Tuesday, May 18, 1999
Indian activist asks Anderson to drop 'Redskin'
BY PERRY BROTHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP — The battle over the political correctness of team nicknames has moved from colleges to high schools.
An American Indian activist told the Forest Hills school board Monday night that Anderson High School's “Redskins” nickname is offensive and should be changed.
The board took no action on the comments made by Guy Jones, executive director of the Miami Valley Center for Native Americans, and Jene Galvin, a school district parent. About a dozen supporters of American Indian rights also attended the meeting.
“I come here tonight to fight for the survival of the American Indian people,” Mr. Jones, of Dayton, Ohio, told the board.
“We are viewed as a baseball team, a basketball team. We are the Dodge Dakota ... and Big Chief writing tablets. I ask you to give some dignity back to the American Indian people.”
Mr. Jones said his request is part of a statewide push to eliminate the use of American Indian monikers by Ohio schools by 2003. Mr. Jones said Dutch traders first used the term “Redskin” to describe the scalps of American Indians killed for bounties.
Mr. Galvin, who has written columns about the issue in an Anderson Township community newspaper, said keeping the nickname is harmful. “The term Redskins is flat-out racist,” he said.
Michael Hall, Anderson High's principal, said after the meeting that only one other parent has expressed concern about the nickname in his 14 years as principal.
Mr. Hall said the team nickname is not offensive and was chosen because of the brave heritage of American Indians.
“There is no problem here,” he said. “These people want to make it a problem, but there's no problem here.”
Earlier this month, Susan Hoffman, vice chairwoman of the American Indian Movement (AIM) regional support group, sent Mr. Hall a letter complaining about the team nickname.
In his response to Ms. Hoffman's letter, he defended the school tradition, writing: “Redskins were proud, strong people. The nickname honors this spirit. It was chosen in hopes that those who use the nickname might absorb some of the indomitable spirit of its namesake.”
Ms. Hoffman, of Fort Mitchell, who attended the meeting, said the principal's response was “infuriating.”
“How does a school's tradition override racism?” she asked after reading the letter, which was given to her during the meeting.
LeeAnn McNabb, of California, Ohio, committee chairwoman of the support group, also criticized the letter, saying: “Slavery was a tradition, too.”
Mr. Hall said the school has no plans to change the team nickname but might organize a committee of students and school officials to gauge support for a change.
Two years ago, the school received no responses to an alumni survey asking whether the nickname should be changed. The survey was sent out after American Indian activists successfully rallied Miami University to change its team nickname to “RedHawks” from “Redskins.”
A trusted ear best defense for schools?
Fountain barricade coming down
Indian activist asks Anderson to drop 'Redskin'
Police raid challenged
Suspect 'on the run all his life'
Baby, rescued from trash can, dies after 5 months
Dropout rate climbs in Ohio, Ky.
Reds, county near lease
Spanish-language paper launched
Kentucky experiments in electronic education
New center at airport to train pilots
Ohio censors license plates
Road-rage driver may go back to jail
Sexual abuser gets lighter sentence because boy's mother loves him
Lilith Fair collections catch spirit
'Phantom Menace' more than a movie
GET TO IT
Athletes' grades high, district says school says
Bellevue will renovate bridge
Big dreams for Lawrenceburg
Butler Co. finds some park money
Clinton Memorial plans to grow
Cost-cutting may reduce test sites for Walnut Hills
County sees worth of extra sewer work
East-siders protest jail site
Embezzler's sentence suspended
Mason hires Herman's Hermits
New gateway signs beckon visitors
Newport may find new uses for its old pools
Public views sought on jail
Tornado's victims get help from kids' choir
TRISTATE DIGEST
Two resign at Children Services
Winburn expands plan for Over-the-Rhine housing
Woodlawn lands Trane center
Y pool to open despite damage
