Did your High School have a Indian nickname?

[sasquatch]

Mine did we were the Carlisle Indians. The dumbasses who decided on it back then were naming us after the Carlisle Indians that Jim Thorpe played for. What they didn't know is that the full name of the school was 'The Carlisle Indian Reformatory school' it was basicaly a prison. On my wrestling team we did have a kid that was part Cherokee, he was a 215/HWT that would wrestle heavyweight when I was injured. Now that's not the tribe that originated from Carlisle, the tribes that did were Miami and Shawnee. I wouldn't be upset if they changed it because they're arn't that many Indian kids that are Indian. I wish they named us the Boilermakers because we've got a shitload of railroads in our town. So does your High School have a Indian nickname? Does it offend you if you're an Indian? How do you feel about ethnic nicknames for sporting teams?

[Alenne]

1. The Indian River Braves

Our mascot was a white guy dressed up as an Indian.

[Deja Q]

2. Well, mine was kinda related:

We were the Roseville Raiders.

Raiders.

American forefathers raided and exterminated Indians, though I'll admit humans were slightly more barbaric 400 years ago...

[5thGenDemocrat]

3. My high school didn't

Saginaw Arthur Hill HS is the "Lumberjacks."
But my college, Central Michigan University, proudly calls itself the "Chippewas." And the Chippewa Tribe is fine with it.
John
CMU knows, because we asked them twenty years ago.

[Another Bill C.]

5. That's probably because

Chippewa is a French corruption of Ojibwe and not their real name. The traditional tribal name is Anishinabe. I think the laugh is on CMU because their teams are named for a nonexistent entity and the Anishinabe know it.

[5thGenDemocrat]

8. No -- actually they do know that

But they still asked the tribe for permission. And the cry "Fire Up Anishinabe" doesn't quite have the same ring.
Around Michigan (at least around central Michigan) we are all aware that Chippewas and Ottawas are the same group. In fact, I lived in Petoskey (near the tip of the Lower Peninsula) for four years and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of native Americans there -- who uniformly refer to themselves as "Ottawas."
I never heard the term "Anishinabe" until you mentioned it. But I'll take your word for it.
John
Wolverines never lived in Michigan, either. The Michiganians, as a people, were so named because of their attitudes towards newcomers. The university, as an entity, thus also uses a misnomer as a nickname. I also don't think there were ever any Spartans (MSU) in Michigan either.
ON EDIT: CMU does not use a mascot and never has -- at least not since I was at the school in 1981.

[LuLu550]

4. Massapequa Chiefs

Long Island, the native tribe was the "Marsepeqs," woodland Indians with similar clothing and housing to most Eastern tribes like the Iraquois. Trouble is, our logo and mascot had full feathered war bonnets and wore the clothing of the Plains Indians. Dumbasses!

[Deb]

6. Here is a site I found

several years ago when NY was asking public schools to lose the mascots. Tons of info and very insightful. Shamefully, yes, my school did have an Indian mascot.

http://www.aistm.org/1indexpage.htm

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

7. We're the Warriors

and the school changed the Indian head logo on our gym floor, which I thought was a waste of money. It was not a disrepectful logo like the "Cleveland Indians" logo is. It was actually very nice and historically accurate. Commissioner Mills went overboard on that request in NY. Sorry, but I even wrote a letter to the editor about it.

[Squibbie]

9. Normandy Vikings '57

God I'm old. The Vikings were Scandinavian Indians - er,
Native Scandinavians.

http://blogger2.hootsandtoots.com/Wrecked/wrecked.html

[sasquatch]

10. My Grandpa played for the Miamisburg Vikings in the 40's

when they still wore leather helmets and no face mask.

[maveric]

11. Yeah, the Punjabis

Oh, you mean native american??
<sarcasm>

[sasquatch]

12. Don't get it

What's a Punjabis?

