Colleges

Indian mascots again under scrutiny

The NCAA will review whether schools such as FSU will have to change their controversial nicknames.

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published August 3, 2005

	[Times file photo]
	Before each Florida State game at Tallahassee's Doak Campbell Stadium, Osceola, a student in traditional clothing and war paint, rides Renegade down the middle of the field and hurls a flaming spear into the ground to excite the crowd.

The symbols are unmistakable, intricately and inextricably woven into the consciousness of college football fans well beyond the Tallahassee limits.

Before each home game, Osceola, a student in traditional clothing and war paint, rides Renegade down the middle of the field and hurls a flaming spear into the ground to excite the crowd.

Welcome to Florida State.

Here come the Seminoles.

But the use of American Indian nicknames, mascots and images by universities has been seen by some as insensitive at best, racist at worst. After years of debating a complicated and emotionally-charged issue, the NCAA finally appears poised to take steps toward altering the sporting fabric.

The NCAA's Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee has developed a list of measures - albeit not including an outright ban of American Indian nicknames and images by the 30 member institutions that use them - that be will discussed today and forwarded on to the Executive Committee on Thursday.

"If they're kept in whole, I think there's going to be effective change," said Robert Vowels Jr., the chairman of the committee.

What might that mean for the 30 schools? Perhaps doing away with American Indian mascots performing before, during or after games. Or the NCAA could withhold awarding pre-determined championships there, a precedent it set in regard to the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina and Mississippi. But the situation at FSU highlights why the NCAA, if it does act, likely will do so measuredly.

FSU and the Seminole Tribe of Florida have worked closely for years to help ensure that the use of the name and symbols honor and respect the traits of "uncompromising fortitude and strength of character," FSU vice president for university relations Lee Hinkle wrote to the NCAA in April.

The school also keeps the Tribe involved in numerous campus activities, including Homecoming. School officials go to Seminole reservations to recruit students and President T.K. Wetherell established scholarships to cover 80 percent of their tuition costs.

"Unconquered," a bronze statue near Doak Campbell Stadium, is a 31-foot tall tribute to the Seminole Tribe's indomitable spirit. The school plans to build an authentic Seminole-style shelter as well as a museum.

"If somebody, somehow, waived a flag, and we don't know who could do it, and said to make it all go away and we had to, we would still have those relationships," Wetherell said. "We'd still do what we're doing. The athletic piece may have started out as a big deal, but the other parts, the educational programs, the scholarships, the museum, have become really equally as a big a deal to us on campus."

The Tribal Council of the Seminole Tribe of Florida recently for the first time adopted an official resolution supporting FSU's use of its name and symbols.

No wonder FSU is adamant that it has nothing to change regardless of what the NCAA may say or do this week.

"We're proud of the Seminoles, and we're proud to be Seminoles," football coach Bobby Bowden said. "And the Seminoles like us; that's the key to it. If they didn't want us, we'd have to do something. But they love us and we love them. They've been good to us and we've tried to honor them in everything we do and we have done that."

The Seminoles in Oklahoma, however, aren't as enamored of FSU's use of their name and images. They see things differently and, like American Indians elsewhere, seek an outright ban.

Billy Mills, the gold-medal winner in the 10,000 meters at the 1964 Olympics, is Lakota, a warrior, in fact, and strives to live his life adhering to the virtues of bravery, fortitude, generosity and wisdom. He's a sought after motivational speaker by schools.

"I am not," he said simply, "a sports team mascot."

He stresses he has not seen a school use American Indian mascots or nicknames in a derogatory fashion or based on anger or racism. To the contrary, he said they're based on compassion and positive images.

"That's not the issue," Mills said. "The issue is, as a human being, I'm not a mascot. The mascot separates the virtues and the values that empower my culture. Any time you take my culture, the tradition, the spirituality and start extracting them, that's offensive. "With all due respect to the teams who want to honor me by having a Native American mascot, it's outdated. It's the wrong way."

Schools have seen that of their own accord. At the Division I level since 1994, the Marquette Warriors became the Golden Eagles, St. John's dropped the nickname, Redmen, for the Red Storm, and Miami (Ohio) went from Redskins to RedHawks.

"It was a rocky road momentarily, but most people moved on pretty quickly," said Richard Little, a spokesman for Miami, of the change in 1996.

The NCAA, cautious not to intrude upon a school's autonomy, has applauded its members acting on their own volition. Still, the NCAA has discussed change for years, weighing other factors, including the possible economic (merchandise, alumni and booster contributions) repercussions and emotional ties to tradition.

"A lot of it is educational; getting the word out," Vowels said. "If you don't understand the issue and how people feel, it's hard to make changes and that's what we're trying to do."

[Last modified August 3, 2005, 00:36:17]