In an America where Indians aren’t even called Indians anymore, what’s in a name?

Setting the stage for this is a wkowtv article on Poynette school district in Poynette, Wisconsin voting to change the 70-some year old mascot from ‘Poynette Indians’ to something else such as ‘Elk’, ‘Bears’, ‘Panthers’ or some other mascot which is unable to rise up as a group collectively and fight against the use of their race.

Let’s look at what a mascot is first:

70 years ago, Poynette high school adopted the Indian as a symbolic figure to represent and bring good luck to their team and school. Put into context, and in the spirit of common sense; common sense tells us that we’re talking football here for the most part.

Football. It’s an extremely physical, organized type of fighting game of which most Americans know of very well; and in choosing a mascot, you’re looking for something that will convey your dominance and prowess on the field; something which will effectively strike fear into your opponent.

What’s wrong with the Indian? An Indian as a mascot serves many purposes and conjures up many images:

1. Dominance and skill in times of war (football & other sports)
2. Focus, determination, and survival when not at war (striving for excellence)
3. Thoughtfulness, criticality, and harmony with all things in the world (morality & civic duties)

Here’s what I think.

I think the school board managed to overlook all of the good things we think of when we think Indian, and focus primarily on the “bad” things, which consist mostly of falling prey to the notion that “Indian” is synonomous with “Brutal Killer”, “Scalp Chaser”, or some other racially-charged image, which most of us outside of politics don’t even possess.

I think that back in the day, when the image of the Indian was coined as the mascot for Poynette High School; people had a little more common sense and were a bit more learned about things. They were able to critically think things through. Those who initially chose the Indian as a mascot I think were able to see the full picture, not just one that is consistently presented to us in a bad light by sites like this, and this, and this; lest we forget the constant droning by the news media calling for PC on a daily basis as well as the constant barrage of junk we see coming out of the Madison school district. That’s another story all together.

I think… The school board thinks their feet are held to the fire because they’re on the list.

Well, school board… Grow a pair. Take a stand instead of pandering to these idiots who can’t get over a simple word coined by some baffoon who can’t navigate and landed on the wrong continent some 500 years ago!

You want to be sooooo “progressive” there in Poynette? Draft a resolution, send it to the AICS and tell them where to go. Tell them to get over it and tell them what ‘Poynette Indians’ really means.

Do you lose sleep when you hear someone refer to Poynette as a ‘hick’ town? implying that you, and everyone else that lives there is a ‘hick’? Probably not.

I’d also bet you don’t have a problem when someone refers to ‘regular’ underwear as ‘tighty whities’ either? Yes, I suppose I could construe that to infer that all white people are ‘tight’, and henceforth become offended. Hell, might want to talk to the village board, you might be able to get them to outlaw open fires.. afterall, they billow white smoke which could be interpeted as the person whom lit the fire having the desire to burn white people.

See where this is going? Think my analogies are crazy?

What would your grandparents have said about changing the mascot because of the reasoning in this quote:

“Native Americans deserve to have an uproar about it,” said rising high school freshman Nick Butler. “It can be considered offensive.”

Basing anything solely on the possibility that someone, somewhere will be offended in the slightest bit is always a bad political move. You’d think we’d learn that by now.

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