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U.I. Dialogue narratives |
RetireTheChief
The following is the transcript of a Foellinger balcony narrative from April 14, 2000. It is an unedited excerpt from the original Chief dialogue document.
MS. MEGAN BANG: My name is Megan Bang. I work at the Institute for Native American Development in Chicago where we are a support program for students at Truman College and we offer GD classes to Native American students. I also run a program called Native American Youth of Tomorrow, which is a tutor mentor program for K through 12. And there a million reasons why the mascot issue is important. I have kids every day who tell me that kids at school do the little whoo whoo dance around them. And people say are you this kind of Indian or this kind of Indian? And to a third grader it makes a lot of difference. Because it makes mascots for, mascots the images that second, third, fourth, fifth grade nonnative students have as a point of reference.So our native students who are in school have no ability to explore or construct their own identities. Because all of the nonnative kids are educated by these mascots. But more than this, the mascot issue is really symbolic of where human rights and civil rights for native people are in this country. If this were any other race, any other ethnicity, this wouldn't be going on this long. But the simple fact is it is not in the United States government best interests to uphold the rights of Native Americans. And therefore, a lot of Americans don't understand native people, don't know that native people exist.
I went to a university where there was one other native student and because I am of mixed blood and I look the way I do no one knows that I am native. And because I don't fit people's native stereotypes I am not considered a native person by many non Indians.
The problem becomes that I can't ever be me in nonnative communities. And my experience in college was one that I can't imagine having on this University. We did not have a mascot. I went to Williams College. There is no mascots or anything like that. But my experience in college, I got a letter on my door, nailed there with a switch blade that said native people were, actually Indians were met, excuse me, Columbus was met by blood thirsty savages, that you should thank us for civilizing you, and that everyone should look forward to the fact that you are mixed blood now and that you have been civilized and you now have the opportunity to be educated. And I regret going to college and I dropped out of college. And I refuse to go to institutions of higher ed that don't have any respect or have any understanding of Indian people.
This University with Chief Illiniwek, it's not even a question of respect. At some point it doesn't matter what everyone else thinks. It doesn't matter. You know, it's kind of like asking a black person during slavery, you know, you really shouldn't feel bad about being a slave. It's not nonnative people's place to decide how native people should feel or what their intentions are. It's just not. That's it. Thanks.
See the U.I. Dialogue on Chief Illiniwek page for more transcripts and information.