We read:
"The Oglala Sioux Tribe demanded Thursday that University of Illinois officials return the regalia worn by the school's Chief Illiniwek mascot, including the eagle feathers that were once part of the costume....
The resolution was submitted to the university's board of trustees ahead of its Thursday meeting in Chicago. It called the use of Chief Illiniwek "a degrading racial stereotype." ....
The university bought the costume, including a headdress with eagle feathers, in 1982 from Sioux Chief Frank Fools Crow, whose wife made it....
In 2005, the NCAA decided that Illiniwek and his dance are "hostile and abusive" toward American Indians, and barred Illinois from hosting postseason events.
Source
It's degrading and abusive but they still want it back?
A blogger who has mixed sympathies about the matter says:
"I still believe it's very demeaning to use Indian mascots in sports. How would white people feel if sports teams used cartoonish images of them, like perhaps the Cowboys, Vikings, 49ers, Fighting Irish, Quakers, Celtics, Patriots."
"Vikings" sounds rather good to me and he is obviously unaware of a major Scottish football team called "Celtic". Neither they nor any of their supporters seem to feel demeaned by the name. In religiously-divided Glasgow, they are the Catholic team. Many Irish migrated to Glasgow in the 19th century (I am myself descended from one of the families concerned) and their descendants support the Celtics.
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