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.