Post by Okwes on Mar 27, 2007 14:27:08 GMT -5
State investigator finds mascots culturally insensitive
The Associated Press
RONAN — Naming the school sports teams here Chiefs and Maidens suggests
racial discrimination against American In-dians, the Montana Human Rights Bureau
has ruled.
The bureau recently found reasonable cause to believe the Ronan School
District engaged in discrimination, a decision that is a victory for Francine
Dupuis of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Since 2003, Dupuis has
been active against use of the team names and Indian imagery by the school
district in Ronan, which is on the tribes’ Flathead Indian Reservation.
School Superintendent Andy Holmlund, whose enrollment includes many tribal
children, said the school board will de-cide what to do about team identity.
The Human Rights Bureau received the Dupuis case after she took her
complaint to county and state school superinten-dents unsuccessfully. The matter
ended up before the bureau by way of the Montana Supreme Court.
In 2000, Salish and Kootenai leaders officially denounced use of Indian
mascots, emblems or imagery by public schools on the Flathead reservation. The
case advanced by Dupuis gathered momentum about three years later, after the
school board voted to decorate the floor of a new gymnasium. Decorations
included painted feathers, arrowheads and the names Chiefs and Maidens.
In the Salish and Kootenai culture, maidens are considered virgins and “less
than women,” according to Joyce Silver-thorne, director of the tribal
education department.
According to a report by bureau investigator Elaine Benedict, Dupuis said
that “a chief is a revered and respected member of the tribe, not someone who
dresses up in feathers and runs around the field. Eagle feathers are given for
achievement, such as getting one’s first deer while hunting, or upon
graduating from school. Feathers are not to be used for costume or to dress mascots.”
Present and former members of the school board told Benedict that they
followed the wishes of most school patrons and students when they voted to put the
imagery and names on the gym floor. The board said most people took pride in
the names Chiefs and Maidens and a 2000 survey of students found 98 percent
wanted to keep them.
Dupuis said seeing people walk on the images and names painted on the floor
was disturbing, just as some people would find it disturbing to see the
United States flag walked upon.
According to Benedict’s report, board member Roger Romero told her that he
recalled the only arguments against use of the mascots came from female
athletes “who said it was offensive because people called them maidens when they
went places. The students said this offended them because a maiden is a virgin,
” and Romero “couldn’t see how that was bad.”
Benedict cited five studies and reports, including one by the Minority
Opportunities and Interests Committee of the NCAA, that encourage an end to the
use of mascots with Indian connotations.
“I find the use or publication of Chiefs and Maidens as mascots
distinguishes Native American culture from other cul-tures,” Benedict wrote. “That
distinction is based on race. The use of such mascots limits the way in which
Chiefs and Maid-ens are perceived to a generalized stereotype, rather than
portraying the true meaning of Chiefs and Maidens in Native American culture.”
She said painting feathers on the floor trivialized “the sacred meaning such
feathers have in Native American religious ceremonies.”
The Associated Press
RONAN — Naming the school sports teams here Chiefs and Maidens suggests
racial discrimination against American In-dians, the Montana Human Rights Bureau
has ruled.
The bureau recently found reasonable cause to believe the Ronan School
District engaged in discrimination, a decision that is a victory for Francine
Dupuis of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Since 2003, Dupuis has
been active against use of the team names and Indian imagery by the school
district in Ronan, which is on the tribes’ Flathead Indian Reservation.
School Superintendent Andy Holmlund, whose enrollment includes many tribal
children, said the school board will de-cide what to do about team identity.
The Human Rights Bureau received the Dupuis case after she took her
complaint to county and state school superinten-dents unsuccessfully. The matter
ended up before the bureau by way of the Montana Supreme Court.
In 2000, Salish and Kootenai leaders officially denounced use of Indian
mascots, emblems or imagery by public schools on the Flathead reservation. The
case advanced by Dupuis gathered momentum about three years later, after the
school board voted to decorate the floor of a new gymnasium. Decorations
included painted feathers, arrowheads and the names Chiefs and Maidens.
In the Salish and Kootenai culture, maidens are considered virgins and “less
than women,” according to Joyce Silver-thorne, director of the tribal
education department.
According to a report by bureau investigator Elaine Benedict, Dupuis said
that “a chief is a revered and respected member of the tribe, not someone who
dresses up in feathers and runs around the field. Eagle feathers are given for
achievement, such as getting one’s first deer while hunting, or upon
graduating from school. Feathers are not to be used for costume or to dress mascots.”
Present and former members of the school board told Benedict that they
followed the wishes of most school patrons and students when they voted to put the
imagery and names on the gym floor. The board said most people took pride in
the names Chiefs and Maidens and a 2000 survey of students found 98 percent
wanted to keep them.
Dupuis said seeing people walk on the images and names painted on the floor
was disturbing, just as some people would find it disturbing to see the
United States flag walked upon.
According to Benedict’s report, board member Roger Romero told her that he
recalled the only arguments against use of the mascots came from female
athletes “who said it was offensive because people called them maidens when they
went places. The students said this offended them because a maiden is a virgin,
” and Romero “couldn’t see how that was bad.”
Benedict cited five studies and reports, including one by the Minority
Opportunities and Interests Committee of the NCAA, that encourage an end to the
use of mascots with Indian connotations.
“I find the use or publication of Chiefs and Maidens as mascots
distinguishes Native American culture from other cul-tures,” Benedict wrote. “That
distinction is based on race. The use of such mascots limits the way in which
Chiefs and Maid-ens are perceived to a generalized stereotype, rather than
portraying the true meaning of Chiefs and Maidens in Native American culture.”
She said painting feathers on the floor trivialized “the sacred meaning such
feathers have in Native American religious ceremonies.”