"A friend of mine in the 1980s, when he would come to Washington on tribal business, always included in his itinerary a certain downtown sporting goods store. There he would buy several maroon baseball caps adorned with the Redskins logo - the profile of a warrior on a shield bedecked with eagle feathers. The caps were for people on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation who gave him money to buy them.

But a growing number of people consider Native American-themed emblems and mascots demeaning and insist that they be deemed against official regulations in sports and perhaps even against the law. To illustrate the cultural offensiveness of such mascots, one national Indian columnist recently wrote about a little Lakota boy whose mother found him weeping in front of the TV set. When asked why he was crying, he responded that he was hurt by the use of ''Indians'' by the Cleveland baseball team. The message the writer sent was that the child would be scarred for life because of the insensitivity of professional sports. (No mention was made if the mother told the boy to change channels or, better yet, turn the damned thing off.)

Perhaps we of the older generation are inured by colonization and opiated by Christianity, for we tend not to be bothered by those things. Back in junior high and high school on the Pine Ridge Reservation, I loved to draw cartoons, and was considered quite good at it. One of my drawings that was prized by other students was the Chief Wahoo logo of the Cleveland Indians.

I agree with [ICT columnist Ronald] Toya that the issue should not be as big or as time-consuming as it is, and perhaps we should just try to understand the weird customs of the colonizers. First of all, we've got to recognize the importance of the name to a team's image, and the psychological effect it is supposed to have on opponents.

But, if it indeed offends people of various racial or ethnic groups, perhaps the teams - high school, college, independent or professional - should be convinced to change the name, emblem and mascot."

Get the Story:
Charles Trimble: Yet another side of the 'redskin' debate ... (Indian Country Today 9/15)

Redskins Petition:
Blackhorse v. ProFootball

Appeals Court Decision:
Pro-Football, Inc. v. Harjo (July 15, 2005)

Lower Court Decision:
Pro-Football, Inc. v. Harjo (September 30, 2003)

Patent and Trademark Office Ruling:
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (1999)

William "Lone Star" Dietz Research:
Linda Waggoner: Reclaiming James One Star (Indian Country Today 2004)

Relevant Links:
Redskins - http://www.redskins.com

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