And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: "CATHERINE DAVIDS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES OF THE AMERICAS
* SSILA Summer Meeting: SSILA's Chief Illiniwek resolution
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The Society held its 1999 Summer Meeting on the campus of the University
of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Friday and Saturday, July 9-10, in con-
junction with the 1999 Linguistic Institute. A welcoming reception was
held on Friday evening, and papers were read during morning and
afternoon sessions on Saturday. (See SSILA Bulletin #90 for authors and titles).
At the conclusion of the afternoon session a Summer Business Meeting was
held. The only topic on the agenda was discussion of the Society's
position on the controversy surrounding the University of Illinois
mascot, a caricature figure of a Plains Indian known as "Chief
Illiniwek". For several years, Native Americans have been calling for the removal
of this offensive symbol, along with similarly offensive mascots, team
names, and logos used by college and professional sports teams across
the US. In the weeks leading up to the meeting the SSILA Executive
Committee was contacted by representatives of several Native American
organizations, as well as by a number of individuals, asking us to
cancel the meeting and boycott the University of Illinois until the issue was
resolved. The Executive Committee, after lengthy deliberation -- which
included discussing the matter with University of Illinois and
Linguistic Institute faculty and administrative staff -- decided to proceed with
the meeting, but to make open discussion of the mascot a major part of
the conference. On Wednesday evening preceding the meeting approximately 30
Linguistic
Institute faculty and students attending a showing of a film on "Chief
Illiniwek", followed by a vigorous debate. This continued at the
business meeting on Friday, resulting in the unanimous adoption of the
following resolution:
We, the members of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous
Languages of the Americas, urge the administration and trustees
of the University of Illinois to replace their "Chief Illiniwek"
symbol with one that does not promote inaccurate, anachronistic,
and damaging stereotypes of Native American people, or indeed
members of any minority group.
Vice-President/President-Elect Sally Thomason, who chaired the meeting,
added the following comments in her formal letter to the University of
Illinois administration and trustees:
The "Chief Illiniwek" issue has already had a negative impact
on this summer's Linguistic Institute, which is co-sponsored by
the Linguistic Society of America and the University of Illinois.
After learning about this issue, one student left the Institute
immediately, and several others said that they would not have
come to this university if they had known in advance about the
university's "chief" symbol. This is just one indication that
this issue is damaging the University of Illinois's reputation
as a leading educational institution.
SSILA will not return to the University of Illinois campus as
long as this symbol exists, and we will urge our professional
organizations, beginning with the Linguistic Society of America
and the American Anthropological Association, to join us in this
resolve.
Given that the University of Illinois is an official state insti-
tution, we will also encourage our professional organizations
not to schedule future conferences in the state of Illinois.
SSILA's position on The Chief was the topic of a press conference on
Tuesday July 13, was discussed in a radio interview the following day,
and received considerable newspaper coverage. In addition to Sally
Thomason, the spokespersons for SSILA included Emmon Bach (Past
President of the LSA), Katie Fraser (from the Nuuchanulh First Nation), Marianne
Mithun, and Pat Shaw.
***********
The following story on SSILA's "anti-Chief" resolution, and the reasons
for it, appeared on the front page of the Champaign-Urbana NEWS-GAZETTE
on Monday, July 12. It was forwarded to us by Sally Thomason and
Marianne Mithun, and Marianne comments that the reporter, Julie Wurth,
"did a surprisingly good job."
LINGUISTS THREATEN TO BOYCOTT UI
ACADEMIC GROUP SAYS NO RETURNING UNTIL CHIEF LEAVES
URBANA -- An international linguistic group says it wouldn't be meeting
at the University of Illinois this summer had it known about Chief
Illiniwek.
And it's calling for linguists to boycott the UI until the Chief
retires.
The Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas
held a weekend conference at the UI as part of a six-week summer
institute sponsored by the Linguistic Society of America.
The Chief issue dominated the conference, and the group unanimously
passed a resolution Saturday urging the UI to retire the controversial
mascot.
President-elect Sally Thomason also plans to ask the Linguistic
Society not to sponsor another institute at the UI or even meet in
Illinois until the Chief is gone.
"There will never be a linguistics institute on this campus again
while the Chief is still the symbol [*Sally comments: I didn't actually
say this -- I don't dictate to the LSA!]. We think it's a really
serious issue," said Thomason, a linguistics professor at the University
of Michigan and longtime editor of the Linguistic Society's journal.
Members have scheduled a protest rally and press conference at
10 a.m. Tuesday at the Foreign Languages Building on campus.
It's the first time an academic society has threatened a boycott
because of the Chief, some UI professors said.
"We're very concerned that it reflects badly on the university,"
said Adele Goldberg, an associate professor of linguistics at the UI
and director of the summer linguistic institute, which attracts 475
students and faculty from around the world.
"Students have said they wouldn't have come if they knew about this.
They didn't understand how people could attend this university. It's
really a huge embarrassment that this has become such a focus," said
Goldberg, who opposes the Chief.
Thomason said the issue didn't come up when Illinois was proposed
as host site for the institute, which is held every other summer.
