Darren Parry, author of the Bear River Massacre tells why the Indian Headdress shouldn’t be used as a sports mascot. We’ll talk about why teams like the Washington Redskins changed their name to the Washington Football Team, acceding to protests calling the name racist. Of course they are not the only team that takes on an Indian Mascot.
Darren: I tell the elementary kids this story really quickly about when a young Shoshone boy or girl does an act of kindness or service as they are growing up, they would get one eagle feather from the chief. Then I’ll ask one of the children, “What would happen if that boy or girl kept doing nice things as they’re growing up?” They say, “Well, they would get more eagle feathers.” I said, “What if they kept doing those things until they were an adult. This one little girl said, “They would have so many eagle feathers.” I said, “You’re right, “and I said, “One day, when the chief gets ready to die, he will call everyone together and he will say to them, ‘Show me your eagle feathers.’” I tell them that the person with the most eagle feathers would become the next leader and the chief. Then I’d make this point that the chief isn’t the bravest, or the toughest, the chief is always the one in a tribal community that has led a life of service, that has done nice things for people their whole life. So, I tell them, that’s what a true leader is. It’s someone that works for the good of others, and they’ve done that throughout their whole life. That’s what they’ve demonstrated.
Darren: So, these eagle feathers represent taking care of a group of people that have been marginalized, and a group of people that just tried to live a life with their Creator and the earth in a loving way. So, this is a sacred thing to us. The fact that when you have a high school mascot and then they appropriate it in a way that–they dress up like this, and it’s just all about education. We just went through this with Bountiful High School, and Bountiful announced that they’re going to change their mascot. That’s fine. We would have been okay, if they hadn’t changed the mascot, too. As a tribal council, we talked about it because Bountiful High is in our indigenous area. We were the ones they consulted with.
GT: Oh, when they originally had the name?
Darren: Yes.
GT: Oh, I didn’t know that.
Darren: In fact, we had one of our council members on the committee that studied the issue. But at the end of the day, it was the principal’s decision based on all of the information gathered. We told the principal, regardless of which way you go, this needs to be an opportunity that we can educate, not only the kids, but the community. Wearing the sacred headdresses, which is only worn in certain instances and in certain ceremonies, you just don’t do that to rile up a group of fans. You don’t understand it. I said to somebody the other day, and I don’t know if it’s appropriate or not, but I said, “It would be like if you’re the Bountiful Mormons, and then somebody’s wearing temple clothes out there halftime to get the fans excited, because what the headdress is to a Native American is sacred. It’s as sacred as temple clothing is to a Mormon, a faithful Latter-day Saints. You need to understand the sacredness of the headdress, and if you did, you wouldn’t wear it, and you wouldn’t wear the way you did. There are only certain Native Americans that are actually even permitted to wear it. So the fact that you’re dressing up and painting yourself and going out there and acting like a crazed madman is not okay, on any level.
Darren: So, we just told the principal, we would love to come in and do certain trainings with the students and the staff and everybody else on just what’s appropriate, and what’s not appropriate in Native American culture. We don’t show every ceremony that we perform. There are some things that are so sacred that we don’t show it. We don’t video it and we don’t talk about it. But the headdress is certainly one of those instances. It comes down to being educated and making sure our kids understand. Because I absolutely believe there’s not one student there that did it out of spite, or did it out of a way to jab the Indians in the eye. They just didn’t understand what they were doing. But now you understand and now you understand the culture, then probably your decisions will be a little different. So, we’re thrilled that they are willing to change the mascot. Look, if there was one student there that and there was one Native American girl. She was Navajo that felt offended and she really felt bad every time that Braves issue came about and every time she’d watch an assembly, it was a traumatic for her. If there’s one student that that is happening to, then you better probably take a look at what you’re doing. Revisiting the mascot and changing the name is not a bad thing. It just comes down to learning, learning the culture, learning that what you think is great and okay and fun, may be offensive to another group. So, we just need to be sensitive to that.
GT: Yeah, and, of course, the Washington Redskins are now the Washington Football Team. I understand the Cleveland Indians have announced that they’re going to change. The Cleveland Baseball Team is probably what they’re going to be this year. We’ve still got the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves. Can you comment on those?
Darren: You know, look, I’m not one easily offended personally. But if other tribes are, then I certainly honor them and the way they want to look at it. My answer isn’t necessarily, I’m not speaking for all Native Americans. Because there are some groups that are really hurt by all of those. And if they are, then they absolutely have a right to their opinion and what they should. But those other names, those other things will probably go the way of the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, I think. Because I think we live in a world today that’s so polarized, for good or bad. I’m not telling you what’s right or wrong here. I’m just saying, the world we live in today is pretty black and white when it comes to this stuff now.
