Reznet

Name Shame

By Christina GoodVoice

TULSA, Okla.—Native American groups have asked a high school here to drop its mascot name, the Redskins, after a university in Florida demanded that the Oklahoma school stop using its trademark logo.

Cathy Burden, superintendent of Union Schools, said various Native American groups have asked the school to study the origin of the term "redskin" and to change the mascot name on grounds it is derogatory.

However, "we have very strong student support on maintaining the Redskins name," said Burden, in her ninth year as Union superintendent. "I have had the student council groups as well as the Native American student groups approach me on their support."

Many Native Americans, including members of the Tulsa Indian Coalition Against Racism, voiced their support for changing the 50-year-old mascot at a Union School Board meeting Feb. 10. The board made no decision on the issue.

The controversy arose in late December, Burden said, after the University of Miami told Union to "cease use of the split-U" logo immediately. The month before, Union had won the Class 6A state football championship.

Union's split-U, in use for the past 10 years, is a trademark on the state level, registered with the Oklahoma Secretary of State, Burden said. However, the University of Miami registered its split-U emblem as a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office more than 25 years before Union used its logo.

'Education Process'

Burden said the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry approached her soon after news of the Miami dispute. Executive Director Stephen Cranford confirmed that the "split-U is what sparked" his group to pursue a meeting with Burden on Jan. 17.

"We only asked for Union Public School to create an education process for faculty, students, parents and others," Cranford said. "We wanted them to study the true meaning of the term 'redskins,' and we hope they will want to change their mascot upon learning the meaning."

Burden said the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry is the first group to approach her with a formal request for Union and the school board to study the origin of the term "redskin."

The term is derived from early American history when settlers and soldiers skinned Native American men, as well as women and children, and sold the skins for money.

Burden maintains that Union's mascot name is in reverence to the Native Americans of Oklahoma, past and present.

According to Cranford, Burden acted defensively toward the subject of Union's mascot, but Cranford attributed this to "just doing her job."

'Picking on Them'

Cranford said Burden questioned the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry's focus only on Union's mascot among the hundred or so Native American-related mascots in high schools across Oklahoma. (One college, Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant—with 30 percent Native American student enrollment, one of the highest in the nation among four-year, public universities—is nicknamed the Savages.)

"Union is a great school system, and we consider them to be a leader among high schools in Oklahoma," Cranford said. "That's why we are 'picking on them.' "

Cranford said he hopes that Union will agree to study the "racist" term and change its mascot. Then hopefully other schools across the state with similar names will follow suit and change their mascots, he said.

Union's Native American student percentage is 9.6 percent of total school enrollment. Burden said there is a diversity of opinion among Union students.

Union resolved its dispute with the University of Miami. The high school agreed to pay a licensing fee to use the university's logo.

Christina GoodVoice, Muscogee, attends Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla. She is a 2001 graduate of The Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism Institute.