Results tagged “nativeamericans”

In Chicago, murals can sometimes convey a culture or a neighborhood's feel better than the businesses and residents. Stretching across the north and south walls of the Foster Street underpass at Lake Shore Drive is a new addition to one of the city's most recognized artistic traditions: a mural entitled "Indian Land Dancing,"

By Any Other Name?

The latest salvo in the battle for the future of Chief Illiniwek was launched yesterday by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, when they presented the University of Illinois' board of trustees, the university president and the chancellor with a resolution demanding the university "cease use of this mascot." Welcomed by the American Indian Studies faculty and the staff at the Native American House at the university, the resolution charges that regalia given to the U of I is being misused to represent the people of Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea nations.

A-spire-ing Tower?

It looks like the University of Illinois' controversial mascot, Chief Illiniwek is about to dance his last dance. The university announced that he will perform at season opener in Champaign, and at home basketball game this winter before hanging up his head dress.

There are two ways to determine which posts were the most popular posts on Chicagoist this year: comments and hits. A lot of commenting tells us you've got feedback, you want to talk about things. Either the subject of the post or the way the post was written has struck a cord. A lot of hits means that even though you may not have commented on a post a lot, you went back and read it a lot. Or maybe you forwarded the link to the post to a lot of people.

As Chicagoist covered last week, the NCAA has banned the use of 18 college nicknames and mascots because they are abusive and hostile towards Native Americans. Among those on the list was the University of Illinois' Fighting Illini nickname and Chief Illiniwek mascot.

Last week, the NCAA instituted a new policy that would ban schools using "hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery" during NCAA Championships and would prevent offending schools from hosting postseason events. While broad in policy, the NCAA has squarely aimed these new rules at the 18 schools with Native American nicknames -- including the University of Illinois Fighting Illini. Many have been outspoken in their opposition to the NCAA's decision, including Florida...

Score one for Native Americans! Following years of internal debate in the Village of Lemont, a community-wide vote this month and approval at Monday’s meeting of the District 210 Board of Education, the name “Injuns” has officially been dropped as the moniker of Lemont High School’s sports teams. The switch, to the not-so-offensive “Titans,” comes after five years of pressure from the Illinois Native American Bar Association, who are pleased with Lemont's decision but promise to continue fighting against the 27 Illinois high schools that still use “Indians” as their nicknames (not to mention the six that use “Redskins,” the three that go by “Braves” and the twenty that consider themselves “Warriors”).

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign got slammed yesterday in a report from its accrediting agency, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The report says that the continued use of mascot Chief Illiniwek and the tremendous controversy around that use had started to erode the academic integrity of the institution. �The rate and amount of damage to the institution will continue to accelerate if the issue is not addressed decisively and soon,� the report reads, and it cites two major problems that surround the debate: it pits students and faculty against university administrators and board members, and that it hinders recruiting efforts targeted to minority students and faculty. It's also pitting students against each other: last March, only 31 percent of students at UIUC voted to retire the Chief.