Activists Confer on Indian Mascot Ban

Calling for an end to the use of Native American mascots in the California school system, representatives of several tribes discussed strategy to accomplish that goal at a Fullerton conference Saturday.

Branding such mascots “institutional racism,” organizers of the conference at Cal State Fullerton discussed plans to pressure the State Board of Education to revise statutes to ban their use. If that fails, members plan to lobby state representatives to pass legislation banning the mascots. As a last resort, organizers say they will pursue their cause in federal court.

“The mascot issue is a peoples’ issue [that] engulfs all people of all nationalities,” said Joe Toloagun, a member of the Chumash tribe and a speaker at the conference, which was sponsored by the university’s humanities department, Chicano Studies Student Assn. and the Assn. of Inter-Cultural Awareness.

According to conference organizers, 141 high schools in California use Native American or ethnic mascots, with names such as Redskins, Indians, Aztecs and Warriors.

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Last year, Los Angeles Unified School District trustees voted to eliminate the use of such symbols in that district. In Orange County, where a few schools have Native American-themed mascots--the Indians in Fullerton, the Warriors in Irvine, the Comanches in Anaheim, among them--school officials say there has been little complaint regarding their use.

The biggest protest concerning high school mascots in the county had nothing to do with ethnicity: It involved religion. In 1983, conservative Christian parents were successful in banning Mission Viejo’s Diablo as the school mascot. A friendlier version was reinstated in ’93.

At La Quinta High School in Westminster, students were allowed to decide whether the name “Aztec” had a derogatory meaning. They concluded that the name represented “the very best of cultural traditions.”

Students at Woodbridge High School had similar results when their use of the name “Warriors” was discussed by the student body. The students concluded that because the mascot was not cartoon-like, there were no derogatory intentions.

But Eugene Herrod, a conference organizer and member of Advocates for American Indian Children, said school administrators should not allow students to decide. “Students don’t understand all the issues involved,” he said.

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Particularly offensive to Native Americans, Toloagun said, is the use of spiritual and religious icons. Depicting feathers, drums, face paint and tomahawks mocks Native American religion, he said. “This . . . would not be allowed to happen with other religions.”

Although the conference focused on California schools, there was broader discussion of the problem. “This is a . . . national problem,” said Charlene Teters of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media. “Spiritual icons and our spiritual way of life are being abused.”

Representatives of several tribes from around the country came to lend their support to the conference’s mission. Bruce Two Eagles of the Buncombe County Inter-tribal Assn. in Raleigh, N.C., said most people don’t realize the impact the mascots have on Native Americans, particularly children. “[Mascots] portray us as less than human. . . . [We want] the same type of equality and respect” that other cultures receive.