Students from Pine Ridge, SD High School
call for the Retirement of the Chief

Date:	April 23, 2004
To:	Governor Rod Blagojevich & University of Illinois
From:	YSS & RED NOIZE (Indigenous Youth Warrior Society) and the Oglala Lakota Students from Pine Ridge High School, Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Subject:	The character known as "Chief Illiniwek" (University of Illinois)

From April 15-16, 2004, over 90 young people and a few adults representing many different youth organizations (and cultures) from Chicago and Aurora, Illinois, and Oakland and San Francisco traveled to the Lakota reservation of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The purpose of our trip was to hold our second annual RED NOIZE Indigenous Youth Summit at Pine Ridge High School. This year we were able to organize a full day of workshops focusing on the urban arts, cultural awareness, indigenous traditions, and many of the social concerns and issues plaguing young people today. The second day provided us with an opportunity to celebrate our indigenous dances and traditions with an artistic demonstration with our Oglala Lakota relatives in attendance. The Oglala Lakota Nation is one of the indigenous (Indian) Nations that still live on the plains of the western part of this country along with others like the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Crow. The Oglala Lakota are the descendents of Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Black Elk and other Oglala leaders.

During this particular RED NOIZE youth summit, we were able to explain to the Pine Ridge High School student body -- the majority of them under the age of 18 -- the situation involving the use of the plains regalia by chief Illiniwek. We also spoke of the de-humanizing and racist spirit that the Chief Illiniwek mascot invokes as well as the issue of the honoring of the First Nations.

It was determined to best address this issue, stopping the use of the Chief Illiniwek mascot, we would all sign a petition demanding that the character be retired once and for all. We were able to obtain more than 240 signatures from the Oglala Lakota youth and teachers. If we had some more time, we easily would have been able to procure a few hundred more signatures.

So with this attached petition we demand that the use of the Chief Illiniwek mascot at the University of Illinois be ended immediately. Using the plains tradition as the regalia for the chief demonstrates further the ignorance and racist attitudes of those that support the chief at any cost, which in the end is only a money-making position for the university. If you really want to honor the original people of Illinois, then give us back our lands and honor all the broken treaties.

The Oglala youth of Pine Ridge High School say, "Your chief mascot dishonors us"

In the Spirit of our ancestors,
Mitakuye Oyasin
Ometeotl!

Frank Tekpatzin Blazquez (Mexika-Chichimeka)
Executive Director of YSS (Youth Struggling for Survival)
RED NOIZE
(Indigenous Youth Warrior Society)
www.youthstrugglingforsurvival.org

Petition signatures - click to enlarge image