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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.
MR. RONALD JORDAN: My name is Ronald Jordan. I prefer to be called Manapayga, that means warrior. I am a pipe carrier in the Turtle Clan of the Oniack People of the Iroquois Nation. And I speak to schools, many schools, I would like to come down here sometime and maybe speak about my people, because Native American history is not taught in schools, not the way it should be taught. Usually it is either book learning, they never have any Native American experience, the instructors.I was born and raised on a reservation. I am strictly traditional Native American. I spent 40 years working in a white man's world as an engineer. I designed control systems for power plants, both nuclear and fossil. So I come in contact with a lot of people, I traveled the United States extensively, from all the corners, from Washington state down to Florida, from California to Maine. And wherever I go, the white people I come across have virtually no knowledge of my people. And wherever I go, the first thing I tell them is when I leave here, you are going to be Native American literate, because I believe that I am a Native American ambassador to the white man's world.
If you have any questions about my people, ask me, don't accept what you see in the movies. The movies are wrong. Virtually every movie I have ever seen has nothing to do with the Native American people. That's why we come to this Illiniwek issue.
I have a lot of protest against some of the terms and symbols and so forth that are used by the white people depicting Native American people. I have nothing against the Blackhawk symbol which is what it is. It's a symbol. And it represents Chief Blackhawk.
I have nothing against the term Indians as in the Cleveland Indians. What I am against is the derogatory terminology such as the Washington Redskins, and Atlanta used to have this clown who used to come out and dance, jump around when every home run was hit called Chief Nakahoma. These symbols are exactly what I am against because just by looking at them it bothers us because it shows that the people who came up with these ideas have absolutely no knowledge of my people. They have no idea, no concept of what our traditions are, what our beliefs are and what our taboos are. And we come back to Illiniwek.
I have nothing against using the term and the symbol Illiniwek for the University for the ball teams. What I have is against this mascot. Those eagle feathers he is wearing, I understand somebody gave them to him. They had no right to do that. And being as I am a pipe carrier sort on the religious side of the tribe, these eagle feathers are very, very important religious articles to all tribes, not just mine. All the Native American people. We believe that when the Great Spirit comes down to visit his people, he comes down in the form of an eagle. And when a warrior is killed in combat, he goes up as an eagle. These eagle feathers represent spirits of dead warriors.
What I am asking you to do is study Illiniwek, find out where he came from, make sure that this symbol you are using is accurate because we do not believe it is. And it would be better off if you didn't use it, because it's humiliating to us, humiliating and degrading to us and it makes you look all the more ignorant for using it. Thank you.
See the U.I. Dialogue on Chief Illiniwek page for more transcripts and information.