![\"notyourmascot\"](\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/notyourmascot-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\r\nOne of the first, if not the only, sports newscaster who decided not to use the word \u201cRedskin\u201d in his nightly newscast worked for KOTA-TV in Rapid City and his name was Bob Laskowski. \r\n
<\/p>\r\nBob was having lunch one day many years ago in the Big Boy Restaurant in Mitchell when I, then publisher of the Lakota Times, walked in the door on my way back from Brookings. I joined Bob and we talked about the use of Indians as mascots for America\u2019s fun and games for more than an hour. Bob thought about all he had heard from me that day and when he got back to Rapid City he decided he would not say \u201cRedskins\u201d anymore, but would simply say the NFL team from Washington.\r\n
<\/p>\r\nNo other sports caster or newspaper in the entire state of South Dakota caught on to Bob\u2019s noble gesture and they continue to this day to use the offensive \u201cRedskin\u201d word in their newspapers, radio and television sports reports.\r\n
<\/p>\r\n <\/P>\r\n I often used analogies to make my point. For example I would ask, \u201cWhat if a white man walked into a room filled with Lakota men and said \u2018How are all you redskins doing?\u2019\u201d I also spoke out against the use of the word \u201csquaw\u201d to describe an Indian woman. I once wrote, \u201cIf you think Indian women do not object to the word squaw walk up to an Indian woman sometime and say \u2018hello, squaw\u2019 and see if you don\u2019t get your face slapped.\u201d\r\n <\/p>\r\nI wrote my first column about mascots in 1982 and along with Suzan Harjo and Michael Haney, I appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to talk about mascots particularly the use of the word \u201cRedskin.\u201d That was in 1992. It was the first time Indian mascots had been discussed on a national television show.\r\n <\/p>\r\nMy dander about mascots was raised when I saw a game on national television with the Washington team. At half time they chased a pig painted red with a headband stuffed with feathers out on the field. I wrote, \u201cWhat if they had taken a pig and painted it black and stuck an Afro wig on its head?\u201d\r\n <\/P>\r\n<\/IMG>