Go Fighting Whities!
Is the use of Native American imagery in Petoskey sports teams offensive?
What would happen if a high school football team decided to call themselves the "Fighting Whities" and used a Caucasian stereotype as a mascot?
Fred Harrington said it wouldn’t fly – neither would mascots portraying Jewish, African American, Italian, Asian or any other racial identity. So why, he asks, are Native American mascots, like the one used by the Petoskey Northmen, acceptable?
Others see the use of Native American symbolism as a source of pride and a matter of honor. Arlene Naganashe is a member of the Little Traverse Band of Odawa Indians like Harrington. She helped design the Petoskey Northmen’s logo and she believes the controversy comes from misunderstanding.
"We liked it; we didn’t want it to be a caricature," the 77-year-old said. "I talked to my children about this and I said, "˜We’d have problems if there was someone in native dress out there dancing around or something like that, but it’s not that.’"
CONTROVERSY COMES AS SURPRISE
There has been recent controversy regarding Native American symbols used by Public Schools of Petoskey sports teams: an Indian head emblazoned on some gear and an eagle feather tied to a spear on the football team’s helmets.
The dustup took school officials by surprise. In October, Harrington sent Superintendent John Scholten a letter calling for an end to the use of the symbols. In December, Harrington and several tribal elders told the school board that the logos are disrespectful, especially to Native children in the school system.
In his letter, Harrington wrote, "I want the school board to realize there is nothing respectful about an institution using a minority as a mascot."
Harrington noted the Odawa Band passed a 2004 resolution that condemned the use of Native American imagery by sports teams. School officials said they are taking feedback and attempting to reach consensus about whether the logos are considered respectful to Native American history and culture.
They note the logos were designed in 1983 in cooperation with Odawa Band members.
Harrington, for his part, has made up his mind.
"It’s demeaning," Harrington said. "We’re there for their luck. I personally believe that if your team needs a mascot, you need a new coach. You have substandard coaching."
"IT’S RACISM; THEY FEEL OPPRESSED"
Harrington is disappointed there’s been no action taken as a result of his protest.
"It’s still status quo. The last written communication I have from them is that they aren’t going to change it," Harrington said. "They may hold a public hearing or something like that, but I don’t have any of that in writing."
Harrington’s home sits across the street from the school district administration building; banners protesting the logos and calling out school board members occasionally festoon his garage.
A picture of Harrington holding a sign reading, "I AM MARK ASHLEY’S MAS- COT" was published in the local newspaper. Harrington said Ashley, the school board secretary, is no more or less responsible for the school board’s lack of action than any of the other board members.
Ashley "was closest to my house," Harrington said. "I have signs for all of the board members. They want an Indian mascot. I gave them one."
Ashley did not return a message seeking comment.
Harrington, a professor of information technology at North Central Michigan College, believes it’s unjust for a people who once oppressed another people to use them as decoration on a football helmet.
"We have kids in the school that feel oppressed by it and they despise it," he said.
"It’s racism. Every time they go in there, they feel oppressed."
INTERPRETATION OF A RESOLUTION
Harrington was a member of the tribal council that drafted the 2004 resolution condemning Indian imagery.
The resolution does not specifically call out Petoskey schools, but it is broad enough that it could be interpreted to include Petoskey. The resolution condemns the use of "Indian likenesses or cultural items as mascots, logos or nicknames" for professional sports teams, universities and colleges, "and other schools."
The fact that Petoskey school officials only learned of the resolution’s existence in recent months suggests to them that it wasn’t meant to apply to their school.
In a letter to Harrington, Scholten and school board President Kathleen Reed said they were unaware the Odawa resolution even existed or that the logo was construed by some tribal members to promote inappropriate stereotypes.
"The fact that the 2004 tribal council resolution was not brought to the school district’s attention for over 10 years raises the question of whether the cooperatively developed Northmen logo was intended to fall within its ambit," Scholten and Reed wrote.
Scholten said he’s watched the Native American symbols-in-sports debate unfold nationwide over the past several years, but it took him by surprise when the controversy came to Petoskey.
Harrington said the issue is on the table now because he recently heard complaints from students. Scholten said he is unaware of any formal student complaints.
OPEN TO CHANGE
Scholten and Reed said the logo could be retired if they find consensus among the Native American community.
"That’s kind of where we are right now with it," Scholten said. "We’re listening and we want to talk about it and discuss it and it’s going to be on the agenda for a while. "¦ When it was designed in ’83, it was designed as something that we could all be proud of."
Reed said she is open to the possibility that something that was okay in 1983 has become something that’s not okay in 2016.
"The original intent was just to honor the heritage of the Native Americans of our community; the feedback we got at that [December] meeting was that they don’t consider that a point of pride any longer," Reed said. "We’re encouraging people to come to us and express their opinions on that and people have been doing that since that meeting."
Reed and Scholten said the school board won’t rush to make a decision.
