And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 23:21:21 -0600 (CST)
>From: "Progressive Resource/Action Coop." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Group rejects prize from Chief contest
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>Group rejects prize from Chief contest
>Indian center calls pro-Chief tactic 'deceptive'
>
>News-Gazette - Monday, February 15, 1999
>By J. Philip Bloomer
>News-Gazette Staff Writer
>
>URBANA -- Thanks but thanks.
>
>That's the word from the Native American Women's Health Education
>Resource Center to the Chief Illiniwek Educational Foundation.
>
>The CHIEF organization, as well as Students for Chief Illiniwek,
>announced a $1,000 essay contest last week, saying the prize would be
>donated to the resource center, which is a social service agency on the
>Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota.
>
>"It was very deceptive," Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the
>resource center, said this morning.'They never said they were a pro-Chief
>organization. It was devious, being used as a last-ditch effort to add
>credibility to an organization that favors the exploitation of Native
>Americans."
>
>Asetoyer said her office was deluged with calls and e-mail, from across
>the country, after news of the essay contest was made public.
>
>"They were all from people concerned and outraged about the perpetuation
>of a racist mascot," she said.
>
>John Mamminga, director of the Chief Illiniwek Education Foundation and a
>senior in business administration, announced the essay contest last week.
>The organization is seeking entries for the contest with the theme, "How
>does Chief Illiniwek best exemplify the spirit of the University of
>Illinois?"
>
>Mamminga is also listed under the registered student organizations as the
>contact person for Students for Chief Illiniwek.
>
> The CHIEF group announced the contest last Monday at the Illini Union, a
>day after an anti- Chief organization known as Women Against Racism held
>a fund-raising event at the Uni- versity YWCA to, in part, in- form
>people about a contest for an alternative symbol to Chief Illiniwek.
>
>Mamminga was not immediately available this morning but said last week
>that the essay contest was in part a response to Women Against Racism,
>and in part a continuation of his organization's goals.
>
>Its purpose is to increase awareness of American Indian culture and to
>support education and humanitarian efforts in the American Indian
>community, he said.
>
>CHIEF has also sponsored a seminar conducted by members of the Hopi tribe
>and participat- ed in a toy driee for Lakota children.
>
>Mamminga further called the Women Against Racism contest "absurd" and
>defended Chief Illiniwek as a proud symbol of the UI.
>
>Asetoyer said when the center was initially contacted by CHIEF, "we felt
>the establishment of some new allies, willing to support the important
>issues in the work we do."
>
>After learning about the group's leanings, she said, "I felt sickened
>that this group would go to such an extent as to co-opt Native American
>people to justify and perpetuate their continued use of this negative
>stereotype.
>
>"CHIEF, you have hurt the people in my community, and you have dishonored
>yourself."
>
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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