Statement from the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
May 2018
"The Business Committee of the Peoria Tribe passed Resolution on April 4, 2000, that the University of Illiniois would cease any use of the "chief illiniwek" as their mascot, as "the image portrayed by chief illiniwek does not accurately represent or honor the heritage of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and is a degrading racial stereotype that reflects negatively on all American Indian people." (R-04-04-00) The Peoria Tribe of Indians does not endorse or sanction the characterization of chief illiniwek as the mascot for the University of Illinios, nor do they have any future plans to rescind the tribal resolution, which was approved by a unanimous vote.
The Peoria Tribe, our past Tribal leaders, and newly elected Chief Harper, have all had great working relationships with the University of Illiniois. From the Chancellor's Office, Adminstration, IBC, Genomic Biology Department, Native American House, and other departments. We hope to continue to build on this relationship and move beyond this issue from the past"
NAH Statement
The Native American House at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides a place where students, faculty, staff, and community members may increase their knowledge and understanding of the histories of American Indian peoples and their cultures, both past and present. Part of this understanding rests on the ability to critique and set aside images that confine the perception of an entire people to a limited and narrow existence. Stereotypical images, negative or positive, are barriers to understanding and seriously miseducate the public about Native Americans. Therefore, the Native American House and American Indian Studies faculty insist that the University of Illinios Board of Trustees discontinue the use of 'chief illiniwek' in name, performance, and symbol.
Mascot Resources
Selected Articles and Books
- Baca, Lawrence. (2004). "Native Images in Schools and the Racially Hostile Environment." Journal of Sport & Social Issues 28(1):71-78.
- Bataille, Gretchen M. (2001). Native American Representations: First Encounters, Distorted Images, and Literary Appropriations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
- Berkhofer, Robert F. (1978). The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian, from Columbus to the Present. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
- Black, Jason Edward. (2002). "The Mascotting of Native America: Construction, Commodity, and Assimilation." American Indian Quarterly 26(4):605-622.
- Bresnahan, Mary J. and Flowers, K. (2008). "The Effects of Involvement in Sports on Attitudes Toward Native American Sports Mascots." The Howard Journal of Communicatios 19:165-181.
- Briggs, Kara, and Dan Lewerenz. (2003). "Reading Red Report 2003: A Call for the News Media to Recognize Racism in Sports Team Nicknames and Mascots." 31 May 2007.
- Chaney, John., Burke, Amanda, and Burkley, Edward. (2011). "Do American Indian Mascots = American Indian People? Examining Implicit Bias towards American Indian People and American Indian Mascots." American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research 18(1):42-62.
- Clark, David Anthony Tyeeme. (2005). "Wa a o, wa ba ski na me ska ta! 'Indian' Mascots and the Pathology of Anti-Indigenous Racism." In In the Game: Race, Identity, and Sports in the Twentieth Century, edited by A. Bass, 137-166. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Clark, Anthony, D., Spanierman, Lisa B., Reed, Tamilia D., Soble, Jason R. and Cabana, Sharon. (2011). "Documenting Weblog Expressions of Racial Microaggressions that Target American Indians." Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 4(1): 39-50.
- Deloria, Philip J. (1999). Playing Indian. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
- ---. (2004) Indians in Unexpected Places. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
- Farnell, Brenda. (2004). "The Fancy Dance of Racializing Discourse." Journal of Sport & Social Issues 28(1):30-55.
- Freng, Scott and Willis-Esqueda, Cynthia. (2011). "A Question of Honor: Chief Wahoo and American Indian Stereotype Activation Among a University Based Sample." The Journal of Social Psychology 151(5): 577-591.
- Gone, Joseph P. (1995). "Chief Illiniwek: Dignified or Damaging?" 31 May 2007.
- Huhndorf, Shari. (2001). Going Native. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
- Kim-Prieto, Chu, Goldstein, Lizabeth A., Okazaki, Sumie, and Kirschiner, Blake. (2010). "Effect of Exposure to an American Indian Mascot on the Tendency to Stereotype a Different Minority Group."Journal of Applied Social Psychology 40(2): 534-553.
- King, C. Richard. (1998). "Spectacles, Sports, and Stereotypes: Dis/Playing Chief Illiniwek." InColonial Discourses, Collective Memories, and the Exhibition of Native American Cultures and Histories in the Contemporary United States, 41-58. New York: Garland.
- King, C. Richard, and Charles Fruehling Springwood, eds. (2001). Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska.
- LaRocque, Angela R., Douglas McDonald, Douglas J., Weatherly, Jeff N., and Ferraro, Richard F. (2011). "Indian Sports Nicknames/Logos: Affective Differences between American Indian and Non-Indian College Students." American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research 18(2):1-16.
- Mihesuah, Devon A. (1996). American Indians: Stereotypes and Realities. Atlanta, GA: Clarity Press, Inc.
- Neville, Helen A., Yeung, Jeffrey G., Todd, Nathan R., Spainerman, Lisa B., Reed, Tamilia D. (2011). "Colorblind Racial Ideology and Beliefs About a Racialized University Mascot." Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 4(4):236-249.
- Pewewardy, Cornell D. (1991). "Native American Mascots and Imagery: The Struggle of Unlearning Indian Stereotypes." Journal of Navaho Education 9(1):19-23.
- ---. (1999). "From La Belle Sauvage to the Nobel Savage: The Deculturalization of Indian Mascots in American Culture." Multicultural Education 6:6-11.
- ---. "Why Educators Can't Ignore Indian Mascots." 31 May 2007.
- Slapin, Beverly, and Doris Seale, eds. (1992). Through Indian Eyes: the Native Experience in Books for Children. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers.
- Spindel, Carol. (2000). Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy over American Indian Mascots. New York: New York University Press.
- Steinfeldt, Jesse A., Foltz, Brad D., Kaladow, Jennifer K., Carlson, Tracy N., Pagano, Louis A., Benton, Emily and Steinfelt, Clint M. (2010). "Racism in the Electronic Age: Role of Online Forums in Expressing Racial Attitudes about American Indians." Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 16(3):362-371.
- Steinfeldt, Jesse A., Steinfelt, Matthew C. (2012). "Multicultural Training Intervention to Address American Indian Stereotypes." Counselor Education & Supervision 51:17-32.
- Steinfeldt, Jesse A., Wong, Joel Y. (2010). "Multicultural Training on American Indian Issues: Testing the Effectiveness of an Intervention to Change Attitudes Toward Native-Themed Mascots." Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 16(2):110-115.
- Strong, Pauline Turner. (2004). "The Mascot Slot: Cultural Citizenship, Political Correctness, and Pseudo-Indian Sports Symbols." Journal of Sport & Social Issues 28(1):79-87.
Films
- Rosenstein, Jay. 1996. In Whose Honor? American Indian Mascots in Sports. Available from New Day Films, Ho-ho-kus, NJ.