February 2007 Archive
February 23, 2007 Click Here to Listen: Racism in Sports
Racism in Sports and the Media: Chief Illiniwek May Have Had Last Dance, But Redskins, Braves, Etc. Maintain Hostile Landscape
“It is not an honor to be mimicked by fans with painted faces and turkey feathers at sporting events, nor is it an honor to have our race, our self-esteem and our dignity trampled every week for America’s fun and games.” ~Tim Giago
University of Illinois mascot Chief Illiniwek made a final appearance Wednesday night at a home basketball game in Urbana Champaign, thus ending the 81-year old practice that has long offended Native Americans. Since 1926, Chief Illiniwek has mostly been portrayed by a white student dressed in buckskin who paints his face and performs a dance during halftime at Illinois football and basketball games. Last week, the university finally decided to get rid of the mascot after pressure from the NCAA, which in 2005 said the mascot was “hostile and abusive” and said its continued use would prevent the university from hosting any NCAA tournament games. Now that the basketball post-season is approaching, university officials have finally relented.
The mascot has been a controversial figure since the mid 1970s, when white students on campus first spoke out against the mascot. Protests began again in 1989 when Charlene Teters, a Native graduate student from the Spokane tribe, began protesting the Chief at athletic events. Soon, individuals, organizations, and academic departments, both on and off the University campus, began to support the mascot’s retirement. Outside support included the National Congress of American Indians, the National Indian Education Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Education Association, Amnesty International, and Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas. At the UIUC campus, the Native American House, the American Indian Studies program, and the Native American student organizations all called for its retirement. But campus support for the Chief remained strong until the end, and last night’s final performance was marked by a solemn crowd. Supporters of the mascot have said for years that the chief is meant to honor Native Americans, not to insult. This of course, follows a decades-long fight that has occurred throughout the United States. There still remain hundreds of high schools, universities and professional teams around the country that use Native American imagery for sports symbols and mascots. The more well-known include the Florida State Seminoles, the Atlanta Braves, the Washington Redskins, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Cleveland Indians.
- Charlene Teters, (Spokane) a founding Board Member of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media, an artist, activist, and lecturer. She challenges the inappropriate use of American Indian images, culture and spiritual life ways by schools, scholars, museums, corporations, and media. In 1988 she and her artwork became politicized at The University of Illinois, a school that uses as their mascot the image of a fantasy "Chief." She was the first Native American on the campus to protest the use of Chief Illiniwek as mascot.
- Tim Giago, (Oglala Lakota) a journalist who has long been covering the Indian mascot issue. He is the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association. He was also the founder and publisher of the Lakota Times and Indian Country Today newspapers.
Related Links: www.CharleneTeters.com, Tim Giago’s Recent Article on HuffingtonPost.com, National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media, Wisconsin Indian Education Association “Indian” Mascot & Logo Taskforce
February 15, 2007 Listen to the Show
Environmental Justice & Indigenous Rights: Battling Climate Change and Protecting Sacred Sites
Native Activists Rally to Protect Sacred Medicine Lake in CA
Native American organizers and allies are fighting to protect Medicine Lake – a sacred place near Mount Shasta in the Highlands of Northern California. The Bureau of Land Management, California Energy Commission and Calpine Energy have been trying to build geothermal power plants in the area since the 1980s. Native peoples who are opposed to the power plants and their supporters are planning a protest next Tuesday, February 20th at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Office in Alturas, California. The BLM is planning to appeal a 9th Circuit court ruling on Medicine Lake.
Mark Lebeau, a citizen of the Pit River Nation and Co-Chair of Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites.
For more Info: www.treatycouncil.org , Video Link: Pit River Nation Fights For Their Land, www.ienearth.orgU.S. Energy Policy and Climate Change – and the Harmful Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
The debate on global warming seems to have finally ended thanks to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which recently concluded there was a 90 percent chance human actions have been a major contributor to global warming. The panel of 2,500 scientists predicted more drought, heat waves and a slow gain in sea levels, even if greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels used in power plants, factories and cars are capped. So now the question is what do we do? Which is what legislators, government officials and business leaders from the 20 largest energy-consuming countries were asking and discussing yesterday at a Capitol Hill meeting. There were representatives from the G8 – or Group of 8 industrialized nations - Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States, Canada and Japan. There were also representatives from China, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Brazil, which together produce 75% of the world’s greenhouse gases. The world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases is the United States. Yesterday corporate moguls, policy experts and U.S. senators told the world forum the US must take the lead on global warming, especially if it wants to encourage China and India to follow suit. But as world leaders struggle to find ways to collaborate, there are still voices going unheard. Indigenous peoples in Canada, the US and throughout the Americas hold valuable land and water resources that have long been exploited by the provincial, state and federal governments and by corporations trying to meet the energy needs of an industrialized world. Indigenous peoples have disproportionately suffered impacts due to the production and use of energy, yet are among those who benefit least from these energy developments.
Jihan Gearon, Native Energy Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. Jihan is originally from Fort Defiance, AZ, which is on the eastern side of the Navajo Nation. She studied Energy Science and Technology at Stanford University and began her environmental justice career at Redefining Progress as a Program Associate for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC). At the EJCC, she worked with a broad coalition of people of color, low-income, and Indigenous communities and organizations on climate justice issues. For more information: Indigenous Environmental Network – www.ienearth.org
