Existing comment:
Q. Native American schools use Indian mascots. Why can't anyone else?
A. Maybe an example will help. The American flag is a symbol that represents the US. It's ours. It represents us. Now, imagine a group of people who belong to some other nation deciding to use our flag as their symbol. Mascots, like the flag, are collective representations of a group. They can be wonderful things, providing an image of unity for its members. It's true that some Native American and tribal schools use native American images for their images, but many don't. The difference is that these images belong to this group of people.
-- Russell Thornton (Cherokee), anthropologist, UCLA
[Personal note: Of course, by the same token, the tunes for both "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" were stolen from others. The weirdest example of the two, the tune for The Star-Spangled Banner was "borrowed" from an old British drinking song. So the anthem written against British aggression in Baltimore owes its popularity -- and its inability to be sung easily -- to the British themselves. If Parliament asked us to change our national anthem, would we?] |