Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
"Every time I watch the Washington Redskins or the Cleveland Indians (with their grotesque Chief Wahoo) I wonder what it must feel like to be a Native American sports fan and see oneself depicted this way. It just plain gives me the willies. Team Spirits shows me why."—Rick Telander, sports columnist, Chicago Sun-Times.
A growing controversy in recent years has arisen around the use and abuse of Native American team mascots. The Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Florida State Seminoles, and so forth—these are just a few of the images and names popularly associated with Native Americans that are still used as mascots by professional sports teams, dozens of universities, and countless high schools. This practice, a troubling legacy of Native–Euro-American relations in the United States, has sparked heated debates and intense protests that continue to escalate. Team Spirits is the first comprehensive look at the Native American mascots controversy. In this work activists and academics explore the origins of Native American mascots, the messages they convey, and the reasons for their persistence into the twenty-first century. The essays examine hotly contested uses of mascots, including the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, and the University of! Illinois's Chief Illiniwek, as well as equally problematic but more complicated examples such as the Florida State Seminoles and the multitude of Native mascots at Marquette University. Also showcased are examples of successful opposition, including an end to Native American mascots at Springfield College and in Los Angeles public schools. C. Richard King is an assistant professor of anthropology at Drake University, and Charles Fruehling Springwood is an assistant professor of anthropology at Illinois Wesleyan University. King and Springwood are coauthors of the forthcoming book Beyond the Cheers: Race As Spectacle in College Sport.
Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy,Vine Deloria,C. Richard King,Charles Fruehling Springwood,University of Nebraska Press,0803277989,20th century,Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies,General,Indians as mascots,Indians of North America,Multicultural Nonfiction,Native American Sociology,Popular Culture - General,Social Science,Social aspects,Social conditions,Sociology Of Sports,Sports & Recreation,Sports team mascots,United States
Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy
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