The following transcript is from the 4/14/00 Chief Illiniwek dialogue "intake session". It is an unedited excerpt from the original U.I. document.

The PRC is a multi-issue, multi-tactical activist organization committed to peace with social justice. The PRC has been at the forefront of the effort to eliminate Chief Illiniwek as the University's mascot and logo since the inception of the anti-Chief movement in 1989. And, with the exception of the vote to retain the Chief in 1990, the Board of Trustees has been silent on this issue as we have talked, argued, pleaded and screamed for a hearing.

The PRC has participated in the international anti Columbus demonstrations in 1992, the infiltration of the Chief tryouts of 1994, the lawsuits filed with the Illinois Department of Education in 1995, and the first real Chief debate in 1996, as well as the airing of a documentary "In Whose Honor" in 1997, and the First National Conference on the Elimination of Racist Mascots in 1998. And finally, the first and second annual convention of the People's Board of Conscience in 1999 and 2000.

But where has been the Board of Trustees? At each of these pivotal moments in the history of the anti-Chief movement, the Board has ignored the voices of the anti-Chief movement and the people of conscience who have sought dialogue with them on the status of Chief Illiniwek. Now that the Board has finally decided to listen, how can we possibly hope to recreate in eight short minutes the many and diverse voices of opposition that we have heard throughout the course of the past decade of our struggle. We simply cannot, although we are obligated to try.

On behalf of the PRC, I speak before you today to demand an immediate and unconditional end to Chief Illiniwek, and an end to the tolerance for racial hatred that he promotes and he represents in our community and beyond. First, you say the Chief is a tradition here and that he is meant to honor. But honor is not an honor when those whom it is purported to honor continually ask for its discontinuation. As with slavery, tradition is never a justification for the perpetuation of injustice.

Second, Chief Illiniwek's half-time performance is undeniably unauthentic. The Chief tradition began as an extension of a 1926 Boy Scout project. The drum beat is pure Hollywood and the dance reinvented annually by the individual student portraying the Chief each particular year. The University administration knows this. They know the Chief is unauthentic and has admitted such in intra-administration communications obtained by the PRC through the Freedom of Information Act.

Because they know this, the University has done everything they can to sanitize the Chief's image, including the discontinuation of Illini beer, Chief boxers and toilet paper and the Chief's presence in the homecoming parade. We count these changes as victories for the anti-Chief movement but understand that the Chief remains a distorted and derogative caricature of Native American peoples which destroys their universal and unalienable right to and dignity integrity, self-determination and cultural autonomy.

As such, the next logical step and indeed the only responsible one is to immediately retire Chief Illiniwek.

Third, even if the Chief were authentic, what business would the state's flagship University have parading Native American sacred cultural and spiritual elements around its football fields and basketball courts as half-time entertainment. No business at all.

Fourth, this injustice against Native Americans sets a dangerous precedent of acceptance for the racist and stereotypical representation of any and all other social groups targeted for oppression. If it's acceptable to mock and degrade Native American culture, why not also have the Tibetan Lama, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, or a Kosovar woman raped by a Serb entertain us at half-time? Or as one prominent Native American scholar suggests, how about adding Illinois Honkeys, Sambos, Drunken Papists or Jungle Bunnies to half-time entertainment. If these analogies sound ridiculous and dehumanizing, then so is your Chief.

Fifth, the maintenance of your Chief has repeatedly taken precedence over democracy, non-discrimination and multicultural education at this University. The University's mission statement reads, "The commitment of the University of Illinois to the most fundamental principles of academic freedom, equality of opportunity, and human dignity requires the decisions involving students and employees be based on individual merit and be free from invidious discrimination in all its forms."

Yet, the Board has repeatedly violated their own commission statement in handling the Chief issue. As just one example among many, in 1998, the U of I Board of Trustees member Tom Lamont told Native American students who wrote in protesting the Chief that if you didn't like the Chief, perhaps he ought to find another school.

The Chief has become important, more important to the Board than the voices of Native students and more important than the voices of national Native organizations that have requested the Chief's removal.

Sixth, it is will of the University community and of people of conscience worldwide that the Chief cease to be the mascot of the University of Illinois. With a majority of student organizations representing African-American, Latino, Asian Pacific American, Southeast Asian students have all denounced the Chief, as well as religious organizations, congregations, clergy representing Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Catholic and Muslim peoples.

Further, faculty and staff at the U of I Departments of Anthropology, History, Sociology, Psychology, Education, Social Work and English, as well as the University's Counseling Center, School of Life Sciences and College of Medicine have all passed resolutions condemning Chief Illiniwek.

On a national level, we have found support from everywhere from such publications as Sports Illustrated, Chicago Sun Times, The Lakota Times and Indian Country Today, as well as from such organizations as the American Indian Movement, United Indian Nations, and Reverend Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, and from such individuals as the former chair of Amnesty International and our Big 10 opponents Wisconsin and Iowa.

On an international level, KOLA, a Native American human rights organization, has brought the issue to the attention of the international media, the European Parliament and the United Nations.

The Board simply cannot continue to ignore the diversity and magnitude of this local, national and international outcry against the Chief.

In conclusion, the racist tradition, inaccurate portrayal and inappropriate use of Chief Illiniwek, as well as the precedent it sets for discrimination against other historically oppressed groups, the violation of non-discrimination policies, and the defiance of the will of the community constitute indisputable reasons for the Board to immediately discontinue its use of Chief Illiniwek as the school's symbol and mascot. Official bodies such as the Board of Trustees have a moral and political obligation to speak out against racism and injustice wherever and however it manifests itself.

I challenge you in your decision to hold yourselves accountable to your own mission of standards and fairness. I also challenge you to initiate similar dialogues on the numerous other campus issues which you have so conveniently ignored. Talk to your Native American, Asian American, African-American and Latino students and faculty about better funding for existing cultural houses and studies programs, about the creation of new programs and about increased recruitment and retention rates of students and faculty of color on campus.

Take immediate action to stop the severe shortage of child care facilities on campus. Stop pretending that rape whistles are enough to protect women on this campus from being sexually, and finally, negotiation with the GEO.

But regardless of the outcome of the dialogue process, we will continue organizing around this issue and continue to recruit new generations of activists to pick up the struggle and maybe one day the retirement of Chief Illiniwek and the induction of another symbol will represent a new era of cultural sensitivity and racial harmony on this campus. Please do the right thing. Thank you.

MODERATOR GARIPPO: John Mamminga.

See the U.I. Dialogue on Chief Illiniwek page for more transcripts and information.