AMES, Iowa -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in November that it would not review a 17-year-old legal challenge by the National Congress of American Indians that the nickname of the National Football League's Washington Redskins is so racially offensive that it does not deserve trademark protection.
But another group of challengers -- a group of young Native Americans, including Jillian Pappan of Sioux City, Iowa and the Omaha (Neb.) Tribe -- has filed a similar trademark cancellation suit in hopes that they can change the final verdict on use of the "Redskins" name.
They're certainly not alone when it comes to the fight over the use of Indian-related sports names and accompanying mascots. About 20 colleges have been urged by the NCAA to drop names considered disrespectful to Native Americans.
Passionate about Native American sports names
And in the great debate over Native American sports names and mascots, an Iowa State University American Indian Studies faculty member and researcher understands why passions run so deep.
"It [the debate] is so heated because it relates to the way Native Americans understand and construct their own identities. But it's also connected to the way that non-Native people use imagery of American Indians as way to construct a sense of Americaness," said Christina Gish Berndt, who is an ISU lecturer in anthropology. "And so there are these conflicting constructions of identity that are in play. And both groups are incredibly invested in those constructions, but they're often at odds with each other."
Since 2003, Berndt has spent her summers studying the Northern Cheyenne people in Montana for her research on the expression of sovereignty in American Indian communities. She authored a chapter on sovereign native nationhood for a future book, "Tribal Worlds: Critical Studies in American Indian Nation Building," edited by Brian Hosmer and Larry Nesper, which is scheduled to be published this spring.
The ISU researcher points out that use of Indian imagery by non-Native people goes back to the pre-Revolutionary War, when American colonists were already using the image of an Indian to represent themselves as being distinct from Europe.
"The very distinctive images of an Indian person that almost all Americans are familiar with were already being used as a way to distinguish Americans from Europeans and set up a dichotomy of the American as free, independent and strong; as opposed to the weak, soft European," Berndt said. "So there was this very positive association of an American citizen with Indian imagery.
"And I think that's behind the mascot issue and why it's so difficult for non-Native people to let go of Indian mascots," she continued. "They're very personally attached in a deep way to that imagery. I do think it creates an impasse on the issue. People feel very strongly about their mascots and it's that emotion that is at the heart of it."
A case of mistaken identity
In her research, Berndt has found Native Americans' perceptions of identity are very different from those of many non-Natives. And the debate over Indian sports names and mascots amplifies those differences -- with the name "Redskins" becoming a flash point.
"It has a lot to do with the fact that many Native people see Redskin as a racial slur," Berndt said. "And so, it's not just the image, but the use of the term 'Redskin' itself."
But not all Indian-related sports names and mascots have drawn the ire of Native people. The Seminole tribe in Florida sanctions Florida State University's use of "Seminole" as the school nickname and "Chief Osceola" -- a Seminole chief bearing a spear and riding a white horse named Renegade -- as the mascot.
"It's still a stereotyped representation [of Indian imagery]," Berndt said. "But the Seminole example is a good one to show the diversity of Native responses to these kinds of questions and issues. Not everybody agrees."
Native responses to such mascots as the Cleveland Indians' Chief Wahoo, the University of Illinois' Chief Illiniwek, and the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux have been less kind. That's why Berndt has found the controversy to be an important topic to take to her classroom.
"I think it's really useful because it gets students thinking about the whole issue of stereotypes from a critical perspective. They begin to realize how much stereotypic images have affected how they see the world, and also how these stereotypes impact Native people as well," she said.
And because Native Americans continue to be concerned about those stereotypes and the way they're portrayed through sports team names and mascots, Berndt anticipates they'll keep up the legal fight against them.