Dear Editor,
The following is in response to Michael Lazarus’ March 3 column entitled, “Indian could work if done respectfully.”
In a self-interested quest for fame and fortune, Christopher Columbus, thinking he had arrived in the West Indies, dubbed the inhabitants Indians, at first out of honest ignorance and thereafter out of the arrogant vanity necessary to knowingly misapply a term to a people solely because one considers oneself the reference point of the universe.
In Mr. Lazarus’ misguided article, I hear echoes of someone and a society in search of not fame and fortune, but identity. Unfortunately, I also hear echoes of the ignorance and arrogant vanity of his lost predecessor.
Only the blissful ignorance of a cultural orphan could explain the suggestion that picking one out of the “tons of local tribes in the area” and designing a “culturally and historically correct” mascot benefits that lucky tribe.
Mr. Lazarus suggests that the tribe “perform during halftime shows at football and basketball games, displaying different aspects of its culture and customs.” Do we really want to watch people shopping for dinner or blowing out candles on a birthday cake at halftime? I suppose “Indians” are frozen in time and still fish the Bay in canoes when they get hungry. Even if they did, what crowd wouldn’t get energized by that?
Only the arrogant vanity of a Columbus would consider the exchange of “recognition, money, prominence and respect” for “fir[ing] up the crowd at home games” a good deal for the tribe. After all, who is doling out this recognition, money, prominence and respect? “Fundraisers and charity events?” Why didn’t you say so!
Mr. Lazarus claims that “[s]ports have the power to enhance a reputation,” that mascots done right “most importantly, remind the public that the tribe still in fact exists.” I suppose Chief Illiniwek was a great reminder that the Illinois tribe still exists; turns out the Illinois were not a tribe but rather a confederation of tribes, and that it does not exist as such anymore. And it’s great that “the average American” associates Seminoles with Florida, but how do they know they were largely displaced to Oklahoma? Maybe they should re-enact that at halftime.
Conversely, Mr. Lazarus claims that when the Indian mascot went away, it was “as if Native Americans were never a part of the Bay Area’s history.” Why? Because Americans did not have a mascot to remind them, of course, since a lack of media attention and pop culture indifference can erase history.
The real problem here is a lack of identity. There are great things about being Native, but there are tough things, too. At least the Fighting Irish were actually Irish that were fighting to some extent at some point. Do some family history, go visit the land of your ancestors, reconnect with who you are. Usurping the identity of a convenient local tribe temporarily for a halftime show is not the answer. Being Native does not stop when the buzzer sounds for some of us. And Stanford Indians are from India.
-Kimball Bighorse ’06