Pros And Cons Of Native American Mascots

The student section roars with mighty school cheers, tomahawk flags glisten as they are waved throughout the chanting crowd, guys vigorously rip each other's shirts off to reveal the school's name painted across their stomachs intertwined with their unwaxed chests, and parents abruptly stand, hollering their sons name while proudly wearing their school mascot, the Indian. For decades upon decades, the Indian head mascot has been debate topic for whether or not high school and professional sports teams are allowed to use the logo. Many have complained that it is offensive to the Native Americans due to how the Indian is being wrongly portrayed. While others are supportive of the Indian mascot because the school districts are honoring and educating

the town on the past of their mascot. Although many people view the Native American Indian head offensive, racist, and disrespectful, the Marion Indian community positively displays the use of their controversial mascot with honor and pride.
In many eyes, being the town full of “Indians”, is offensive.

Using the Indian head mascot causes Native Americans to feel as if the sports teams are making fun of their ways of life. In 2017, Karen Mackley from the Iowa Commission on Native American Affairs strongly discouraged schools spirit with the portrayal of Indians, “Images of Native American sports mascots are especially harmful to Native youth; they tend to contribute to lower self-esteem and limit feelings of community worth” (Mackey). Mackey expresses how Native Americans are harshly affected by the wrongful portrayal of Indians by high schools across the country. Some of the ways schools portray their Indians create stereotypical issues involving Native Americans. The cartoon illustration of the Indian makes the stereotyping matter even worse due to the exaggerated proportions of the Indian body. For Marion High School, the Indian head portrayed looks like a darker skinned man, with a larger nose, and elaborate feather headdress; this is a stereotype to the Native American population because not all Indians look like this. Although the Indian mascot has to be taken with a grain of salt, the Indian head does honor and support the Native

Americans.
With the criticizing of Native Americans aside, many people tend to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Some schools and professional sporting teams chose the Indian mascot with the intent to honor this specific population of people. Time constantly moves along, so having a mascot rich with history, makes it easier to educate everyone on the importance of these people. Marion was the original settlement of the Indians populating the Iowa territory. In 1927 when Marion got to choose its mascot, the Indians was selected out of respect to the culture and traditions of the Indian tribes that are a part of the United States. Even if it’s not based on fact, when an Indian is chose to represent a school or sports team as their mascot, they are often doing so because the team emulates the characteristics they wish to embody in their team. Just like Marion High School, the Indian mascot is selected throughout schools across the United States to respect and honor the Native Americans.
Offensive, racist, and disrespectful are the words many Native Americans use when they come in contact with a school or sports team using an Indian as their mascot; however, the Marion Indian community positively displays the use of the Indian as their mascot with honor and pride.

The general white population of the United States sees the role of an Indian, when used as a school's mascot, as an uplifting and honorable event. Most school’s are intending to represent the Indians in the most conscientious way possible. Though according to most Native Americans, when they see the Indian being used as a mascot, they view it in a disgusting, unhonorable way. They claim that the way people choose to represent them is unrealistic and it creates stereotypes that spread around the tribes like wildfire. It has been many years since this debate over the Indian mascot has arose and communities and tribes across America don't see it settling down any time

soon.