Wisconsin alum featured in documentary on Native mascots
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Suzan Shown Harjo was told by a non-Native person that if it wasn’t for sports mascots then Native Americans wouldn’t even be thought of by them.
“Good, because who wants to be thought of in that way,” was her response.
Harjo is featured in the documentary film, “Imagining the Indian,” which was released for streaming this week on Amazon and Apple TV ahead of this weekend’s Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
The film outlines the detrimental effects that Native American-based mascots for sports teams have in American culture.
The film also features Bronson Koenig, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation from Wisconsin, who shares some of his experiences with race-based sports mascots in the state.
Koenig was one of the stars of 2015 Wisconsin Badger Basketball helping to lead the team to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament that year and later played in the NBA’s G League.
He said he connected with the filmmakers through a mutual friend and was excited for the opportunity to appear in a high-level film.
Koenig said while in high school he played against teams in Wisconsin that had race-based names, mascots and logos, including the Redmen.
“It’s definitely unfortunate because there’s so much ignorance out there in the world,” he said.
Koenig said a lot people who support Native American mascots argue that they’re honoring Native Americans.
“At the end of the day why can’t you ask us how we want to be honored,” he said. “If it doesn’t fit into your box, then what.”
Koenig said more people should actually talk to Native Americans for learning and understanding.
“Why don’t you ask us to teach you about our ways,” he said. “That would get rid of so much ignorance.”
The first 20 minutes of the film depicts the history of how negative stereotypes of Native Americans have been shown in movies, cartoons, promotions and others aspects of U.S. society throughout the decades.
Advocates argue the demeaning and dehumanizing view of Native Americans contributes the ongoing generational trauma leading to issues, such as high suicide rates and drug addiction among Native Americans.
They argue that sports mascots by non-Native teams is akin to white conquerors parading the “vanquished” Native in a land they “purified” for European immigrants.
“The only benefit to Native mascots is to white Americans,” one commenter in the film said.
The word “mascot” is derived from the Spanish word “mascota” meaning “pet,” one commenter explained, and most mascots are animals.
The film delves quite a bit into the offensiveness of the Kansas City Chiefs name and especially the “tomahawk chop” that many fans perform at games as mocking Native Americans.
More than two dozen public school districts in Wisconsin still use Native American race-based mascots or logos.
Some are named Chiefs or Indians, but one, in Rib Lake, is called Redmen.
Tribal leaders from each of the 11 federally recognized tribal nations in Wisconsin have expressed opposition to such mascots and make that known to the Legislature every year during the State of the Tribes Address in Madison.
The first 20 minutes of the film depicts the history of how negative stereotypes of Native Americans have been shown in movies, cartoons, promotions and others aspects of U.S. society throughout the decades.