ABSTRACT
According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2001), the practice of using Native American images and nicknames as sports symbols “has the potential to create a racially hostile educational environment that may be intimidating to Indian students” (p. 3). As with other forms of public policy, the statement is the result of national campaigns led by individuals such as Charlene Teters of the Spokane Nation, who led a movement in the mid-1990s to end the use of “the Chief ” (Chief Illiniwek) at the University of Illinois, and organizations like the Society of Indian Psychologists of the Americas to call attention to the problematic nature of this practice. Indigenous scholars such as Barbara Munson (1998) and Cornel Pewewardy (1993, 2000, 2004) have examined the impact of this practice in education. Munson (1998) of the Oneida Nation articulates the abusive nature of stereotyping Indigenous People:
“Indian” logos and nicknames create, support, and maintain stereotypes of a race of people. When such cultural abuse is supported by one or many of society’s institutions, it constitutes institutional racism. Th ese logos-along with other abuses and stereotypes-separate, marginalize, confuse, intimidate and harm Native American children and create barriers to their learning throughout their school experiences. Additionally, the logos teach non-Indian children that it’s all right to participate in culturally abusive behavior. (p. 131)
Similar to Munson, Pewewardy (2004), of the Kiowa and Comanche Nations, calls for educators to seize these “powerful teaching moments” to take up the challenge of eradicating the “ongoing use of Indian mascots in school-sponsored events” (p. 184). In my 23 years of teaching experience, and throughout the studies I conducted, I also found that cultural representations and signifying practices from the mainstream aff ect how Indigenous People experience school life. Given the pervasive nature of the stereotyping of Indigenous People by professional and intercollegiate sports teams, I developed a lesson for students to think critically about the relationship between power and stereotyping in U.S. society. Specifi cally, I was interested in facilitating this frame of
mind among Indigenous youth participating in the University of New Mexico’s American Indian Summer Bridge Program (AISBP) that prepares them for their fi rst year of college.