[maveric]

14. Of the Punjab region of northwestern India.

[SiobhanClancy]

13. No,and I'm glad

Some of the Native American portrayals/mascots are offensive,and some are not. I'm just not too comfortable with the use of any ethnic group for a sports team. It's not the biggest problem in the world today by any means,I just think it would be better not to even go there. I don't even like the "Fighting Irish" name and their goofy leprechaun mascot,but I can live with it. Some of these long-established teams are not going to change,but maybe it would be best avoided in the future.
That's my wishy-washy opinion on the matter.

[sasquatch]

16. I don't know how I'd feel about the "Fighting Krauts"

Unless it was Eisonhower leading us to victory against fascism. If the logo was a German man in traditional dress with his fist up I'd guess it'd be alright?

[SiobhanClancy]

22. This isn't QUITE how I see the Irish being represented

But it isn't any worse than a lot of the St. Patrick's Day garbage.

[Another Bill C.]

30. I'm with you Siobhán

This is an obnoxious representation. What bothers me as much is that third+ generation American Irish see themselves and their grandfathers as 19th century British cartoon characters and try their best to live up to that characterization.

[SiobhanClancy]

33. A REAL Fighting Irishman...

I totally agree with you,Bill. The St. Patrick's Day parade in South Boston is a prime example. That Notre Dame "mascot" is very similar to the simian-like Irish cartoon figures in 19th century American newspapers.

[Squibbie]

25. Sasquatch

ROFLMAO! What a great mascot. Can we throw a few wieners in with the Krauts.

http://blogger2.hootsandtoots.com/Wrecked/wrecked.html

[sasquatch]

28. How about a beer in one hand....

and a ax in the other:evilgrin: or a bratwurst in one hand and a ax in the other could work:evilgrin:

[SmileyBoy]

15. My college's soon to be defunct rival is the UND Fighting Sioux.

There's a HUGE controversy about it over here. It has been talked about on Around The Horn and PTI on ESPN.

[sasquatch]

18. I heard the guy that is supporting the UND nickname...

does stuff like celebrating Hitlers birthday:wtf: He said he'd withdraw his money from the school's hockey arena if they changed it.

[SmileyBoy]

26. I never heard that Ralph Engelstad was a racist.

He's the guy who died this year that gave the donation to the $110 million, 11,500-seat hockey arena for UND. He owned a chain of casinos in Vegas, Biloxi and Atlantic City.

I never heard anything of him being a racist. Anyway, he died some months ago.

[carpetbagger]

17. Nope. Mine (1st HS) was worse. Trojans.

Motto: "Trojans carry the torch of learning"

This was the torch of learning, whose scent permeated the whole building:

[theemu]

19. My college

My college continues to have an epic battle over its mascot. An unrecognized but nationally known conservative student paper has pushed for the institution of the 'Indian,' as our school was known by for decades, as the official mascot, whereas the college wishes to put it behind them.

Recently, the Student Assembly put together a referendum on a new college mascot, and the ballot is currently out. The contenders are the Woodsmen, the Yetis, the Moose, and an as-yet-undetermined Dr. Seuss inspired mascot. I voted for the Dr. Seuss mascot with the hopes that it will pass and that the Lorax will be chosen.

[sasquatch]

21. What's your College?

[theemu]

42. Dartmouth

Which is why Dr. Seuss is an issue. He was a graduate of the Class of '21.

[Piperay]

20. No but my college

newspaper was called the "Warwhoop", there was a move to change it but they never did.

[HEyHEY]

23. No......worse

We were called........ "The Moody Blues" Isn't that FUCKED?

[sasquatch]

24. HUH?!?

:wtf: were they high:smoke: when they thought of the name?

[HEyHEY]

27. Well...I'm from a place Called Port Moody

And I guess they thought the name Bllues just went with it or it was joke, I don't know but the school was built in the 70s. Now, a lot of teams form the area are called the Moody blues.

I even have my hockey jersey still that says "Moody blues" on it....not too much of an intimidation factor hitting the rink with nights in white satin cranked!

