Skarie ACE Debate

According to Washington Times, there have been riots against Native American mascots and in particular the “chief wahoo” which is the Cleveland Indians mascot. Protesters, mainly Native Americans were chanting,"We are people, not your mascots." Philip Yenyo, executive director of the American Indian Movement of Ohio, said that “When you start to explain to people how it affects us as a people and it puts us in a category with animals, they begin to see our side. “This imagery, most sports teams are named after animals and they put us in that same category. We’re human beings. We’re still a living culture and we still exist.” Therefore, Native Americans do not like themselves being referred to as mascots.

According to the Huffington Post, California, the state with the largest Native American population in the U.S. is trying to make the nickname “redskin” banned from use in schools. Therefore, the Native Americans do not like the nickname "Redskin".

According to a Native American named John Two-Hawks who is talking about a mascot being a tradition to a school or team,”Your 'tradition'?? Really? 80 years? We have tradition that is countless tens of thousands of years old. And none of those traditions bear any resemblance to the stereotyped, caricatured images and

antics associated with so-called "Indian" mascots and team names.”

USA today says, "There have been many big universities that have changed their name such as Stanford changing their name from “Indians” to “Cardinal” in the year 1972 and St. John’s changed their nickname from “Redmen” to “Red Storm” in 1994 which is the same year Marquette changed their mascot from “Warriors” to “Golden Eagles.”

Marquette university has changed its name from the Warriors to the Golden Eagles in 1994. The Marquette university president stated,”We live in a different era than when the Warriors nickname was selected in 1954.”