I recently had to do a book report paper for my class. The assignment was to select a coach/manager of a pro or college team. I selected Bobby Bowden, legendary football coach of Florida State. I read the book, did the report, and while thinking about FSU, I started thinking about their mascot, Chief Osceola. For those not familiar, the chief is a student dressed in Native American clothing (apparently not even of the correct tribe that once lived in the region), complete with feathers, a weapon of some kind, face paint, and rides around on a horse, Renegade. 
Chief Osceola
Chief Illiniwek
FSU is not the only school to do this; Utah has the Utes, Seattle U use to have the Chieftains, Illinois has the Fighting Illini (though changed their logo and removed their mascot), North Dakota has the Fighting Sioux, San Diego State has the Aztecs, and that is just at the college level. Many college teams have changed, but mostly out of NCAA rules that affects the school's ability to make post seasons (and make money). Big schools such as Marquette, Standford, and Syracuse, have completely rid themselves of their Native American mascots. Smaller schools such as Eastern Washington and Southeastern Oklahoma have changed as well. FSU has been able to strike a deal with the Seminole tribe so that they are allowed to continue using the Chief, even though other Native Americans oppose.
But lets look at the pro sports world. Each of the 4 major sports has an example of Native American mascots being used. In the NHL, there is the Chicago Blackhawks. The NBA has the Golden State Warriors. MLB has two teams; the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians. The NFL has two teams as well, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Washington Redskins.
The photos above are of the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins. The reason I highlight these two is that out of all the professional teams, I see these are the most damaging. The Indians logo, on their hats that they wear 162 games/year, is a caricature of Native Americans, it is a humorous cartoon representation of a group of people. The Atlanta Braves and Warriors use to have logos similes to this, but got rid of them by the early 1990s. The Redskins are highlighted because their logo is clearly suppose to be of a Native American man, and their team's name is Redskin. Redskin is a derogatory and racist term used to describe Native Americans.
There are many defenses for these mascots; it is tradition, it is honoring Native Americans, it is simply sports/entertainment, just to name a few. I have been a sports fan my entire life and even when I was small, I thought something just doesn't look right about these logos. The Native American people have been marginalized by these mascots, no other minority group could be represented in this manner. (Are there ant teams named the Los Angeles Mexicans, or New York Jews, San Francisco Asians, or Atlanta Blacks, no). If anyone so much as attempted to do such things, there would be protests to no end. Now, Native American have protested sporting events by these teams with not so stellar results, the logos remain and Native Americans still feel offended.
I write this to point out that this is an issue I think people overlook far too often. Next time you watch a sporting event (be it pro or college) and see a mascot that has a Native American tie-in, take a moment and think about that mascot. Would you want your ancestry to be a mascot? How would you feel if your ethnic background was being paraded around in a stereotypical manner? There is no argument for keeping these racist mascots, every argument I previously mentioned cannot be supported with any strong evidence. Hopefully some day these teams will change; I am sure that a major road block is that there is too much of a fear that teams will lose revenue. But, it is a sad fact that we will continue to have millions of people watching a team that insults an entire race of people who have already faced so much tragedy in our nation's history.
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