2008 Woodie Awards
The Last Dance of Chief Illiniwek
MCT Campus
Issue date: 2/26/07 Section: Opinions
The news is out that the University of Illinois will drop its Chief Illiniwek mascot. It just goes to show that not all "traditions" are honorable.
It all began in 1926 when an Illinois student named Lester Leutwiler put on a homemade Indian costume and pranced around the football field at half time.
It will come to an end on Wednesday when the current mascot, Dan Maloney, will do the
splits and other non-Indian dance steps for the last time.
This time-honored tradition faced its first objection when a young lady of Spokane Indian
heritage, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, named Charlene Teters, stood alone and fearful at a football game in Champaign holding a small sign that read, "We are human beings and not mascots."
Many of the fans and alumni of the "Fighting Illini" were at first puzzled and then angered at the audacity of this young Indian
lady. Some spat on her as they walked past and others flipped burning cigarettes at her.
But she tearfully stood her ground because she had grown increasingly sick and tired of
having her people insulted every Saturday for the sake of a football game.
To stand alone in the face of such fury and anger from a supposed educated segment of
America's white society took courage and determination, but the constant insults and abuse soon caused Teters to waiver.
Her fear was mostly for that of her children and not herself. But tell me this: Why should any person fear for their very lives
for protesting the use of Indians as mascots for America's fun and games?
After observing a particular crude presentation at the half time of a Washington Redskins football game in 1982 I wrote a column questioning the use of human beings as mascots in a fashion that demeaned them. The incident involved a group of fans painting a pig red, placing a feathered bonnet on its head and then chasing it
around the fifty-yard line as halftime entertainment.
The first thing that struck me was what if these fans had painted a pig black and placed an Afrowig on its head and did this stunt at half time?
It all began in 1926 when an Illinois student named Lester Leutwiler put on a homemade Indian costume and pranced around the football field at half time.
It will come to an end on Wednesday when the current mascot, Dan Maloney, will do the
splits and other non-Indian dance steps for the last time.
This time-honored tradition faced its first objection when a young lady of Spokane Indian
heritage, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, named Charlene Teters, stood alone and fearful at a football game in Champaign holding a small sign that read, "We are human beings and not mascots."
Many of the fans and alumni of the "Fighting Illini" were at first puzzled and then angered at the audacity of this young Indian
lady. Some spat on her as they walked past and others flipped burning cigarettes at her.
But she tearfully stood her ground because she had grown increasingly sick and tired of
having her people insulted every Saturday for the sake of a football game.
To stand alone in the face of such fury and anger from a supposed educated segment of
America's white society took courage and determination, but the constant insults and abuse soon caused Teters to waiver.
Her fear was mostly for that of her children and not herself. But tell me this: Why should any person fear for their very lives
for protesting the use of Indians as mascots for America's fun and games?
After observing a particular crude presentation at the half time of a Washington Redskins football game in 1982 I wrote a column questioning the use of human beings as mascots in a fashion that demeaned them. The incident involved a group of fans painting a pig red, placing a feathered bonnet on its head and then chasing it
around the fifty-yard line as halftime entertainment.
The first thing that struck me was what if these fans had painted a pig black and placed an Afrowig on its head and did this stunt at half time?
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