Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mr. Bogner
ENGL 200BE
27 October 2003
On October 3rd 2001 the USD 383 school board voted 4-3 to keep the Indian Mascot.
(Kansas) There are several reasons supporting the idea that United School District 383 should
remove its Indian mascot for Manhattan High school: first is that the Indian mascot is rooted in
racism; second, that the mascot reinforces the ideals that justify the extermination of entire
peoples; and lastly there is no reason to keep the Indian mascot for Manhattan High. We can all
agree as evaluating this proposal remember that we both share common goals as members of a
republic, and that is to listen to the majority but protect the minority! This is the fundamental
reason why every single person doesn’t vote, because then the majority would reign supreme,
trumping minority rights. Included in that set of rights is the right to education; having the Indian
Problem
The mentality that Indians are ok as a mascot because they are sub-human, it makes
indigenous peoples look as though they are lower life forms than that of white members as it
compares a religion and a people(s) to animals and imaginary creatures. This evaluation has no
choice but to discredit a people and make them seem lower than human. Just as we treat animals
as things without feelings that is what we do when we make Indians as the mascot of Manhattan
High. This mentality that “they are different” and “they are lower life forms” is what justified
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slavery. Deeply rooted in the literature of the slave era in the United States is an ideal that
Africans weren’t on the same level as that of white persons. This racist mentality is devastating,
when one allows this to continue it allows persons to devalue and eliminate other persons for
their own desires. This is what slavery ultimately was, it was a racist policy in which allowed the
“supreme white” to enslave and torture actual human beings, specifically to indigenous peoples.
You can look to the use of measles and small pox as ways of eradicating entire people. Not
because of anything they particularly did, but it’s what they weren’t, they weren’t evaluated as
actually being as valuable or as desirable as the “white folk”. While one might say this is a little
extreme, I argue it’s not; attendants of schools won’t be there forever, they will eventually move
on to college and fulfill position of power and prestige throughout their lifetimes, if not in
mustn’t allow such racist mentalities to be established in our nations future. Allowing it to
Even if that isn’t compelling Indian Mascots are detrimental to academic success of
are one cause for low self-esteem in Indigenous children. This is the
Remember, you are a school board member, and got that membership in order to
educate all of youth, not just the majority. That is why it’s imperative that you look
closely at that mascot issue, ensuring that everyone has equal opportunity.
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Proposal
All that the USD 383 needs to do is bring the issue back to a vote, at that point the Indian
mascot would disappear upon the approval of the proposal by the school board. Funding
wouldn’t be an issue. First, the booster club is extremely good at raising money and providing
the sports programs with new uniforms on an almost yearly basis. This means there can easily be
a phasing out of the old Indian mascot uniforms and symbols. This phasing out allows funds to
be raised and prevents any kind of funding problems to occur. Second, there is federal funding
that can easily be obtained for this very situation, and that is to change a current Indian mascot.
This federal funding wouldn’t come at any cost to the residents; it’s included in the tax money
Justification
While the mascots symbols are a tool of racism which mock not only people(s), but their
religion; it teaches stereotypes and creates an environment that excludes peoples from education,
which is what is the main purpose of a school, To provide education for all that attend. (Munson)
Let us first look at the idea of stereotypes. Indian mascots are more than just names and
symbols, they represent a mentality that is grasped from an entire populace, that populace being
the school attendants. The Indian mascot is an environment that marks it success by striking fear
and intimidating the school’s opponents at sporting events. Typically the Indian is portrayed in a
manner that associates indigenous peoples with “scalping” and the “tomahawk chop”. While the
members of MHS community contended that these references ‘weren’t intact at this school’, it is
inherently false (Munson).The helmets and flyers that were stuck to lockers of athletic
participates were routinely covered with a tomahawk with a feather attached. Tomahawks serve
no purpose but to be used with a connotation of scalping and violence (Pewewardy). It is rooted
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in the idea that indigenous peoples are inherently violent and will massacre, kill and scalp their
opponents. Indigenous peoples aren’t inherently violent, this is simply not true. But that’s what
the connotations displays “when its strikes fear in the opponents”, when it is simply not true as
indigenous groups are rich in culture and history, not savages as the mascots suggest
(Pewewardy). This isn’t protecting the minority, like all leaders of a republic should strive for.
