Southeast closing era of Indians

Goodbyes aren't easy when 82 years of tradition are involved. But in retiring Southeast Missouri State University's Indian nickname, it helps to stand on ceremony, school officials say.

The university will hold a formal ceremony Friday on the steps of Academic Hall to retire the school's Indians and Otahkians nicknames. Its men's sports teams have been known as the Indians since 1922. Its women's teams have been called the Otahkians since 1972. The latter name refers to a Cherokee woman who died on the Trail of Tears forced march to the Oklahoma territory in the 1800s.

The board of regents on June 30 adopted Redhawks as a new nickname for the school's men's and women's sports teams. In doing so, the regents accepted the recommendation of a university committee that concluded the school's traditional nicknames were offensive to many American Indians and that a more suitable mascot was needed to better market the school and its sports teams.

Retiring with dignity

But the regents said they wanted the old nicknames retired with dignity.

A campus committee working to do just that organized Friday's ceremony.

"This ceremony is hopefully a way of trying to show the community at large that the university will never forget its Indian heritage," said Southeast university relations director Diane Sides, who is helping plan the ceremony.

School officials also hope the ceremony brings some closure to a controversy that divided the campus community. "We wanted to dredge up some positive memories," said Ed Leoni, a health and recreation professor who headed up the committee that led to the regents' decision to retire the Indian and Otahkian nicknames.

Although the university plans to start using its new nickname in January, school officials said they don't want to ignore the history and heritage of the American Indians in the region. Southeast plans to keep its Indian heritage alive through lectures, museum exhibits, musical presentations and artwork. The school plans to create a permanent university committee to address issues involving American Indian heritage and culture.

The university is looking at creating an outdoor sculpture of an Indian, possibly shown releasing a hawk in recognition of the school's new nickname.

School officials said they wanted a respectful retirement ceremony, divorced from any sporting event. They said it would be insensitive to American Indians to hold the ceremony at halftime of a football game.

Friday's ceremony officially begins at 5:30 p.m. Chairs will be set up for the audience in front of Academic Hall. In case of rain, the ceremony will be in the University Center Party Room.

Native American musician, singer and songwriter Bill Miller will perform American Indian flute music at the ceremony. Miller is scheduled to start playing at 5:15 p.m., before speeches by various university officials, students and dignitaries. In addition to performing at the retirement ceremony, Miller will present a free concert at 8 p.m. in Academic Auditorium.

A Mohican Indian from northern Wisconsin, Miller has won five Native American Music awards. He now lives in Nashville, Tenn.

The ceremony will include an honor guard of Southeast Missouri State Reserve Officer Training Corps students and the Intertribal Native American Dancers, a group of American Indians from as far west as Oklahoma.

The Indian group will include three drummers and five dancers outfitted in American Indian regalia.

Carol Spindel, author of "Dancing at Halftime," will deliver the keynote address. Spindel's book, published in 2000, looks at the controversy at the University of Illinois over the use of the Chief Illiniwek mascot.

Spindel, who teaches creative nonfiction writing at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, said Indian mascots are offensive to many American Indians and should be retired.

So far, that hasn't happened at the University of Illinois. Spindel said Southeast is right to retire the Indian and Otahkian nicknames.

"A change like this works best when there is unanimity and consensus at the top," she said.

Reflected Wild West shows

Spindel and Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History at Southeast, agree that in the 1920s schools developed Indian mascots that greatly reflected Wild West shows.

When President William Howard Taft visited Cape Girardeau on Oct. 26, 1909, the "cowboys and Indians" from a touring Wild West show led the presidential procession from the riverfront to Academic Hall, Nickell said.

In the 1920s, schools looked for a way to identify their sports teams. Teacher-training schools such as Southeast were known as Normal schools. Before adoption of the Indian nickname, newspapers referred to Southeast's men's sports teams -- there were no women's sports teams at the time -- as the Normals or the Teachers.

"It was just a time period in which you wanted to be masculine and tough, and in the American mythology nothing is tougher than Indians," Nickell said.

School mascots were meant to glorify American Indians, but the theatrical costumes and halftime dances did little to do so, Spindel said.

Universities tended to use costumes representing plains Indians even when no such Indian tribes had lived in their regions.

"The reality is that in areas like Illinois and Missouri, our Native Americans were forcibly relocated in the 1830s by the government," Spindel said.

Nickell said the stereotypical drum beat at college football and basketball games today doesn't honor American Indians. "This is a sacred item to Indians used by white people at ballgames as kind of playthings," he said.

He likes the idea of holding a retirement ceremony. "You are ending one tradition and starting another," he said.

Retired high school history teacher Linda Nash of Jackson said the ceremony is symbolic of the regents' decision to end use of the Indian nicknames. "It is kind of like almost a transfer of power," said Nash, who is part Cherokee.

Nash, who served on the committee that helped plan Friday's event, said what the university does from now on to educate students and the public about American Indian heritage is more important than what happens at the ceremony.

Glinda Seabaugh, a Cape Girardeau resident who is part Cherokee, also has helped plan the event. She said the ceremony speaks more to formally ending a university tradition than to reaching out to American Indians in the region.

For American Indians, the real change occurred in June when the regents voted to scrap the Indian and Otahkian nicknames, she said.

But having American Indians participating in the ceremony is important, Seabaugh said. "This kind of brings a balance to it."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123

WANT TO GO?

What: Southeast Missouri State University nickname retirement ceremony with "Dancing at Halftime" author Carol Spindel delivering the keynote speech.

When: 5:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Steps in front of Academic Hall. In case of rain, University Center Party Room.