“I have no objection to the name Indians on a team. “It was kind of offensive to portray an individual or a group as cartoonish.” And it was discontinued, he said.Ĭarlos Cortes, a UC Riverside professor emeritus of history and expert on minority stereotypes, said he’s not particularly worried about Cleveland. Until a few years ago, the school used to have people don mascot outfits with what he described as “silly” Native American masks. A brave is a proud, courageous person, and that’s what we want our students to be.“
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“But here at Norte Vista we think it is positive. “Some people think of it as offensive,” said Ron Main, athletic director. In Riverside, Norte Vista High School teams have been the Braves for many years. In recent years, the school has used a “PS” logo in recent years after once using one with a Native American face. “They are very proud that our city’s high school has the Indian name,” Boiko said. In fact, she said, artists from the local Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians have helped design several school logos over the years. “It’s never been a problem in this district,” Boiko said.
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Still, despite the conversations that have occurred over what is respectful in recent years, Native American mascots persist in many parts of the country, including Southern California.įor example, Palm Springs High School sports teams have called themselves the Indians since the school opened five and a half decades ago, said Joan Boiko, a Palm Springs Unified School District spokeswoman. And inaccurately at that, she said, noting Christopher Columbus wrongly labeled Native Americans when he arrived centuries ago. “Indians” is inappropriate as well, Eaton said, because it turns a race of people into a mascot. “The consensus among the elders was it was a deep insult.” “The term redskins to them personified the scalping and killing of Native Americans,” she said. “I heard some heartbreaking stories,” said Eaton, 68, of Palm Springs, who is mostly English but also one-fourth Shawnee. She said she spent much of 2014 interviewing Native Americans, young and old, at pow wows around Southern California. “Some tribal members in Indian country are for it, and some are against it,” he said.īut Fenelon, a Lakota-Dakota scholar, said a study he conducted in recent years found a large majority of American Indians took offense at the name “Redskins.”Ĭharli Eaton, a Cal State San Bernardino graduate student pursuing a master’s in public administration, helped with that study. He has a friend who wears a Cleveland Indians cap. To be fair, he said, some Native Americans in Southern California disagree. “They (fans) get the idea that it’s OK to mimic us,” Castellano said.Īnd Castellano disagrees with the notion that such names and logos honor Native Americans. It’s just not,” said Mario Castellano, a 34-year-old San Bernardino resident and computer science major at Cal State San Bernardino who’s a tribal member of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeño Indians. Some Native Americans contend it was weird to use a Native American name in the first place. “If you had to make something up, it’d be weird,” Aceves said. But Aceves grew up on the East Coast and has long been a fan of the NFL’s Washington Redskins. Neither Leath or Aceves are Cleveland Indians fans and won’t be bothered by the outcome of the mascot debate. “America has gotten way too sensitive on this subject.” His friend and construction partner, Ryan Leath, 36, of Riverside, said it would be a shame to do away with the name Indians - and similar sport-team names, for that matter.
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“I think they should wear these national team names with pride,” he said. If anything, Aceves said, it would seem the Indians’ name honors Native Americans.
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“We have to be considerate,” said the 35-year-old commercial construction worker from Lake Elsinore, relaxing at Events Sports Grill, a Riverside sports bar Wednesday, as the national anthem was sung for Game 2 of the World Series.