"This is not something that can happen overnight; this is a logo that the school community has used over time. I don’t think we feel comfortable making a very rapid change," Reed said. "I’ve also heard that not all people in the Native community agree that this is no longer a source of pride. "¦ My hope is that we can discus it in a respectful way."
RAYS OF SUNSHINE UPON YOU
Naganashe, one of the logo’s designers, is proud of what that image represents. Before 1983, some logos used were cartoonish and offensive to Native Americans. Naganashe said using respectful Indian imagery is a way to celebrate the origins of Petoskey, a town founded by Odawa Chief Ignatius Petosega, a name that Naganashe says is pronounced beh-dos-ah-ga and means rays of light coming toward you.
Naganashe said the word assumed that meaning because you can often see beautiful rays of sunlight falling on the village from the sky around Little Traverse Bay.
"They saw, in those rays coming down, that the creator was smiling on this place," Naganashe said.
Naganashe worked as a mental health nurse for a quarter century and she used the meaning of the word Petoskey to comfort patients.
"I’d tell them that, even though you may not feel like it, you’ve come to heaven; this is a good place," she said.
Harrington said he approached Naganashe out of respect, to let her know that he would be protesting the logo, though he disputes that when she designed the logo she represented the tribe.
"They don’t represent the tribe; they were individuals in the tribe," Harrington said. "They didn’t go to the officials in the tribe and say, "˜Hey, can we do this?’"
FIGHTING OVER "FIGHTING"
Controversy over the logo comes on the heels of another disagreement surrounding Petoskey High School sports traditions, namely the word "fighting" at the athletic field where the Petoskey Northmen play football.
Someone objected to the word in August and it was removed. An uproar caused school officials to quickly repaint the word "fighting" on the stadium wall.
Former Petoskey teacher and local historian Rick Wiles said the word "fighting" was painted on the wall in 1965 in response to a coach’s worries that his players were not playing tough enough.
"The "˜fighting’ had nothing to do with Native Americans," Wiles said.
This summer, Wiles said, someone mistakenly conflated the word "fighting" with the Indian logos and assumed they had something to do with each other.
That led school officials to remove the word, thinking it would be a simple solution no one would notice.
"They thought, "˜No big deal.’ They didn’t think anybody would know it was gone," he said.
Wiles believes that controversy makes it more difficult for school officials to act on the current complaints about the Native American logos.
A NATIONWIDE DEBATE
The debate over Indian symbols in sports is perhaps nowhere as fevered as with the Washington Redskins football team.
"Redskins" is considered an abject racial slur by one side and a proud tradition by the other. Unlike in Petoskey, where officials say they are open to listening to concerns from Native Americans, Redskins owner Dan Snyder has vowed he will never change the team’s name.
Some news outlets have sided with the opposition and no longer refer to the team as the Redskins, including the Kansas City Star, San Francisco Chronicle, MMQB, Washington City Paper, Slate and Peter King of Sports Illustrated.
Indian mascots and team names have also been controversial across Michigan. In 2013, the Michigan Department of Civil Rights petitioned the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to eliminate 35 Native American high school names and mascots.
Petoskey was not included in that complaint. The only school listed from northern lower Michigan was Cheboygan, where teams are called the Chiefs.
The DOE rejected that complaint after finding the Department of Civil Rights could not prove actual harm suffered by Native American students as a result of the symbols.
The lawyer who filed the complaint, Daniel Levy, said in an email that it’s not surprising the bulk of schools that use Indian imagery and names are located farther away from Native American population centers.
"I know of no research on that, but what I can say is that districts with significant minority representation are much more likely to change and drop such logos/mascots," Levy said. "People who understand what it is like to be "˜the other’ understand the issue and the negative impacts it has without needing to be persuaded by scientific psychological studies."
TIME FOR REFLECTION
In Petoskey, the debate is unfolding in a more conciliatory tone than in Washington, D.C. Kevin Whitmore has two sons involved in Petoskey football: one who played quarter-back for three years and another ready to enter the program. He runs a Petoskey football Facebook fan page. He tries to keep it inviting for everyone, so in August, when he posted about the removal of the "fighting" word, he didn’t offer an opinion. He merely asked what everyone thought.
"Normally a post will have 1,000 views," he said. "That post had close to 100,000 views and 750 comments," Whitmore said.
Whitmore said he thought the Native American imagery used by the team honored the Native American history and place in the community, but he said if that’s not the case, it’s not his place to argue.
"I have a really tough time because I am not a Native American," Whitmore said. "I can’t empathize directly with Native Americans and everything they’ve gone through as a people."
Bill Hansen, owner of Bill & Carol’s Market in Petoskey, is a former linebacker and offensive tackle for Petoskey who graduated in 1987. He said he doesn’t think the logo is meant to cause offense.
"I look at it as we’re honoring the Native American with the logo, myself," Hansen said. "I don’t take it as being a negative. I think of it as being a positive."
Hansen said it’s perhaps not his place to have the final word on what the logo represents, however.
"I guess I don’t understand enough about it," he said. "I look at it as honoring them and they are looking at it in a different way."
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