And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 23:53:26 -0500
*****************************FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE********************************************
******************National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media
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9/25/99
For more information contact:
Michael Haney, National Executive Director. Village Inn, Marquette, MI
(906)226-9400 or (217)840-6594
Dr. Dennis Tibbetts, Assoc. Prof., Northern Michigan University, (906)227-1398
The National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media (NCRSM), an
organization that has been instrumental in the elimination of numerous
Indian mascots in schools throughout the country, is joining the Marquette
Indian community in its struggle against the Marquette High School Redmen logo.
"Every major National organization representative of Indian people has
raised its voice against the use of Indian people and their cultural
traditions as sports mascots, logos and names", explains Michael Haney, the
National Executive Director. The United Indian Nations of Oklahoma, the
National Congress of American Indians, the National Indian Education
Association, the Institute of American Indian Arts, and the Society of
Indian Psychologists of the Americas are among those who have asked for a
stop to this practice.
In January, 1999, the Marquette School Board voted to change the severed
Indian head logo that accompanies the Redmen name. By June the Marquette
community had expressed their disapproval by voting the Board out of
office, and a month later the logo was reinstated. Regarding this
"majority rules" decision, Dr. Dennis Tibbetts, Anishinaabe and Shoshone,
comments "I apologize for not being a member of a larger group, but we not
only had to endure several invasions [but also] policies of genocide,
adoptions, boarding schools, forced sterilization, long marches,
relocation, termination, allotments, and incidents like Sand Creek and
Wounded Knee".
Haney and Tibbetts will participate in the Marquette Area Public Schools
Board of Education meeting, on Monday, September 27th, 1999 at 6PM, at the
Bothwell Middle School in Marquette, MI. Dr. Tibbetts will present a
proposal for the School Board to add classes on Native American awareness
and language. Mr Haney's message will focus on the fact that the situation
in Marquette seems to adhere well to a racially hostile environment that is
sufficiently severe, pervasive and persistent to make a good case for the
Department of Justice to investigate, and this is what he was seeking.
Haney adds that if the logo is not permanently retired, the NCRSM will join
the local Indian community in filing a complaint with the Justice
Department that will unleash a lenghty and costly litigation period, and
put Federal monies at risk.
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