[sasquatch]

29. Why not the "Port Moody Blue Devils"?

:shrug:

[HEyHEY]

31. The more I think about the more I picture

When the school first opened, I bet they let the students vote on the name...it was the 70s, and school pride isn't a big thing in Canada, so they probably voted on it as a joke.

[devilgrrl]

32. We were the Spartans...

Like they a bunch to be emulated. :eyes:

I hated high school.

[sasquatch]

35. Me too

[eileen_d]

34. How about the "Fighting Whites"?

This is the tongue-in-cheek name of an intramural basketball team at U. of Northern Colorado. I got one of their t-shirts!

http://www.fightingwhites.org/index.aspx

The Fighting Whites basketball team was organized in early February (2002) by a group of Native American and non-Indian students of the University of Northern Colorado with the intent of playing intramural basketball. We came up with the "Fighting Whites" logo and slogan to have a little satirical fun and to deliver a simple, sincere, message about ethnic stereotyping. Since March 6, when our campus newspaper first reported on the "Fighting Whites", we have been launched into the national spotlight, propelled by a national debate over stereotyping American Indians in sports symbolism.

[sasquatch]

36. I like it

I wish more schools with a heavy Indian population would do that.

[Kat45]

37. Our team was the Red Raiders.

The logo was a picture of an American Indian, but rather than a cartoon caracature, it was a profile of an Indian's head in full headdress (if I'm remembering correctly).

[sasquatch]

40. is that Texas Tech's mascot

because they're called the Red Raiders

[frylock]

38. el cajon braves, here.

[sasquatch]

41. Loisiana I take it

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. Our team was the Mohawks

even though we were in Minnesota, where no Mohawks ever lived. The mascot was a guy dressed up in a huge red papier mache head with a Mohawk haircut and a feather.

To make it even worse, the junior high newspaper was the Tom Tom, and the senior high newspaper was the Smoke Signal.

As I understand it, they have since changed the name to something like Eagles.

[sasquatch]

43. We used to have the Madison Mohawks in our league

We played them in football and we lost all four years when I was in high school to them. We didn't wrestle against them though because thye didn't have a wrestling team.

[MinnFats]

44. No, but my college did. Minn. State University/Mankato...

as it's called now.
Lo, these many years ago the mascot was "Indians."
Around the time of the siege of Wounded Knee a push was made to change the mascot and the 'traditionalists' came up with all the standard arguments for doing so.

But the idea took hold in part because of Mankato's history with American Indians....After the Dakota/White folks 'conflict' of 1862, military tribunals (hmmmm....interesting coincidence) sentenced more than 300 of the defeated Santee and Dakota to be hanged, including many that were clearly innocent of any crime....Abraham Lincoln himself demanded to review each case and commuted the sentences of all but 38. Even so, many of those still condemned had not participated in the war and some even helped white settlers get away from the conflict. Final chapter....the largest mass execution in U.S. history took place in Mankato. There used to be a little stone marker at the site of the execution. It's gone now.
(You can read an excellent account of the whole thing in Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." Which, now that I think of it, should be required reading for all students of any type. Used to be everyone I knew had read it.)


MSU/Mankato finally saw the light and changed the name of the teams to 'Mavericks' and the mascot/symbol was changed to a wild horse. It was quite painless. The only cost was buying new uniforms and replacing some stationery, etc.
I'll bet most of the students there now don't even know about the controversy of nearly 30 years ago...Mankato for a time was a little Madison, a hotbed of radical ideas and a thriving local music scene.

[Mr. Brown of MD]

45. We were the Indians

The Franklin Indians.

I don't really know why that name was chosen.

I don't think there's anything overly wrong with ethnic nicknames for sporting teams, I just don't see the point.

-CollegeDude
Thinks there could probably be better ones

[Oracle]

46. Yeah, we were the Indians in high school same as Stanford was.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

47. Covina Colts