Statement on "chief illiniwek"
The faculty of the Program for the Study of Religion have unanimously voted to urge the Board of Trustees to retire "Chief Illiniwek" as the symbol of the University of Illinois. Although we understand that the chief was not intended by his creators and the university administration to be offensive to Native Americans, we believe that the current outcry against the symbol by the great majority of Native American organizations indicates quite clearly that he does offend a group of people who are still in the process of dealing with years of suffering at the hands of the white majority in this country.
From our perspective there are several reasons why we consider the complaints of the Native American groups to be legitimate. (1) There can be no doubt that the Chief's dance is modeled on Native American religious ceremonial practices. Ritual dance was a very important and profound part of their interactions with the sacred sphere. To perform such a dance at a modern sporting event, with the (perhaps largely unstated) purpose of causing the gods to favor the Illinois team, is an obvious and inappropriate trivialization of religion that is most unsettling in a university context such as we have here. (2) A "symbol" which therefore seriously misrepresents such a foundational aspect of Native American culture cannot really play a constructive role in educating the general public about Native American civilization. (3) In addition, although the university makes an effort to describe the Chief as a "symbol" of the university and not as a "mascot" for the athletic teams (a designation which the university recognizes as demeaning and inappropriate), it is nonetheless clear that the Chief in fact plays a role in the athletic department that is identical to that of the mascots at other universities. It is therefore inevitable that the Chief is seen by most outsiders as a mascot.
University symbols are intended to unify the campus community and should be designed in order to emphasize the university's role in furthering understanding among the many cultures of the world. A symbol such as Chief Illiniwek fails to do either one of these things in today's society. We therefore urge the Board to retire the Chief and begin the process of replacing him with a more appropriate symbol.