Team Spirits by C. Richard King (Editor), Charles F. Springwood (Editor), Vine Deloria (Foreword by)

Product Details

Synopsis

A growing controversy in recent years has arisen around the use and abuse of Native American team mascots. The Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Florida State Seminoles, and so forth—these are just a few of the images and names popularly associated with Native Americans that are still used as mascots by professional sports teams, dozens of universities, and countless high schools. This practice, a troubling legacy of Native–Euro-American relations in the United States, has sparked heated debates and intense protests that continue to escalate. Team Spirits is the first comprehensive look at the Native American mascots controversy. In this work activists and academics explore the origins of Native American mascots, the messages they convey, and the reasons for their persistence into the twenty-first century. The essays examine hotly contested uses of mascots, including the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, and the University of Illinois's Chief Illiniwek, as well as equally problematic but more complicated examples such as the Florida State Seminoles and the multitude of Native mascots at Marquette University. Also showcased are examples of successful opposition, including an end to Native American mascots at Springfield College and in Los Angeles public schools.

KLIATT

This scholarly and complicated book of critical essays brings much information to the controversy about the use and abuse of Native American mascots for sport teams. Its essays deal with the origin of this practice; the cultural implications; the individual mascots of teams such as the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins; and finally, some examples of successful oppositions to the mascots. The book is full of information on this subject, but unless readers have a special interest in the topic, they may find it hard going. Public libraries should have a copy of this but school libraries with limited funds should probably pass. KLIATT Codes: A—Recommended for advanced students, and adults. 2001, Univ. of Nebraska/Bison Books, 356p, index, 22cm, 00-059968, $24.95. Ages 17 to adult. Reviewer: Barbara Jo McKee; Libn/Media Dir. Streetsboro H.S. Stow, OH, May 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 3)

Biography

C. Richard King is an assistant professor of anthropology at Drake University, and Charles Fruehling Springwood is an assistant professor of anthropology at Illinois Wesleyan University. King and Springwood are coauthors of Beyond the Cheers: Race As Spectacle in College Sport.