring break program. We went to the state’s capitol and watched the proceeding of House Bill 1165 — a bill that would create a subcommittee of Native Americans to review Native American mascots used by public schools and determine whether to ban a mascot’s use, at a penalty of $25,000 per month for noncompliance. Fortunately, the bill passed — but only by a narrow 6-5 vote. While this bill is a critical milestone, it is too little for such a significant issue and has taken far too long to be created.
There are 562 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States, not to mention the countless other tribes that are struggling to gain recognition from a government that they never wanted in the first place. With such diversity, mascots such as Hackberry Hill Elementary School’s “Indians” in Arvada, Colorado are meaningless. Such mascots generalize Native Americans based on archaic and inaccurate stereotypes and disregard the various languages, traditions and customs that each tribe possesses. Offensive mascots like these exist throughout Colorado, like at Central High School’s “Warriors” in Grand Junction. While such mascots may seem like positive celebrations of Native American culture, they are in reality perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
There are many more offensive mascots in Colorado that nonetheless persist. Clifton Elementary School’s “Chiefs,” for instance, is a clear misappropriation of Native American cultures with no consideration for tribal history or diversity. Lamar High School’s “Savages” and La Veta School’s “Redskins” are racial slurs that dehumanize and degrade the entire Native community. Perhaps the most ironic mascot is Rangeview High School’s “Raiders” in Aurora — it seems that too many have forgotten that it was white people who did the raiding.
Even more disturbing is the bills’ opponents’ claim that Native American mascots are an insignificant issue. Among the examples the opponents used to compare the issue of Native American mascots to are Swedish meatballs and bulldogs. According to these arguments, being offended by “Indians” or “Redskins” is like being offended by “Keggy the Keg.” As one of the bill’s cosponsors, Representative Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, eloquently responded, meatballs, bulldogs and kegs did not approach him to complain about their offensive representation as mascots — Native Americans did. Such comparisons only trivialize this critical issue. Some members of Colorado’s white-dominated state assembly are evidently able to empathize with animals and foods more easily than with human beings.
As always, money matters — opponents voiced their concerns about the money schools would have to put toward getting new mascots, designing new team uniforms and repainting school gymnasiums, seemingly prioritizing finances over the psychological and emotional well being of the state’s many Native American youth, who must attend schools where their cultures — their lives — are nothing more than caricatures. While money is important, the schools were built at the expense of Native populations in the first place. Other opponents are worried about using an unelected subcommittee of Native Americans to select the offensive mascots to be banned, citing this as an undemocratic process — but where were Native Americans’ due process when they were being systematically massacred?
This is one issue where other institutions should follow the College’s example. The Board of Trustees finally banned the unofficial “Indian” mascot in 1974, stating that its use was “inconsistent with ... advancing Native American education.” Our typically conservative institution was able to recognize the detrimental effects of these mascots on Native American students more than 40 years ago. There are no more excuses to continue using these mascots in any form.
People are not mascots, and using Native Americans as mascots treats them as less than human. If non-Natives are so determined to reduce entire cultures to mascots, then they can use their own.
