As media outlets like CNNSI.com are reporting, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) just announced that stating Fenruary 1, 2006, it will ban any images of American Indians that it considers offensive in its postseason sports tournaments:

Fed up with what it considers “hostile” and “abusive” American Indian nicknames, the NCAA announced Friday it would shut those words and images out of postseason tournaments, a move that left some school officials angry and threatening legal action.

Starting in February, any school with a nickname or logo considered racially or ethnically “hostile” or “abusive” by the NCAA would be prohibited from using them in postseason events. Mascots will not be allowed to perform at tournament games, and band members and cheerleaders will also be barred from using American Indians on their uniforms beginning in 2008.

Major college football teams are not subject to the ban because there is no official NCAA tournament. . . . While NCAA officials admit they still can’t force schools to change nicknames or logos, they are making a statement they believe is long overdue. Eighteen mascots, including Florida State’s Seminole and Illinois’ Illini, were on the list of offenders.

I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this issue. It is certainly true that in the sports world, collegiate and professional, there are plenty of examples of racist depictions and objectification of American Indians as mascots. Probably the most egregious example is the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball and their patently offensive mascot, “Chief Wahoo” (see below). These kinds of depictions only serve to treat American Indians as relics and dehumanized “pets.”

On the other hand, as Florida State University points out, they have official permission from the Seminole Tribe of Florida to continue using “Seminoles” as their nickname, and FSU argues that it does so out of the utmost respect as a way to honor the “unconquered spirit” of the Seminole Nation (one of only a few Indian tribes in American history who were successful in fighting off attempts to remove them from their lands). However, I a little less enamoured by FSU’s Seminole logo and use of Whites dressing up as a Seminole chief with “wild west” show-style headdress to cheerlead at their games.

Through the fog of different views in this debate, I think that ultimately, there is a line in which nicknames and caricatures are separated between respectful on the one hand, and demeaning and racist on the other. Clearly the Cleveland Indians are part of the latter group, as are nicknames like the Redskins, Redmen, and Savages.

For others however, like the FSU Seminoles, parts of their use of Indian nicknames seem to be respectful, as they are derived from specific historical episodes in which the American Indian tribe demonstrated bravery, independence, and valor. However, there are other parts of these same nicknames at FSU (the logo and fake Seminole Chief at the games, for instance) that they may need to examine a little more closely and which I agree are offensive to American Indians.