Subject: 
       Press Release (Corrected)
   Date: 
       Sat, 15 Jan 2000 15:00:55 -0500 (EST)
   From: 
       00frtrechsel@bsuvc.bsu.edu
    To: 
       lmitten+@pitt.edu




CHIEF ILLINIWEK RESOLUTION AT LSA MEETING
Press Release - January 12, 2000

CHICAGO - At the business meeting of their annual convention
on Friday, January 7, members of  the Linguistic Society of
America (LSA) voted to censure the administration and board
of trustees  of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign for the continued use of the "Chief
Illiniwek"  mascot at athletic events and other university
functions.  With only one dissenting vote, members  passed
the following resolution:

Resolution: The Linguistic Society of America urges the
administration and trustees of the  University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign to replace "Chief Illiniwek" with a
symbol that does  not promote inaccurate, anachronistic, and
damaging stereotypes of Native American people,  or indeed
members of any minority group.

This resolution was followed by two other measures, designed
to raise public awareness of the mascot issue and put
pressure on the university administration to replace the
"Chief" with a less  offensive symbol.  The first motion
passed by a vote of 57 to 23:

Motion #1:  The Linguistic Society of America will not
return to the University of Illinois at  Urbana-Champaign
campus as long as "Chief Illiniwek" remains an official
symbol at the  University.

The second motion was approved by a vote of 29 to 27:

Motion #2:  The Linguistic Society of America will not
return to the state of Illinois as long as  "Chief
Illiniwek" remains an official symbol at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Both motions will now be forwarded to the full membership of
the LSA (approximately 6000  people) on paper ballots. 
Outcome will be determined by a majority of respondents. 
Final results  are not expected for several months.

From the votes and discussion which took place at the
business meeting, it is apparent that many  members of the
LSA feel that the "Chief" conveys a harmful and offensive
image of Native  Americans and should therefore not be
sanctioned by a state-supported public institution. 
Opinions  differed on the best way to communicate this
viewpoint to the board of trustees and to the public at
large, but there was a general feeling that the issue is an
important one, meriting prompt and  effective action.  Aside
from moral and ethical concerns, members felt that the
"Chief" and the  administration's steadfast refusal to
engage in open dialogue on this issue have had a serious, 
deleterious effect on the quality of education at the
University of Illinois.  Motions and resolutions  similar to
those cited above have been approved by several other
scholarly organizations, including  the American
Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Society for the
Study of the Indigenous  Languages of the Americas (SSILA). 
It is certain that "Chief Illiniwek" has contributed to an
erosion of the academic community's perception of the
University of Illinois as a premier  educational
institution.

For further information and background on this issue, please
contact Dr. Brenda Farnell, Dept. of  Anthropology,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(bfarnell@uiuc.edu), Dr. Sarah Thomason, Program in
Linguistics, University of Michigan (thomason@umich.edu), or
Dr. Frank R. Trechsel, Dept. of English, Ball State
University (frtrechsel@bsu.edu).  Information 
about the LSA can be found at its website
(http://www.lsadc.org).  The AAA and SSILA also  maintain
websites (http://www.aaanet.org and
http://trc2.ucdavis.edu/ssila/, respectively).  Press 
reports regarding the "Chief" and the academic community's
response to him have appeared in the  Anthropology News
(October, 1999, p. 16-17; January, 2000, p. 14), the
Champaign-Urbana News  Gazette (July 12, 1999, p. A-1; July
14, 1999, p. A-3), and the Daily Illini  (July 14, 1999).  
Websites devoted to the Indian mascot issue are
http://www.pitt.edu/~lmitten/mascots.html  and
http://www.prairienet.org/prc/prcanti.html.  Pro-"Chief"
views can be found at http://www.savethechief.com.