Content area
Full Text
Although the subject of Indian mascots and nicknames in sports has surfaced as a contested political and cultural issue between Indians and non-Indians for quite some time, it has become an even more passionate struggle in recent years. The debate has taken place at the national level in the world of professional sports, typified by Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians in baseball and the Washington Redskins in football. Regionally, colleges and universities have been arenas where the battle over the stereotypes perpetuated by Indian icons has been fought. The stage has become even more localized, as the conflict has manifested in the high schools and communities across the country. Editors C. Richard King and Charles F. Springwood produced a collection of case studies representing national, regional and local politics in Team Spirits.
Team Spirits is a compilation of 14 critical essays by Indian and non-Indian scholars, educators and activists. The essays are case studies and critical commentaries, highlighting the conflicted cultural context of Indian mascots and nicknames in association with sports. In their introductory essay, King and Springwood point out that, because Indian mascots "are a pervasive, ubiquitous feature of American culture," their very existence reveals something powerful "about race, power, and culture." The book in its entirety highlights and develops this important premise, and what is problematic is the obvious: what most Americans and non-Indians know is frequently represented in the images associated with the mascots themselves.
When iconic Indian images are challenged, members of educational institutions and the sports world respond with what Cornell Pewewardy and other Native scholars have identified as "dysconcious racism," in which inequity and exploitation are accepted as legitimate because...