"There are some that claim that such team names are meant to honor American Indians and serve as a way to remember them and their culture. How is a caricature respectful? Depicting all Natives with big teeth, big noses, covered in war paint and dancing in eagle feathers around a campfire is the same as using a sambo or the mammy figure from plantation lore to represent the black community.

Some people argue that the protestors should be devoting their energies to making life better for their children and the tribes� futures. Given the high rate of teen suicide in the Native population, being constantly objectified as a dehumanized, soulless good-luck token, if anything, protestors like Vernon Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement and Charlene Teters are doing just that with their actions.

There�s also the 'political correctness run amok' or 'only a few people are offended by this' argument. While 81 percent of the American Indian community does not exactly constitute an overwhelming majority, this issue is not racially isolated."

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Lenzy Krehbiel: Offensive American Indian mascots need be thrown out (The Daily O'Collegian 5/3)