R. Ostrodka, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2003

(Opinion: strongly anti-Chief)

Because I read that the U of I Trustees may soon make a decision regarding retiring Chief Illiwek as the school mascot, I was reminded of many published articles in which Native Americans insisted that they did not feel at all honored by such a mascot. I also recalled reading a book titled Dancing at Halftime, which included many strong arguments for retiring the chief.

I spent much of this afternoon on-line, going from link to link and read many eloquent articles. The words most frequently used were: racist, demeaning, inaccurate, humiliating, etc. I learned that the Native American Journalists Association has asked that newspapers stop using sport mascots and nicknames that depict Native Americans by the year 2004. To me that means that Illinois still has time to do the right thing: retire the chief without further delay.

You might be interested to know that my Web Search started with the key words: pekin chinks. From there, most links led to the chief.

Pekin, Ill. used to have Chinks as their nickname, and their cheerleaders used to do "coolie dances". But this town, at least, had enough sensitivity to change its nickname from a racist epithet to the Dragons in 1981, which to me, a Freeport Pretzel, was a wonderful improvement.

With this message, I hope to be just one more voice calling on the Trustees to do the right thing. Would you please pass it on?

R. Ostrodka, L.A.S. '74, via the web.

Comment - Dancing at Halftime, by Carol Spindel, was published in 2000 by the New York University Press. The Native American Journalists Association resolution may be found here.