GT: I should also mention the University of Utah Utes. They’ve got they’ve got permission from the Ute tribe, and I don’t know how the Shoshone-Ute connection is there.
What do you think of Darren’s thoughts on sacred clothing?
In our final conversation with author Darren Parry of the Bear River Massacre, we’ll tie up some loose ends and trace his family history back to Chief Sagwitch. We’ll also talk about the first non-English sermon in General Conference.
GT: So Yeager was there for the massacre. Your grandmother Mae heard about the massacre directly from him.
Darren: From him, her grandfather, Yeager.
GT: Her grandfather.
Darren: He lived to be really old. In fact, one thing a lot of people don’t know about Yeager, he was called out of the audience in the 1918, General Conference, and was asked to bear his testimony from the pulpit.
GT: Wow.
Darren: In conference, and he went up there, and he spoke Shoshone. His Bishop was the translator. The funny thing is, when I met with the Presiding Bishop earlier last year, to talk about the massacre and our Interpretive Center, the Church Historian, was there, Elder Snow.
GT: Steven Snow.
Darren: Yeah. So Steven Snow was there. He said, “I’ll bet you can’t tell me what was the first language spoken from the pulpit, at general conference, other than English?” I said, “I know what it was.” The Presiding Bishop didn’t know, nobody knew. A lot of them thought it was probably a Scandinavian, because a lot of those people join the church. I said, “I know what it was. It was Shoshone.” He said, “You’re right. How did you know?” I said, “Well, it was my great-grandfather that gave the talk, gave his testimony.
Darren: One thing he said in his testimony that I just think is funny–I’ve got a copy of this talk and his testimony, but he said one thing, “The gospel has changed my life in a way that I no longer have a desire to kill the white man.”
GT: (Chuckling)
Darren: I thought that was awesome. I thought, “I can just see farmer Joe on the first row of the tabernacle being, half asleep, hearing that from the pulpit.” I thought, “That’s awesome. That’s classic.”
What would your reaction have been to hear Darren’s great-grandfather in General Conference?
Wheat & Tares 
The most active voices against Indian mascots are not Native Americans. The most active voices against Indian mascots are white liberals. I’m not saying this is good or bad. It’s just kind of ironic.
The same can be said for cultural appropriation. One of my daughters attended a big university back east and the students were advised on what Halloween costumes were inappropriate. One example was wearing a Mexican sombrero and poncho. And according to my daughter, the Hispanic kids she knew thought this was funny. It was the white liberal establishment running the university that was so concerned about it, not the Hispanic students.
I’m not picking on liberals. There are students and sports fans on the right whose behavior is absolutely despicable towards minorities so we are where we are.
Comments like this are super annoying. Please connect to the topic without injecting politics where they don’t belong.
I’m not picking on annoying conservatives. /Sarcasm. (I’m picking on those who see everything through the eyes of politics, and clearly this is a political comment from an annoying conservative, insincere disclaimers notwithstanding.)
Hey Rick: I see political comments on here all the time in response to religious topics. In this case, my political comments are in response to a very political issue. So I think they are quite appropriate.
Politicizing racism is not appreciated on my posts. I strive very hard to bring up topics in as neutral way as possible and I hate polarizing comments as yours was. I’m not into demonizing liberals or conservatives or any other groups. I’m into having good conversations, free from polarization.
I used to enjoy arguing, but I pretty much hate it now. Others permas may feel differently, but I hate polarizing comments.
If I were talking about politics, such as when I interviewed Rod Decker on his book called Utah Politics, that would be a little different, but I still don’t like poking conservatives or liberals in the eye with an insincere disclaimer .
My wife and adult son are card-carrying members of an Indian tribe — they and their families do not object to schools using braves or chiefs as mascots. However, they don’t like excessive caricature.
I lived in Elko, Nevada through junior high and a year and a half of high school in the early 70’s. We were the Elko Indians. White kids in headdress would dance around at half time and in assemblies. I was in the Boy Scout Order of the Arrow which was very heavy into Indian lore. The secret OA password was a Delaware Indian phrase. I got an extreme sunburn from a day in just a breechcloth.
Less than a mile from my home was a Shoshone reservation. We went to the same schools. There weren’t any organized protests, but my native friends were definitely put off by it all. They said we looked ridiculous when we were “playing Indian”.
Lots can be said about what this kind of stuff does or doesn’t do or about how it’s not a big deal. One thing for sure, it wasn’t kind. It wasn’t honoring. It didn’t create brotherhood. It did not cross a divide.
I drove through Elko last summer and went by the high school to see if they had changed the name. They hadn’t.
