Wrong message to kids

Native Americans singled out as symbolSelf-identity of Native American Indians is the moral and exclusive responsibility of Native Americans, not non-Indian high school cheerleaders and alumni associations. What are we teaching our children when we say that the majority social or ethnic group has the right to portray others any way they want to?

Schools and their alumni treat their "Indian mascot" as a commodity, a thing, a piece of property that is theirs forever, a doll to dress up and make dance, yodel pretend-war whoops, and safely play with as they please, like slaves of the mid-1800s. As long as the words "Indians" and "Chiefs" and "Redskins" and their related representations are considered the historical property of schools, we continue to live in a slave society.