Indian mascots

Silvester Brito (sjbbear@corral.uwyo.edu)
Fri, 24 Jan 1992 08:49:00 MST

Article in "Branding Iron" Univ. of Wyo. paper- from - Minneapolis - Fri.
Jan. 24, 1992: Indians to demonstrate "American Indian leaders hope a Super
Bowl protest and a meeting of civil rights activists will spark a movement to
end the use of Indian mascots and nicknames by sports teams.

'We're going to let the world know we're not going to tolerate this kind of
behavior,' said Clyde Bellecourt, a founder of the American Indian Movement.
'John Wayne is dead, and it's time for this kind of racism to go with it.'

AIM is sponsording the first National Summit on Racism in Sports and the
Media, a fourday event that opens in Minneapolis today. Bellecourt hopes
the meeting's participants will develop a national strategy on how to stop
the use of Indian nicknames and mascots.

AIM also has planned to protest in Minneapolis Friday at an NFL awards
ceremony and Saturday at the Illinois-Minnesota college basketball game, where
they'll demonstrate against Illinois' Fighting Illini nickname and Chief
Illiniwek mascot."