Native American mascot controversy

History

European Americans have a history of "playing Indian" dating to the colonial period. In the 19th century, fraternal organizations like the Tammany Societies and the Improved Order of Red Men adopted Native American words and material culture, while ignoring the dispossession of Indigenous peoples. This practice spread to youth groups such as the Boy Scouts of America and many summer camps. University students in the late 19th and early 20th centuries adopted Indian names and symbols for their sports teams, as traditional Native American life was imagined by European Americans.

Professional team names had similar origins. The Atlanta Braves began as the Boston Red Stockings in 1871, becoming the Boston Braves in 1912; owner James Gaffney was a member of Tammany Hall, nominally formed to honor Tamanend, a Lenape chief. The Washington Redskins originated as the Boston Braves, and after moving to Fenway Park, the team name changed to the Boston Redskins in 1933, retaining the Braves' "Indian Head" logo. Defenders sometimes say the name honored coach William Henry Dietz, who claimed Native heritage, but the use of such imagery began in 1932, before Dietz was hired.

Viewpoints

In the 1940s, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) created a campaign to eliminate negative stereotyping of Native American people in the media, which later focused on Indian names and mascots in sports. The NCAI maintains that teams with mascots like the Braves and Redskins perpetuate negative stereotypes and demean traditions, profiting from harmful stereotypes rooted in a time of white superiority and segregation. Several founders of the American Indian Movement, including Clyde Bellecourt, Vernon Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, and Russell Means, were among the first to protest team names and mascots such as the Washington Redskins and Chief Wahoo.

Vernon Bellecourt also founded the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media in 1989. Cornel Pewewardy, Professor and Director of Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University, cites Indigenous mascots as an example of dysconscious racism, maintaining the superiority of the dominant culture through invented media contexts, a form of cultural imperialism or neocolonialism. Native mascots are part of larger issues of cultural appropriation and violation of indigenous intellectual property rights, where non-natives use indigenous music, art, and costumes in entertainment and commerce.

Scholars contend that such appropriation continues systems of dominance and subordination used to colonize and oppress Indigenous groups, contributing to their marginalization.