Sports mascots have come under increasing fire by American Indians as they try to achieve equal status as an identifiable ethnic group within American society. No other group faces this particular problem, and the unique nature of the situation calls for serious deliberations. Why are Indians singled out as a group of people devoid of the sentiments that characterize other groups? No team in any sport has its logo or slogans used to demean another identifiable ethnic, religious, or economic group.

One answer may be the long tradition of virulent racism against the original inhabitants best illustrated in the nursery rhyme “ Ten Little Indians, ” which celebrated the genocide of local Indian tribes in the eastern United States. Some years ago a national publisher released a book of “animals and their children, ” and prominently displayed among the deer, raccoons, and birds were mother and her child. And when a group of us filed to cancel the trademark of the Washington Redskins, some sportswriters complained that now Bears, Dolphins, and Lions would all complain. This kind of racism is buried so deeply in the American psyche that it may be impossible to resolve. No one seriously holds these views as a conscious part of their understanding of the world. But, in the spur-of-the-moment response, this profound racism rises quickly to consciousness and is expressed before the individual realizes what he or she has said.

With diehard refusal to change the names and logos of sports teams we always hear the justification that the name is being used to “honor” us. This tortured reasoning makes its proponents look . . .