Saturday, September 22, 2007
2 views on Chief Illiniwek
The Indian mascot issue seems to have struck a nerve with several people, so I thought you might be interested in reading an article ("3rd-grade lesson: Illiniwek has to go") I wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times about Chief Illiniwek in 2001. Also, if you'd like to read a response to my article written by Roger Ebert (yes, that Roger Ebert -- he's an alum of U of I), click here.
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2 comments:
Greg,
In reading your article, I found it interesting and beneficial to me, a 3rd grade student teacher, to hear how some studetns percieve Native Americans before I teach my Native American unit in the spring. In doing reserach for my concept based unit, I have been trying to come up with ways to positvely portray Native Americans, although it is difficult to find some good children's books on the topic. Perhaps you know of some good ones I can use.
It was also intereting to hear Ebert's response to your article. He seemed to be very defensive and I can see how he is sticking up for his school. Perhaps when you mentioned that the school did not want to change its mascot because of the monetary donations from alumni, he felt like you were attacking him.
I have never actually seen the mascot preform at a U of I basketball game and would be interested to see if Ebert's analysis of the routine holds true or if it is just a way to hold the mascot in a positive light.
I can see both sides of the issue. Although having the Chief as a mascot could be seen as disrespectful, all of the students respect him. My sister goes to U of I and she said that at all the games when they play the three-in-one song during half time, all the students still stand when the Chief would have come out. Students yell "Chief" and fold their arms. My sister told me there was an article in the newspaper recently in which the author wrote that getting rid of the mascot of the Chief did not solve anything, since students still stand and cheer during the song. The author said that U of I might as well get rid of the three-in-one song, as well. She also said that Chief apparel was to be banned for participants of the Homecoming parade, but that ban was later lifted by school officials.
Although many see the Chief as being disrespectful to Native Americans, I think this became such a difficult issue for the school to solve because of student and alumni respect for the Chief. When the Chief was officially no longer the U of I mascot, it was nearly impossible to find a shirt, banner or sticker with the chief logo on it. If students did not respect the Chief, I don't think there would have been such a protest against getting rid of him.
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