Battle continues on use of Indigenous mascots

Jul. 23—TRAVERSE CITY — Sports mascots and nicknames invoking Native American imagery, culture, names and slurs are "a dehumanizing act," said Miskopwaaganikwe Leora Tadgerson, citizen of the Gnoozhikaaning-Bay Mills Indian Community and Wiikwemkong First Nations.

"Typically, athletic teams who use Native American mascots insist the practice is a means to honor Native peoples, but the history behind these names disclose a truth far removed from genuine honor," said Tadgerson, who serves as the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan.

"Mascots and nicknames put Native people into a romanticized and historical setting where we are unable to assert our own identity."

Tadgerson also sits on the board of directors for Title Track. Her work focuses on restorative justice, truth telling, racial justice and reconciliation from the Native American boarding school era and place-based community work/bridge building as a Native liaison.

In March she spoke to the Marquette Area Public Schools Board of Education on behalf of the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media.

Her letter said the organization has long-advocated for the removal of the "misappropriation of American Indian imagery, name and cultural and spiritual depictions used in professional sports, colleges, universities, high schools, and parks and recreation teams as a way to 'brand' and create an identity that purports to 'honor' the Indigenous Peoples of North America."

In 2020, the MAPS board voted to retire the "chief" logo and formally adopt the block letter "M" as its logo, however a long-simmering community debate lingers regarding the district's use of "Redmen/Redettes."

Tadgerson said following the board meeting, there has not been any follow up with the issue by the district.

Last month the Native American Heritage Fund announced that it would distribute grants totaling more than $400,000 to four Michigan school districts; Saranac, Lansing, Hartford and Chippewa Hills, to "support community projects, academic programming updates, mascot changeovers and other projects that honor Native American culture and history."

The NAHF fund was set up by the Michigan government and the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi as a part of its tribal-state gaming contract and is governed by a five-member board of directors: two members appointed by the NHBP Tribal Council; two members appointed by the governor of Michigan; and the director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights or their designee.

The NAHF started distributing grants in 2018, and funded mascot/nickname changeovers in 12 Michigan school districts.

In the state of Michigan, there are still dozens of school districts that use Native American slurs, names, and logos:

* Clinton Township Chippewa Valley, Milan, Muskegon, Marquette and Port Huron use "Big Reds or Redmen" as nicknames.

* Utica, Dowagiac, Capac, Cheboygan, Canton, New Boston Huron and White Pigeon go by "Chiefs" or "Chieftains."

* Tecumseh, Chesaning, Newberry, Tekonsha and White Cloud, go by "Indians."

* Gladstone and Tawas are nicknamed the "Braves."

* Another 16 districts are "Warriors."

"It needs to be brought to everyone's attention that this imagery creates a negative learning and completion environment for Native American children who attend schools with such mascots," said Kimberly (Vargo) McClellan, citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. She is also on the NAHF board.

One goal that the board deems a top priority is to replace or revise mascots and imagery of Native Americans that convey inaccurate representations of Native American culture, she said.

The American Psychological Association also got involved, as research showed that the continued use of Native American mascots, symbols, images and personalities has a negative effect on not only Native American students, but all students. The organization called for the immediate retirement of all "American Indian mascots, symbols, images and personalities by schools, colleges, universities, athletic teams and organizations," based on a growing body of social science literature that show the harmful effects of racial stereotyping and inaccurate racial portrayals, that include the particularly harmful effects of "American Indian" sports mascots on the social identity development and self-esteem of young Native Americans.

The use of Native peoples as sports mascots originated from European colonizers near the end of the 19th century, as a means to define the notion of American exceptionalism and its roots in conquering the country's first peoples.

Since 1968, The National Congress of American Indians, a congress of all Native Americans, called for the end of Native American mascots on behalf of the protests of hundreds of tribes and regional organizations.

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights states that "the use of American Indian mascots, names, terms, graphics and/or other imagery negatively impacts a minority of primary and secondary students." Their recommendations since 1988 repeatedly reaffirm that "the use of people's culture or race as mascots, logos, symbols or nicknames" be discontinued.

The State Board of Education in Michigan, originally made a resolution in 2003 and reaffirmed in 2006, 2010 and 2016, that "supports and strongly recommends the elimination of American Indian mascots, nicknames, logos, fight songs, insignias, antics and team descriptors by all Michigan schools."

For more than five decades Native American leaders and activists fought against these mascots.

Many schools and sports teams across the state of Michigan ditched the logos with the help of sovereign Anishinaabek nations, but dozens of school districts still use slurs and imagery.

The issue of mascots is not anything new for Native American communities, Tadgerson said. But rather than the oppressed demographic constantly "footing the bill" and being the sole entity of counteracting racism, "oppressors need to take accountability and take ongoing action."

Initiatives that do honor Native people are authentically educational and contribute toward nationhood building, sovereignty, identity, linguistic and cultural revitalization; fight racial disparities and inequality; and raise equity, she said.