On Us Horse-Indns as Mascots

There has been a lot of uproar about Us horse-Indns being used a mascots by majority-culture schools and sports teams in recent years.

People ask me for my opinion of the matter, and are often surprised when I tell them, "It's wrong to use us as mascots. It's rude and it's demeaning because mascotting makes us into cartoons. We are not public figures or public property for any bonehead to use that way. We are living, breathing People - Nations! - and our Traditional cultures are very much alive, however tattered by the ongoing assaults of the majority culture over the last 516 years. It shouldn't even be a subject for discussion. It should be intuitively obvious how wrong it is, and it should stop automatically as a result."

Those who have asked are invariably dismayed as well when I tell them these things, for they had not thought of them before. It seems the majority of people think of themselves as respectful, so it grabs them when they find out that they have wrongly colored themselves.

Here in Dakota Territory, we have two divisions of the area - North and South. In North Dakota, the state's largest university uses my people as its mascot. Without our permission, of course. There has been quite a bit of media coverage of the controversy as my People get active n objecting to being used this way. There has been quite a bit of rancor from the spoiled brats faction of the majority culture, too. They've made tons of money from us over the years, & we haven't gotten one red cent. We mean to kill off their cash cow and they like that as little as they like being forcefully reminded that they have behaved like a bunch of bigots and clods.

We were never asked if we wanted to be used as the mascot for the state's main university.. A university whose slogan includes such drivel as claiming that it exists to educate and to teach people to sift for truth and honor.. We were never offered gifts or any other kind of 'pay' before this practice was begun..
Indns in Dakota Territory exist at the bottom of the economic totem pole, and thanks to "The Custer Effect", the majority seem to think we belong there. Wrong. Just the same, there are a lot of excuses given for not hiring us, as employees or as contractors or otherwise patronizing our businesses.

Excuses given for not hiring us, or for not paying us equally with whites include such gems of stupidity as:
(1) Indns drink; meaning, "always to excess". This is blatant garbage. The majority of Indns do not drink alcohol at all, let alone 'to excess'. So - who are those people in beer commercials, anyway? Not Indns! We're a minority in our own country. We didn't create the problem when it does exist, either.
Alcohol was not made by any of us here before Europeans brought alcohol here when they 'discovered' us. (We'll discuss 'discovered' later.)
(2) Indns are unreliable. They don't show up & they don't call to say they aren't coming. This is not a uniquely Indn problem, either. I've been in business most of my life; if you read business magazine for the past 25 years - maybe more - you will find that The Top Problem discussed in them is "employee absenteeism" and how to stop it.
I'll tell you what employee absenteeism really is... First, it's not an Indn problem. We're a minority in our own land, remember? What employee absenteeism really is is the employees saying in actions, rather than just in words, that they are grossly unhappy with their working conditions. They are saying it with actions rather than words because they've tried words & have been ignored by their bosses every time. Actions speak louder than words..
In the case of Indns, though, there are other reasons for not calling when they aren't coming in. Since we live at the bottom of the economic totem pole, a telephone is a luxury we can't always afford. So there's seldom a neighbor to go to to make a call. Businesses have been UNfriendly about letting us use their phones.. If you can't come in, you aren't going to go to the job site to tell them, are you?
"Emergency" is a regular part of our language for a long time now. Out here, it's mainly because of what I call "The Custer Effect" or "Custerism". We beat the snot out of Custer et al at the Greasy Grass in 1876 and the whites are still trying to beat us up and "get even" for that. Basically, it's a 132-year-old temper tantrum, & its' still going on. People like me, who refuse to knuckle under, and who raise stink about it to 'the outside world' are not the most popular people here. I've been told "how dare you tell them about it?" "Them" is you out there.
Anyway, if you're up to your eyeballs in an emergency, you aren't likely to go looking for a phone to call work to tell them you aren't coming in on time. Besides, we know we'll tell them when we get there.. We are adults, after all.. In the Indn Way, adults don't say 'captain may I', we take care of our problems & then go on. The whites haven't learned that yet.
(3) Indns steal. / Indns are all thieves. I reply, "So who was it whose culture stole an entire continent from US, anyway?" There's always big silence after that one....
While we're at it, guess what is the second-most-discussed problem in American business the past 25 or so years? Em-ploy-ee theft. It's not an Indn problem. Your lot is no more virgin in this than we are, and there are more of you...

