"But here's the thing: the modern left has worked for decades to build a legal doctrine of proprietary ownership of images and words by indigenous peoples. My original Alma Mater, Arkansas State University, used to have a football team called The Indians. The team mascot looked a lot like Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians. But Native Americans apparently own the idea of Native Americans, and so ASU dumped the "Indians" name, and now the team is called the Red Wolves.

I happen to think that this is very bad political strategy. We are now in the business of systematically erasing the most visible references to our Native heritage. The cowboys and Indians movies are long gone. The mascots are on the way out. In a few decades, most American children won't know that there ever were such people as the Cherokee or Osage nations. That is what the Left is achieving. What Native American activists should have done was what everyone who owns a powerful brand name should: lease it out but keep it under control. Team mascots could have been a vehicle for teaching about our Native heritage, and I say "our" because Americans are Americans, native or otherwise. I am sure the reply would be: "we would never sell our heritage." Fine. Then someone will have to dig it up, a few centuries from now, and say all sorts of ridiculous things about it."

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Ken Blanchard: Lesbians & Indians (SD Politics 7/20)