Indians. Dot, Feather or Cleveland?

I have said time and again the Columbus was lost. He thought he was in India. That is why our Native Americans are called Indians.

There are basically three types if Indians in the country. 

First there are Native Americans, secondly there are people that came here from India. The latter could probably be called "Columbus Indians" because that's  what Columbus thought they were. 

There are also sports team Indians like the Atlanta Braves, thee Cleveland Indians etc. No telling about these Indians because the teams themselves are of mixed race, creed, color etc.

I have only once heard Native Americans gripe about sports teams named after them. It was at a college and if I recall it was in Colorado. They protested it by naming their team the 'Fighting Whiteys'. The mascot picture was one of a late 50s, early 60s business type with short hair and a necktie.

Like a lot of things, it backfired. Instead of outrage a lot of people embraced it and it took off. They grew a huge fan base.They sold a boatload of T-shirts and laughed all the way to the bank although I imagine they were a tad confused. They took the money they made and started a minority scholarship fund. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

As a white male I think it's hilarious. Any sports team of pretty much whatever that's not some kind of hate group can feel free to name themselves that. 

Actually naming sports teams after Native Americans is somewhat of a compliment. Sports teams are supposed to be strong, powerful and capable and by naming a team after Native Americans it imparts these values on them. Actually it's the other way around. Indians are looked on as having these values and hopefully they will be given to the team that names it after them. It really isn't an insult.

Years ago a Mad Magazine artist named Don Martin took a look at Indians with a series of hilarious cartoons that made me laugh like hell. He wasn't making fun of Indians as such. He was making fun of Hollywood and the stereotypes they made of Indians

One such cartoon had a lone Indian looking at a wagon train from the top of a cliff, followed by six or eight, followed by a couple of hundred. The fourth frame had thousands and Indians falling off the cliff and someone shouting back telling them to "Quit that pushing back there." It was a spoof of an old tired movie scene. I found it quite amusing and in no way insulting to anyone except for those idiots in Hollywood.

A couple of years ago I told a group of US Marines that if they ever were in danger of being over run they should call the nearest Cavalry unit. After all, never in the history of the motion picture industry has the US Cavalry ever been too late. Another Hollywood western movie stereotype. The US Cavalry always managed to chase the Indians away from the settlement at the last minute.

As far as the Indians from India are concerned, they are often given the designation of being 'Dot Indians' as opposed to 'Feather Indians'. Of course the feather designation is used for Native Americans. Neither of these are really accurate but do serve as simple designate-rs.  A handful of Native American tribes didn't wear feathers. The dot is a Hindu thing and an India Indian could be, say, a Roman Catholic and is still going to be referred to as a 'Dot' Indian. It is a  geographical designation more than anything else. I have heard neither kind of Indian complain about it for quite some time.  Both parties appear to take it for what it is, a simple term used to avoid confusion that was started by some Italian navigator that was lost.

Incidentally I suppose that if Columbus thought he was in Subic Bay the kids would be playing Cowboys and Filipinos. Actually that does have a nice ring to it. "Filipinos! Draw the wagons up into a circle!"

I recently swapped emails with a Navajo ham operator after we made a QSO. He referred to himself as a "Feather not dot Indian" and celebrates Indigenous People's Day. I can't say as I blame him. I often call it Lost Italian Day. I'm no fan of Christopher Columbus.

Anyway, there are three kinds of Indians in the country and it takes all types to make us what we are.  

As an after thought. the people that object to Indian names for sports teams are generally whiners that truly need something to bitch about. Let's give them something.

Rename ALL the teams after various racial slurs. Picture a sports recap like this: Washington Wops beat the Kansas City Kikes 3-1, Charleston Coons topped the San Diego Spics 4-2 while the Georgia Gooks trounced the Frisco Frogs 9-0.

We could get EVERYONE all worked up over nothing and that's fine by me.

I will, of course, show up in a Fighting Whites T-shirt.

Why not?


To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY