Privilege at Play: On the Legal and Social Fictions That Sustain American Indian Sport Imagery

Public Accounts: Defending Contested Practices

“…For more than thirty years, activists have sought to eliminate the practice, and while they have succeeded in removing almost 1,000 instances of NAS (Harjo 2001), they have largely failed to sway public opinion (Sigelman 1998). As recently as 2001, approximately 1,400 athletic teams represented by NAS remained (King 2004; Staurowsky 2004). The controversy has been covered by numerous national media outlets (Rosenstein 2001) and is being debated in school districts, state boards of education, state legislatures, courts, college campuses, and professional stadiums with disparate outcomes (see King and Springwood 2001; Spindel 2002).…”

Multicultural Training Intervention to Address American Indian Stereotypes

“…One informational aspect of the knowledge component of the training intervention addresses the way that Native‐themed mascots, nicknames, and logos perpetuate stereotypes of American Indians (e.g., noble savage, bloodthirsty savage, nonexistent people, one pan‐Indian culture; Baca, 2004; King et al, 2002; Staurowsky, 2004). When relegated to mascot status, American Indians are stereotypically seen by mainstream America as people of the past who no longer exist (Staurowsky, 2004). The training intervention addresses this stereotype by presenting a contrast between Native‐themed mascots and other human mascots that represent past civilizations (e.g., Vikings, Spartans, Trojans ).…”

“…According to the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development's (AMCD) Multicultural Counseling Competencies (Arredondo et al, 1996), culturally skilled counselors need to be aware of stereotypes they may hold toward racial and ethnic minority groups. Because Native-themed mascots provide society with an abundance of deleterious stereotypes of American Indians (Fryberg et al, 2008;King, Staurowsky, Baca, Davis, & Pewewardy, 2002;Russel, 2003;Staurowsky, 2004), counselors need to be aware of these stereotypes in order to work effectively with American Indian clients (Sutton & Broken Nose, 2005). Arredondo et al (1996) operationally defined AMCD's Multicultural Counseling Competencies by using a tripartite model of awareness of attitudes, knowledge, and skills.…”

Native Mascots and Ethnic Fraud in Higher Education: Using Tribal Critical Race Theory and the Interest Convergence Principle as an Analytic Tool

“…The use of Native mascots, team names, and logos sparks heated debate in many communities throughout the United States. While the arguments in favor of such mascots generally revolve around the longstanding identity of a particular team and the way in which such teams are "honoring'' Indigenous people, the most common arguments against the use of Native mascots include that Indigenous people should have control over societal definitions of themselves; that most sports-related representations misuse cultural symbols and practices for entertainment purposes; and that they represent racist stereotypes of Indigenous people as either noble or bloodthirsty savages, a historical race that only lived in the past, and a homogeneous group of people (King, 2004;Staurowsky, 2004). The number of schools that have Native mascots has dropped significantly over the last 30 years in response to calls from the United States Commission on Civil Rights and countless Native communities and organizations, but according to various sources, there are still 2,000-2,500 schools that have Native mascots (Clarkson, 2004).…”