Members were shocked when they learned of the controversy, and
even more aghast Thursday evening after watching "In Whose Honor?,"
a documentary about the Chief.
"Everyone was stunned. One student left the institute this morning.
She said she didn't want to stay on this campus," Thomason said. "Had
the Linguistic Society known, the institute probably would not have
been here."
The indigenous languages group was unaware of the Chief controversy
when it scheduled its weekend conference. Then it received complaints
from American Indian groups in Minnesota and Wisconsin, said Marianne
Mithun, a linguistics professor at the University of California - Santa
Barbara.
The group considered canceling the meeting, but after conferring with
UI professors decided to come and make a public statement about the
Chief.
"It certainly won't meet here again until things are changed," Mithun
said.
The linguists hope other academic societies will follow suit.
They plan to send the anti-Chief resolution to UI trustees and
administrators, though they're not confident it will make any impact.
UI Professor Stephen Kaufman, a leading Chief opponent, applauded
the move. "If you can't reach people in their soul, you have to reach
them in their pocketbooks."
Campus spokesman Bill Murphy said it's difficult to draw any con-
clusions from one group's stance. Some people strongly object to the
Chief, but others strongly support it, he said.
"At this point it is university policy that Chief Illiniwek remains
the honored symbol of our athletic teams," he said.
"As linguists, this group knows that Chief Illiniwek is a symbol of
the people who gave their name first of all to the Illinois River, then
to the state of Illinois, and now to the state's flagship university.
Chief Illiniwek is an emblem of those people," Murphy added.
The linguists scoff at that. The portrayal of Chief Illiniwek in
Plains Indian regalia is akin to dressing up like a Scotsman in a kilt
and bagpipes to represent Germans and Italians, Thomason said.
Because linguists work with many languages, they have respect for
the people who speak them, she said.
"If I was a linguistics faculty member at the University of Illinois
-- and the department here is very good -- I'd be trying very, very hard
to leave.
"If the tribes I work with in Montana found out I was teaching at a
campus with this racist symbol, they probably wouldn't want to talk to
me any more," she said.
Emmon Bach, linguistics professor at the University of Massachusetts-
Amherst, is teaching a course at the institute on a native language from
Vancouver Island, Canada. He invited linguist Katie Fraser a member of
the Nuuchanulh tribe on Vancouver Island, to help teach it.
"I had no idea about all this stuff. Now I feel terribly
embarrassed,"
he said.
Fraser said she was distressed by the Chief.
"If I had known, I never would have come. I find it very
disturbing,"
she said. To me it's almost like going to a gravesite and stomping on
somebody's burial ground.
"It is really sad that Illinois would be going into the millennium
with this," she said.
* A conversation with the Provost
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[In addition to SSILA officers and Linguistic Institute faculty members,
a number of students joined in the anti-Chief activities this past week.
One of these was Greg Brown, a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara.
He sent us the following transcript of a conversation he was able to
have with the Provost of the University of Illinois, Richard Herman.]
Greg: Is it the goal of this university to pursue knowledge, truth,
and
accuracy of information in all areas?
Provost: Yes it is.
Greg: Do you believe that the Chief Illiniwek symbol is an accurate
representation of the Native American peoples of this country?
Provost: Well....in SOME aspects, yes.
Greg (and others): Oh, really?...Like in what aspects for example?
Provost: Well, he wears some actual items and uh...
Others: Nothing he wears represents the people of this area and he has a
mish mash of things from all over the place, most of which are
not authentic at all from any band or tribe.
Provost: Oh. Well, I am not an expert about these things...you are the
experts. I recognize that, which is why I am waiting to hear
what
you have to say. What can we do to try to resolve this conflict
since people feel strongly on both sides?
Greg: Many people here are experts. The chief's dress and actions are
NOT an accurate representation of any Native American group.
Provost: Ok, what can we do to more accurately represent Native
Americans?
Greg: Well, for starters, no real chief would EVER dress up and dance
around on the field at a sports event...this would NEVER happen.
Provost: Ok.
Greg: Talk to Native American people to find out who they are. Talk
to Native American people to find out how they would like to be
honored and perceived.
Provost: Ok.
Greg: Thank you.
--Gregory
Brown
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
* Film about the Chief
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>From Sally Thomason ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
People who are interested in learning about the offensive nature of the
University of Illinois mascot should rent or purchase the documentary
film that Jay Rosenstein made about this issue, focusing on what was
for a time a one-woman campaign against Chief Illiniwek. I hope there
will be ordering information available at the January LSA meeting in
Chicago.
Meanwhile, here's the address: New Day Films, 22D Hollywood Ave.,
Ho-ho-kus [sic!], NJ 07423 (tel: 888-367-0154; fax: 201/652-1973;
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; web: www.newday.com). The film can be purchased
(for educational purposes, presumably by your university's media office)
for $195; it can be rented for $75. Shipping costs are $11 per tape.
The film's title is "In Whose Honor?" It has won several awards, e.g.
"Gold Apple -- National Education Media Network".
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Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/
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