THE DEATH OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN MASCOT?

I don't want to become a banana slug!

Decades after blackface minstrelsy became taboo and Illinois' Pekin Chinks became the Pekin Dragons, the practice of using Native Americans as university and team mascots is still embraced and guarded with the stubborn fortitude that Southern racists use to defend the Confederate flag. (Hello, Dukes of Hazzard remake!)

But today may be a major turning point.

Up until now, the struggle to eliminate them has only seen limited success. During the last three decades, over two-thirds of the schools and universities whose teams originally used Native Americans or Native American symbols have abandoned them. (E.g., in 1975, the Stanford Indians became the Stanford Cardinal, which is a color, which is only outrivaled in effeteness by their mascot, which is a felt tree designed by a class of underachieving kindergarteners. But I digress.)

More recently, the D.C. Circuit court kept alive a suit seeking to strip the NFL's Washington Redskins of their trademark. As for creative protests, perhaps, you've heard of the Fighting Whities.

But the most famous examples of Indigenous mascots -- the Braves, Indians, Redskins, Chiefs, Seminoles, Warriors -- have no expiration date in sight.

Now here's the big news: today and tomorrow, the NCAA will be considering a list of measures forwarded by the NCAA's Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee involving the use of American Indian nicknames or symbols. While an outright ban is not one of the proposed measures, the NCAA may consider the "confederate flag" option where it will not schedule championship events in states that fly the Confederate flag, or in this case, at colleges that use American Indians as mascots or nicknames in an offensive manner.

In effect, the NCAA will put a lot of pressure on the following teams to change their nicknames:

Alcorn State Braves
Arkansas State Indians
Bradley Braves
California State-Stanislaus Warriors
Carthage (Wis.) Redmen
Catawba (N.C.) Indians
Central Michigan Chippewas
Chowan (N.C.) Braves
East Stroudsburg (Pa.) Warriors
Florida State Seminoles
Hawaii Warriors
Husson (Maine) Braves
Illinois Fighting Illini
Indiana (Pa.) Indians
Louisiana-Monroe Indians
Lycoming (Pa.) Warriors
McMurry (Texas) Indians
Merrimack (Mass.) Warriors
Midwestern State (Texas) Indians
Mississippi College Choctaws
Newberry (S.C.) Indians
North Carolina-Pembroke Braves
North Dakota Fighting Sioux
San Diego State Aztecs
Southeastern Oklahoma State Savages (!!!)
Stonehill (Mass.) Chieftains-x
Utah Utes
West Georgia Braves-x
William & Mary Tribe
Wisconsin Lutheran Warriors

x-Have since changed their mascots

While I am not betting on it, this could signal the beginning of the end of using an ethnicity, tribe, or race as a nickname or mascot, give or take the Fighting Irish.

--Junichi