While we're discussing theft - let's consider the theft of dignity and self-esteem caused by mascotting. If you've been beaten on all of your life, you are likely to have low self-esteem to begin with. Being seen as a cartoon character isn't going to improve that, is it?

For my own self, I think I'd like to see the UND mascot changed to the Battling Bigots or some such. As for sports teams, there are plenty of possibilities for them that don't include making fun of us Indns.

So - now you know. Hechetu ye.

O Hanh! Welcome!

I send a warm handshake and good greetings to you. You will find many things here - satire, sarcasm, humor, puns, outrage, and even sometimes sorrow. I have a very wide range. In the majority culture's bigoted way, if I were male, I would be called a Renaissance man. Since I'm female - & horse-Indn to boot - I'm just called odd, different, or sometimes (rudest) 'weird'.
You will find my perspective, and you will find that I am not your average 'anything'. No one thinks for me and no one ever doubts where I stand on anything; not for more than a few minutes, anyway. I am said to be 'outspoken', by my detractors. Yep, I am. I haven't asked "captain may I?" since I was about 10 in very many instances. You can take it or leave it.. my heart won't cry.
If you've read About Me in here, you know I'm a horse-Indn, not an elephant-Indian, and not a "Native American". I'm anything but politically correct. No one ever thinks or speaks for me. Technically, I'm an ITI - an Indigenous Turtle Islander, me...
I am one of those who has always walked in two cultures - my Indn one (D/Lakota) and the majority culture. While we're here, touching on Indn cultures, let's get something straight. There is not, and there never was, "an" Indn culture. So unless you want me to poke you with the sharp end of my tongue, or maybe even slice you, if you write to me, don't speak about "the" Indn culture.
(My first ex would be the first to tell you that my tongue was made by Wilkinson Sword. Like any other tool, a knife, or a sharp tongue, can be used to do many things - cut away dross, skin a beast, slice n dice to ribbons...)
In the majority culture way, my essence is 70% air, & in 2 dual signs; 20% fire, in their own rulers; and 10% earth, so fire in earth. Sharp wit, lots of range, born an unusual being, moves fast most of the time, tons of tough and endurance, not afraid to tackle practically anything. Yes, we're talking about horoscopes. Another handy tool. One that touches the right side of the brain & speaks with your intuition. (In-tuit-ion - one's inner teacher).
While we're at this part about horoscopes, I'll tell you a true story. For all of my life, the simplest things I've done have ended up in amazing uproar oftener than not. It about drove me crazy, and like so many, I didn't used to put much stock in horoscopes. On t'other hand, I couldn't find any answers via either my culture or the majority culture as to why this is so.
I have a friend who did horoscopes for a living at that time, & finally, I went to her and asked if a natal horoscope could give me any insight. She said, "Sure!" Such a positive response was comforting, so I asked her if she would cast mine & give me a quick-&-dirty assessment. She would.
After she put the needed information into her computer, it kicked out my natal chart. These are uniquely one person's, because they are defined by latitude, longitude, time of day/night, month, day, and year of a person's birth. While it is within the realm of possibility that 2 people 'might' be born in the same city at the exact same time/day/month/year, the odds are pretty small.
Anyway, she looked at my chart for about 60 seconds, then jabbed a finger at it and said, "There! You have your asteroids in your "Nth" house, in Libra. You attract controversy like a lightning rod." I'm not telling you which house because I can't remember if it is the 5th or 6th.
Given that I am an heyoka, & we play with the lightnings on occasion, this was not comforting news. I said, "Loren! Couldn't you come up with a better analogy? I have enough trouble with the lightnings as it is!" and I laughed nervously. She smiled and said, "Ok. You attract controversy like honey attracts bears." I moaned. Then I said, "Big improvement. We've gone from lightning to large powerful things with long claws & huge fangs & vile tempers, that occasionally eat us." We both laughed & she said, "It's how you are, lady. Rosin your seat, sit deep, and get used to it. Your life will always be a wild ride." I've been working on that ever since.
She was absolutely right. It has always been a wild ride. I do the simplest things & chaos comes to visit. I'm not complaining, mind you. More like, I'm giving you notice. If you want a fresh perspective, no punches pulled, and controversy, this is probably the place to find it.
I don't have to try to be different - I was born different. Mitakuye oiasin.