Issue date: 5/3/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Jennifer Hietpas (Left to right) Billy Daniels and Ray Cadotte participate in an inter-tribal dance Saturday at the annual Powwow in Zorn Arena. The event was part of Native American Awareness Month. Daniels, a Crandon native, represents the Potawatomie with his Great Lakes designs.

Washington Redskins, Chicago Blackhawks, Atlanta Braves, Florida State Seminoles, the former Marquette Warriors - all are examples of a growing issue regarding race and stereotyping in America, one American Indian from Wisconsin said.

"I'm not here to be politically correct but rather to represent a discussion that is prevalent across America," Mark Denning said to a small crowd Monday afternoon in Schofield Auditorium.

The event wrapped up Native American Awareness Month with an examination of American Indian stereotypes, particularly in sports mascots.

Denning, a member of the Oneida Nation and the Menominee Tribe, spoke of the importance of American Indian representation in the form of sports mascots.

"The only times when we see our names in the paper it is usually negative - except in the sports pages," he said.

Denning said the use of American Indians as sporting mascots was accepted among American Indians at first because it allowed for a positive image in the news.

The use of such mascots later moved from a symbol to a stereotype, he said.

"Stereotype, that's an ugly thing," he said. "It creates generalized views."

Marquette University exemplified this movement when it changed its Marquette Warrior from a rowdy mascot that would run and grab a cheerleader from the opposing team and take her off the court to a mascot that represented all American Indian tribes, Denning said.

The university accepted the change in mascots at first, he said, but later the students at Marquette wanted to return the mascot back to the former warrior. The university refused. Eventually, there was no interest in the warrior mascot and the school changed completely by adopting its current masoct, the Golden Eagles.

Junior Todd Sauve said the story behind the Marquette mascot struck him the most from the presentation.

"You don't really think about (mascots) representing an individual," he said, "rather, just a broad stereotype."

Denning also said the act to remove the stereotypes found in American Indian mascots isn't completely an American Indian issue, adding American Indians have very little political clout.

"Native Americans make up one half of one percent of the American population," he said. "So non-natives have taken on the issue."

Denning concluded his presentation by painting a picture of what it would be like to have an "American Mascot." He said it would be a bald, middle-aged white male that wore glasses and had a camera draped around his neck.

"The issue isn't political correctness," Denning said. "It's about race and representation - Native Americans are more than dancing and beads."

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