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Campus confronts racism
When the “Fighting Sioux” return to SCSU this weekend, the controversy surrounding their team name and mascot will not pass quietly.
In an effort to create awareness and educate the public about the racism of American Indian mascots, two SCSU student organizations are planning a demonstration before Friday night’s hockey game against the University of North Dakota.
The American Indian Student Organization and the Committee Against Cultural Genocide, with support from the SCSU American Indian Center, plan to lead the protest that will take place outside the National Hockey Center before the start of the game.
Many students, faculty and staff members, regardless of their cultural heritage, find UND’s “Fighting Sioux” nickname offensive and dehumanizing.
“You shouldn’t be degrading or making mockery or belittling an entire group of people because of their ethnicity,” said Don Day, director of the SCSU American Indian Center.
Offensive roots
SCSU instructor Gary Cheeseman, who, like Day, is an American Indian, said the origin of issues surrounding UND’s nickname traces back 150 years.
“The offensive nature of the mascot stems from its very roots,” Cheeseman said. “Its roots were about federally organized rhetoric designed to dehumanize the Indian population so they can be (a) killed, (b) put into reservation detention facilities or (c) moved west through the Manifest Destiny of white people.”
Cheeseman went on to explain that a fundamental part of being human is to know that it is morally wrong to kill another human. For the government to carry out its agenda regarding the treatment of American Indians, it was necessary to dehumanize them in the eyes of the public.
“The United States government, in the 1850s and 1860s, put out a lot of very, very carefully articulated rhetoric supported by illustrations that were the exact illustrations used by sports teams today,” Cheeseman said. The illustrations were designed to ease public reaction to the U.S. Calvary’s treatment of American Indians.
“If the very seed of these mascots represents an element of dehumanization, then it certainly would carry through the years and still be a dehumanizing factor today,” Cheeseman said.
Not about honor
Some have argued that UND’s “Fighting Sioux” name is a way to honor the courage and strength of the American Indian. However, Day countered, “Fighting Sioux” focuses on an ethnic group, and is no different than calling a team “Negros,” “Jews,” or “Caucasians.”
“Think about our nation’s capital,” Day said. “Washington is the ‘Redskins.’ Have you seen their logo? It is horrible. They’ve got this really ugly logo; it’s like a reddish-purple Indian, kind of disfigured — it’s really a caricature — and this is supposed to make us proud and honor us?”
“The symbol on these football helmets is no different than a swastika,” Cheeseman said.
Day agreed.
“It’s an injustice,” he said. “For me, as an American Indian man, it doesn’t honor me in any manner or form.”
Cheeseman offered the following example to illustrate: “If we were to have a team and for the sake of this argument call them the ‘San Francisco Sluts,’ and we would put a picture of one’s girlfriend or one’s wife on the side of that football helmet, that’s the same effect that this is having.
“The important thing to remember is that this isn’t an honor, because when you honor somebody, the honor is actually coming from the person and is reverberating from the person who is receiving that honor.”
Cheeseman explained that it is not possible to honor someone by using a derogatory name.
“It’s very arrogant for people to assume that they can take the position of being an honoree to somebody who isn’t willing to accept that form of honor,” he said. “Everybody else has a view, but they don’t have ownership of the view. The only people that do have ownership of that view are Indian people.”
Questionable donations
Adding further controversy to the UND mascot issue is Las Vegas multi-millionaire Ralph Englestad. A UND alumnus, Englestad was a goalie on the school’s hockey team in the 1950s and graduated with a degree in commerce. He moved to Las Vegas in 1959; tactful business decisions since then have left the accused Nazi sympathizer worth an estimated $400 million.
Just as UND was considering dropping its “Fighting Sioux” nickname for something less controversial, Englestad approached his alma mater with an incredible offer: a $100 million donation to build a brand-new, state-of-the-art hockey arena.
There was a catch, however — if UND wanted the stadium, it would have to keep its “Fighting Sioux” name and logo.
The Ralph Englestad Hockey Arena opened just over a year ago. UND’s “Fighting Sioux” logo appears in 2,400 places in the stadium.
“UND was simply bought out,” Cheeseman said. “They were on the verge of changing that mascot up there, and a special interest … comes in, makes specific demands and blackmails you into adhering to his demands, or else. Of course that’s frustrating, particularly in the light that it’s impossible for us (American Indians) to generate any kind of money equal to the money he can put forth.”
“(UND is) becoming nationally known for having a racist mascot, and that’s not a good thing to be,” Day said. “We’re doing things because it’s the right thing to do, and from an economic standpoint, they’re not listening because the almighty buck is more important.”
“It’s unfortunate that in the world that we live in, that money comes before morals,” Cheeseman added.
Speaking out
Both Cheeseman and Day will be among those participating in Friday’s protest.
Day said his main role is to work with the SCSU Public Safety Department and the St. Cloud Police to ensure that the protest is a peaceful one. Protests in years past have been peaceful, but Cheeseman said law enforcement presence is more for the protection of those who take part in the protest. Both SCSU and UND hockey fans have sometimes posed a threat in the past.
“We’ve had a number of people come very close to assaulting us over the years,” Cheeseman said. “It’s unfortunate, because it’s not their issue to get violent over. What they’re trying to do is, they’re trying to persuade us that the gift they’re giving us and honoring us with — this ridiculous mascot — is a worthy gift, and they’re mad at us for not accepting it.
“(Law enforcement has) done a pretty good job here of protecting us with cops and university security and things. I wouldn’t participate if they weren’t there.”
Friday’s events start at 5 p.m. with a dinner gathering at the American Indian Center. Protesters expect to be at the National Hockey Center at 6:15 p.m., where they will pass out educational literature to hockey fans arriving for the game. Speakers are also a possibility.
“I suspect it will be a small protest,” Day said. He added that unlike last year’s protest, the group would not enter the National Hockey Center and demonstrate during the game.
“Then we’re messing up their game,” he said. “We even got booed by some of our own people (last year), and we took it a little too far. So I think we have to have a very respectful protest.”
Cheeseman stressed that the American Indian mascot issue was larger than the planned protest, imagery, SCSU and UND. Instead, he described it as focusing on leadership.
“We’re lucky here to have activists who are actively employed in the effort to get rid of the process of dehumanization and wrap up and tie up the loose ends of the Civil Rights movement,” Cheeseman said. “These are issues that need to be dealt with that haven’t been dealt with. Leaders change the way people think about what is possible.”
Day also stressed that the protest was about the broader mascot issue, and not targeted at the SCSU or UND athletes.
“The University of North Dakota itself is a fine school,” Day said. “I’m a graduate of the University of North Dakota, and I think I got a great education there. They simply have a racist mascot.”
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