My kids attended Bountiful High School and we still live in the community. My sister (my children’s aunt) is Navajo. We used to hide their BHS yearbooks when my sister came to visit each spring. The yearbooks were so full of caricatures and inaccurate portrayals we knew she would be offended. We certainly found them offensive and contacted the school and district about the portrayals of American Indians. The mascot change was not part of any sort of move towards political correctness. It was a community issue decades before. It did not have to happen this way, there were other ways of dealing with this, but some pretty narrow-minded people were in charge for years and their refusal to see the problem led to what I describe as the “nuclear option.” I would discourage anyone from attributing this to “liberal activism.” It was families and friends wanting community respect for indigenous culture and beliefs.
I remember having a debate about indigenous mascots in a High School social studies class. The most vocal kids in the class were of the opinion it wasn’t a big deal. The one indigenous kid in the class said nothing, but I could see tears streaming down his cheeks.
Of course this is an anecdote, just like other anecdotes shared here about native kids who didn’t seem bothered by this stuff. (And I wonder how much of that echoes our own style of, “yeah it’s cool, you can make fun of Mormonism, I can roll with it” attitude) Have any of us bothered to seek out what tribal leaders have actually said about this? A quick Google search returns a lot of hits about tribal leaders speaking out. We should listen to them.
Josh, not only did you politicize something that didn’t need to be politicized, you misunderstand the problem. My SIL is a solidly rabidly Republican and Trump supporter and yet is pushing for dropping all Native American mascots. She would be highly insulted to be called a liberal. So, don’t call her liberal, you may call her the mother of 4 Navaho children that she and my brother adopted.
I kind of understand why the local tribes people are not actively pushing for all mascots to change and why it seems to be white people pushing for it. As a woman who grew up Mormon, I understand what pushing for changes can do to you when you are a powerless minority. We Mormon women need the men to push for changes and stop excommunicating those women who do push for change. So, of course it is white people pushing for these changes. The natives who are being mocked have been slapped down by the white establishment for too many years. It is called privilege, Josh. White people can make the change happen, while our Native American friends fear retaliation.
I have enjoyed hearing from Darren. He has an ability to explain things from both sides without casting blame and always leaves me wanting to learn more. Thank you.
This is a tough one. The UofU and Florida State both have Native American mascots. Both with the approval of their respective tribes. I get the impression that the Ute Tribe is proud of their association with the UofU. And there is a signed agreement between the 2 groups. With the U providing scholarships to the Tribe. The mascot issue has been resolved.
The issue with the NFL’s Washington franchise is a different matter. “Red Skins” feels and is offensive. And should have been resolved long ago. Then there are many mascots that are in between these 2 extremes like “Braves” and “Indians.”
There are also issues dealing with how to refer to indigenous Americans. When I was young it was “Indians.” Then there was a push to refer to them as “Native Americans.” About 10 years ago, I was given an article by a NA that encouraged a return to word “Indians.” That is a little difficult for me, my neighbors and some of my friends are NA. I also have colleagues and friends who are Asian Indians.
The thing with these names is that they are the names given by white people to the natives. Our ancestors subjugated them and THEN made them “heroes.” by calling them braves. The only reason we call them “Indians” is because Columbus got lost and thought he’d landed in India. As someone with friends who live in India… this is really confusing.
I grew up in Idaho and I think it’s wonderful what Darren is doing at the site of the massacre. I don’t remember being taught it in schools. I think we only learned about Sacajawea and Chief Joseph. The “safe” ones.
The Mormons did cause most of the problems with natives. It’s ironic because the only reason the army was out here was to keep an eye on the Mormon problem. The names need to change and white people can learn to be allies in this change.
Regarding “Indian” vs “Native American”, Darren and I had a conversation about those words. Darren told me that Indian is a federally recognized term while Native American is not. He didn’t mind either term, but the federal government has historically used the term “American Indian” so that was his preferred term. Of course, not all indigenous people feel the same way.
We do not have aboriginal mascots in Australia. More progressive Australians are trying to get Aboriginal culture, and history included more in our lives. If you go to New Zealand it is noticable that their Maori culture is much more celebrated, and central to their culture today.
Recently a mining company Rio Tinto, destroyed an aboriginal site that was 46,000 years old and dna previously recovered from the site dated over 5000 years old matched the local people. They call it connection to country. We have 60,000 years of incredible culture and history, but we hear very little except what the white man has done in 200 years. We don’t even hear about the massacres of the aboriginals. We just celebrated Australia day, which many aboriginals call invasion day. It is the date the first white settlers arrived.
Rio Tinto plans to mine copper on Apache Arizona land against the will of local people.