Wisconsin Stories: More Than a Game

The issue of Indian Mascots continues to be controversial and bitterly contested.

By David B. Driscoll

The author is Curator of Business & Technology, Wisconsin Historical Society.

In 1943, when the Sheboygan Redskins defeated the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons two games to one to become champions of the National Basketball League, few people worried that Indian sports mascots might be offensive. Fifty years later, the use of Indian mascots had become a complex and contentious issue at the core of both American Indian and Euro-American identities.

Though the team lasted only one year in the league, the Sheboygan Redskins had been a charter member of the National Basketball Association. In 1993, hoping to cash in on nostalgia for "vintage" team paraphernalia, NBA Properties, Inc., applied for trademark protection of the Sheboygan Redskins name. After the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) approved the request, seven prominent Native Americans filed a letter of protest charging that the team name violated the 1946 Trademark Act. This act denies federal protection to names and logos that "may disparage . . . persons . . . or bring them into contempt, or disrepute."

Detail from Milwaukee Braves pennant, 1957. Though now largely discarded, cartoon mascots like Chief Knockahoma, shown here holding a scalp and doing a war dance, were among the first to be challenged as offensive racial stereotypes. Wisconsin Historical Society, museum object 1978.274.11.

When the USPTO reversed its approval in January 1994, NBA Properties, Inc., agreed to join its trademark case to that of the Washington Redskins football team, whose trademark protection was also being challenged.

Fearing bad publicity and litigation, in May 1995 NBA Properties voluntarily withdrew its application to trademark the Sheboygan Redskins name. Four years later a three-judge panel of the USPTO revoked federal trademark protection for the Washington Redskins, ruling that the name was, in fact, disparaging. (The team has appealed this ruling.) Thus, by the late 1990s, a broad legal consensus had emerged that the once common term redskin constitutes a racial slur.

The Civil Rights movement brings change
The change in attitudes underlying this new legal perspective had been building for several decades. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s forced many Americans to acknowledge our country's history of racism.

As early as 1968, the National Congress of American Indians began campaigning against Indian stereotypes in the media, and the actions of militant Indian groups put other Native American grievances on front pages in the 1970s. A few especially cartoonish or insulting mascots, including Marquette University's "Willie Wompum" and the Dickinson State (N.D.) "Savages," were dropped in the 1970s, often after protests by Native American students.

Wausau Wausettes cheerleaders in Indian headdress costumes, June 1987. The misrepresentation and misuse of sacred Indian objects such as drums, face paint, and eagle-feather headdresses are a major contemporary source of offense to many Native Americans. Wisconsin Historical Society, Visual Materials Archive, Detail from Classified File 93.

The issue gathered momentum both nationally and in Wisconsin in the late 1980s. In 1988 Charlene Teters, a Spokane Indian graduate student at the University of Illinois, began a campaign to eliminate the school's mascot, Chief Illiniwek. Her efforts created a furor on campus and eventually drew the censure of the Illinois legislature. (The film "In Whose Honor?," broadcast on PBS in 1997, documents this campaign and its sometimes violent backlash.)

In 1990 Carol Hand (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe) began a successful nine-year challenge to have the Milton, Wisconsin, School District drop its "Redmen" mascot. In 1993 the University of Wisconsin-Madison athletic department began prohibiting its teams from scheduling opponents with Native American nicknames or mascots, except for traditional rivals or fellow conference members like Big Ten rival Illinois and the hockey program's nemesis, the North Dakota "Fighting Sioux."

Chief White Buck, Marquette University mascot, 1954-1960. Marquette University adopted the "Warriors" nickname in 1954. Patrick Buckett, a Marquette student and dedicated Indian hobbyist, played the University's first mascot, clad in a combination of Plains and Woodland Indian garments. Photograph courtesy of Marquette University Libraries.

Local response is mixed
Several Wisconsin colleges, including Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, dropped their Indian mascots in the early 1990s. Throughout the decade, dozens of Native tribes and organizations nationwide went on record opposing the use of Indian mascots, including the Great Lakes Intertribal Council, an umbrella organization for the 11 federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin. However, the success of these efforts has generated considerable local resistance.