Another example is the wrestling shirts from my junior year. They displayed an
indigenous person with only loin cloth pants, a tomahawk, a headdress and a war painted face,
yet another depiction of savagery. (Pewewardy) That symbol is rooted in the idea that indigenous
peoples are unable to afford the normal clothes of the western oriented person. The face of the
indigenous person on the shirt was also that of anger and rage. That face symbolically displays
the ideal of being easily raged and ill-tempered. All of these are stereotypes that were present
during my attendance at MHS, in which I gladly left in the spring of 2002, not as a Manhattan
High Indian, but as a student from Manhattan High School. As my representative I request you
The environment plays a critical role in my next argument also. The environment created
by the Indian mascot is one that encourages mockery of a persons heritage simply to “get into the
game” or “get riled up”.(Pewewardy) Just as a person attending Kansas State University gets
riled up by wearing purple and proudly wearing a powercat on their face or a foam finger,
Manhattan High attendants did similar things. While the administration tried to contain and stop
the tomahawk chop or students “war chanting”, they couldn’t always do this. Students would
often start to do these things out of sheer mockery of a person’s heritage-but for what gain, to get
riled up? These activities devalue what the headdress and the chants actually meant. Manhattan
High students rarely if ever actually knew the background as to why or how to do the chants
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correctly. This contributed to the mockery of the indigenous lifestyle, and it discredited the actual
valued activities and devalued the very lifestyle and heritage of an entire ethnicity. It would be
just like making the mascot chant random lines of the Christian bible without fundamental
rooting in what the lines mean or how they are supposed to be used. It’s making a mockery of an
entire heritage, and just degrading. This is equally wrong and should be rejected because of its
mockery of traditional Anglo-Saxon views. (Munson) Most importantly, it shows no respect for
indigenous persons. This is especially evident when indigenous peoples from around the area
asked for the removal of the Indian mascot, not doing so only proves that the people “being
respected” don’t feel that way. (Pewewardy, LeBeau) If the indigenous people don’t feel
respected there is absolutely no reason to say that it is respectful, as one would might contend.
These are things that should be taken into account as you consider your duty as a leader of the
republic, for these are people that are in the minority and need the leaders to protect the minority,
Now, I originally said that we just don’t need the Indian mascot, and I still
contend that. Many of the proponents of keeping the mascot as the Indians contend that
the Indian mascot is a sign of respect and teaches that respect to the attendants of the
school. This is simply not true as proven above, it’s inherently racist and hampering.
Something else to remember is that the proponents made a huge mistake, they based the
entire argument about respect on the idea that the Manhattan High Mascot of the Indian
was special because the school mascot was named after a indigenous person who
coached football back during the depression. Not only is this claim ill conceived as per
this coaches poor performance as a coach, who never had a winning season in the 6
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season he coached. More importantly, the mascot was actually voted on a full decade
before he was even coaching at the school which means the mascot selection couldn’t
Beyond that argument, there is still perception and affects from other schools.
Not all schools that MHS plays or competes with will know that they are called the
Indians out of respect for a football coach, even if that argument was true. This critical
because we mustn’t think that the effects are only going to be contained locally, they do
spread. Take for example the school tradition at Manhattan high in which the flyers put
on competitors lockers were often ones that referred to the opposing school. Now I
know that MHS wasn’t the only school to do this, for I have seen it in Junction City
High School and emporia high school, just to name a few. This leads me to believe that
this isn’t some sort of special MHS tradition. Other schools around the area take the
Manhattan high mascot and disrespect it and mock it “to get riled up”. This is
something that is out of the jurisdiction of the USD 383 school board. But there is an
easy solution, eliminate the Indian mascot and eliminate the ability of other schools to
Not changing the mascot will be failing the republican system established by
school, and doesn’t take a stand in the fight against racism. Sometimes people must
make the hard decision. This is one of those times. Do the right thing, remove the
Indian mascot!
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Works cited
LeBeau, Mark. Bill to Eliminate Indian Mascots. October 1, 2002. November 3, 2003.
http://www.yvwiiusdinvnohii.net/News2002/0210/LeBeau021001MascotBill.htm
Munson, Barbara. Position Statement regarding the Use of AIndian@ Logos in Public
http://pages.prodigy.net/munson/position_paper.htm
Pewewardy, Cornel. Why Educators Can’t Ignore Indian Mascots. 1998. November 3,
2003. http://aistm.org/cornel.why.educators.htm.
Kansas. Unified School District #383. Wednesday, November 7, 2001- 7:00 p.m. Minutes-