Some Wisconsin school districts have voluntarily changed mascots (like the La Crosse Central High School Red Warriors' switch from an Indian logo to a knight) or dropped Indian names entirely. But other communities have fought the changes.

In 1997, for instance, Menomonie voters recalled three school board members who had voted to change the high school's "Indians" nickname. A similar, though unsuccessful, recall effort was mounted in Milton in 2000.

In Mukwonago and Mosinee, Indian plaintiffs who charged that school mascots created a discriminatory school environment were harassed to the point of leaving town. In the latter two cases, the Department of Public Instruction — despite having previously encouraged local school districts to retire Indian mascots and nicknames — ultimately ruled that insulting caricatures must be replaced, but Indian team names and mascots could remain.

A subtle shift in the debate
These recent decisions indicate a subtle change in the terms of the debate over Indian mascots. Many defenders of Indian mascots acknowledge that redskin is a racist term, and they might even object to derogatory cartoon images. However, they see nothing wrong with using dignified images of Native American chiefs or warriors as mascots. They argue that in doing so, they are not being disrespectful but rather are honoring the admirable traits of Indian cultures.

"Willie Wompum," Marquette University mascot, 1961-1971. After Buckett's graduation, subsequent students were less convincing in the Chief White Buck role. The university dropped the character in favor of a cartoon caricature, which a student committee christened "Willie Wompum." Willie was retired in 1971 when four Native American students protested. Photograph courtesy of Marquette University Libraries.

Such assertions have pushed mascot opponents into articulating more clearly the damage done, even by dignified Indian mascots. By their very presence, opponents argue, Indian mascots signal an environment that is willing to reduce Indian people to objects and accept inaccuracies about Native cultures. In schools, such tolerance of cultural insensitivity can undermine Native students' self-image and impair their commitment to learning.

Many complaints concern the performances, chants, and regalia associated with Native American mascots; most of these are either fictitious or used in culturally inappropriate ways. Even if performed with reverence, opponents contend, such activities do not provide an accurate portrayal of Native cultures and therefore cannot contribute to a true understanding or appreciation of those cultures.

Mark Denning, the last student to act as First Warrior.

"The First Warrior," Marquette University mascot, 1980-1987, here portrayed by Mark Denning. Developed primarily by Native American students, the First Warrior was intended to present a dignified, culturally accurate portrayal of six Wisconsin woodland tribes (Ojibwe, Menominee, Oneida, Ho-Chunk, Stockbridge-Munsee, and Potawatami). However, the First Warrior's refusal to engage in demeaning sideline antics puzzled or bored most students, and the character failed to become a rallying symbol for the university. Photograph courtesy of Marquette University Libraries.

So far these arguments have not proven entirely persuasive. Several attempts to pass legislation banning Indian mascots in Wisconsin schools have failed. A majority of legislators and school administrators have preferred to leave the issue to local communities to decide, and at the local level it is still primarily an emotional discourse.

Challenging mascots as racist emblems often threatens not only cherished sports traditions but also a mascot defender's sense of personal decency and his or her experience of American national identity. Beneath resentment of "politically correct outsiders" attacking their local institutions, many mascot supporters are deeply offended by the suggestion that they might be racists.

Moreover, stereotypes of Indians are thoroughly ingrained in a heroic American national identity. From the patriots of the Boston Tea Party to Iron Eyes Cody, the tearful 1970s symbol of American environmentalism, to the Indian warriors painted on the gas tanks of "outlaw" bikers — to cite just a few examples — Indians have become "us."

For mascot opponents, especially those who are Native American, the fundamental issue is also about identity and who controls it. Even "respectful" Indian mascots are examples of the dominant white culture defining the meanings of Native cultures without their consent. In the words of Ann Marie (Amber) Machamer (Coastal Band Chumash), Indian mascots represent tenacious white "feelings of entitlement not only to our land and resources but also to our religions and identities."*

Until a deeper understanding of white privilege prevails among the majority of Wisconsin residents, this issue is likely to remain controversial and bitterly contested.

* Ann Marie (Amber) Machamer, "Last of the Mohicans, Braves, and Warriors: The End of American Indian Mascots in Los Angeles Public Schools" in C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood, eds., Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001 p. 220.