In early May, I interviewed Michelle Lietz and Chris Sutton of Eastern Michigan University’s Native American Student Organization (NASO) about the University’s decision, despite their objections, to reintroduce the “Huron” – EMU’s controversial Native American mascot – which had been retired in 1993 in favor of the less offensive, and more appropriate, eagle. At that time, as you may recall, Leitz and Sutton told me that, according to what they’d heard, the decision was made by members of the University’s administration in order to appease alumni who had said that they would withhold donations until such time that the Huron was brought back. Lietz and Sutton also said that outgoing EMU President Sue Martin had been “very dismissive” of their concerns that the reintroduction of the mascot might adversely impact the lives of Native Americans on campus. To their credit, the students promised that they weren’t giving up, in spite of Martin’s refusal to engage in meaningful dialogue. And, based on the news this past week, it would appear that they were good to their word… This past Tuesday, members of NASO brought representatives of the US Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with them to meet with President Martin.
The following clip comes from the Detroit News.
U.S. Justice Department officials came to Eastern Michigan University this week to meet with president Susan Martin and a Native American campus group to discuss concerns over the continued use of the school’s Hurons logo after students allegedly harassed a Native American elder in April.
At the meeting Tuesday, Martin refused to remove the logo after being asked to by the EMU Native American Student Organization, according to Mark Fancher, a staff attorney for racial justice for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. Fancher attended the meeting at the request of the student group.
Martin returned the Hurons logo, which depicts a Native American face with paint and feathers, to the EMU Marching Band uniform in 2012 to promote what she calls the university’s history and pride. It is hidden under a front flap.
“She takes the position the logo was retired. Its presence under the flap does not equate its return,” Fancher said. “Martin says it’s a part of the university’s history. My response to that is yes — it’s a disgraceful part of the history. It is causing harm to the students. It needs to go.”
Laura Sagolla, a tribal liaison for the Department of Justice, attended Tuesday’s meeting, said Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit.
Sagolla was there “to listen and ask questions about ways in which the university might respond” to concerns raised by EMU’s NASO and the local tribal community about the handling of a recent incident of racial harassment of a Native American community member by EMU students, Balaya said.
Geoff Larcom, an EMU spokesman, said the Hurons logo was used by the university for 62 years until 1991, the year Eastern became one of the first universities in the nation to change its logo and mascot to avoid using Native American names and images.
“The decision was based on the EMU campus community’s and the Michigan Civil Rights Commission’s concerns about the negative stereotypes reinforced by such logos and representations, and in the spirit of multicultural awareness,” Larcom said.
Eastern became the “Hurons” in 1929 and the “Eagles” in 1991. The current marching band uniforms include two historic logos: the “Normalites,” from when EMU was known as Michigan State Normal School, and the “Hurons,” to represent both prior eras of the band’s history. The logos are under an inside flap of the jacket that is not visible during performances or public appearances, Larcom said.
NASO students say the presence of the Hurons logo has been responsible for a number of hostile acts and expressions toward Native American students and others in the community, including the alleged attack on Native American elder Nathaniel Phillips…
As you’ll recall, Phillips, who I also interviewed in early May, claims to have been assaulted by shirtless EMU students in “red face” on the evening of April 11, after having pointed out to them that their face paint and feathers were offensive to him. According to Phillips, they responded by saying something to the effect of, “We are Hurons,” before telling him that he should, “go back to the fucking reservation.” They also, according to Phillips, threw a beer can at him.
It was just a matter of time, according to Phillips, Lietz and Sutton, before something like this happened. Once Martin and company brought the logo back, they said, it was pretty much inevitable. The University, of course, would argue that the two things are unrelated, and that the old logo, which they agreed was offensive in ’93, isn’t really back, but just hidden under a secret flap on the school’s marching band uniforms. But symbols like these, even when they’re hidden, have power. “When people see us as characters and mascots, they don’t see us as people. It completely erases our existence and our history,” Lietz told the Detroit News.
Here’s another clip from the article noted above.
…Around campus, Lietz said Native American students have had hostile encounters with students over symbols of their heritage, including offensive bumper stickers and a “war whoop” re-enactment.
Worse, Lietz says, is that Martin does not seem to understand her direct role in creating a hostile environment for students at EMU by bringing back the Hurons logo.
“It’s just very disappointing to me she can have students in front of her who are telling her they are living in this hostile environment and she is not willing to understand what she has done to make this happen. She had a personal role in creating this environment,” Lietz said…
If the University truly doesn’t see anything wrong with the Native American mascot, why didn’t they bring it back proudly, in a big way? Why wasn’t there a ceremony of some kind? The answer is easy. They know it’s offensive, and they tried to sneak it back into use as quietly as they could, hidden under a secret flap on a marching band uniform. They thought they were being clever. They thought they’d found a way to appease the “Once a Huron, Always a Huron” faction of their donor base, while not upsetting anyone on campus who might take offense. And, guess what? They failed miserably. And, now, they’re stuck with the impossible task of defending the maneuver. [The hidden Huron can be seen to the right.]
So, again, we see EMU in the news for something that makes them look incredibly stupid… something which could have been easily avoided. They’d been one of the first schools in the nation to drop their Native American mascot. They’d been on the right side of history. And they’d fought hard against a very loud, vocal minority of alumni for the past 20+ years who wanted to see the logo come back for some inexplicable reason. But, at some point, I guess a development officer somewhere had the bright idea that they could appease the hardcore logo-loving alumni without encountering too much backlash, and they decided to roll the dice. They didn’t attempt to build consensus with their Native American students. They didn’t ask for the input of their faculty. No, they just decided to bring the Huron back under a secret flap, like a skinhead might have the word “skins” tattooed inside his lip, where it can’t be seen.
The bottom line is they thought they’d sneak it by everyone, and they got caught. And for what? A few donations?
As Phillips said while visiting The Saturday Six Pack, “Money’s (apparently) more important than a person’s dignity.”
And this, you can be sure, isn’t going to just go away anytime soon. Eventually our friends at NASO will find a member of the marching band to remove the mascot from his or her uniform, and that’ll launch yet another round of stories about this wrongheaded, shortsighted and offensive decision on the part of the EMU administration. And, then, after that, maybe we’ll start to see demonstrations outside of football games… maybe a dozen or so people sitting outside the stadium with stitch-rippers, offering to remove the mascots from the uniforms of other band members. And it’ll just keep growing from there. There’s just no way out of this for the administration short of them giving in, removing the logos, and standing up to their alumni who demanded the return.
But, instead, they’ll try to defend the indefensible. They’ll try to say this was motivated out of respect for the Native Americans of this area, when I’m sure FOIA requests would show it had very little to do with that, and a great deal to do with the wishes of white donors. Despite what we’re being told by the likes of Walter Kraft, an employee of EMU’s communications department, this is not “strictly a historic tribute.”
I guess, in his eyes, it’s kind of like when a person proudly displays the Confederate flag while claiming not to be a racist… just a person who wants to pay tribute to their proud racist past.
As if that somehow makes it better.
They can argue till they’re blue in the face that it’s a tribute to the proud Native Americans who we took this land from, but they know down in their hearts that it’s bullshit. They know that it’s dehumanizing to make a person a mascot. They knew is in ’93. And they know it now.
And, as we’ve discussed before, even if we were to all agree that it was indeed an honor for a college sports team to name itself for a Native American tribe, there’s no way the name of said team could ever be The Hurons, as there never really was a Huron tribe. The name Huron was given to the people of the Wyandot people by the French. It essentially means something like “bristly pig.” Maybe, I suppose, you could argue that EMU could, in good conscience, call their team the Potawatomi, as they actually lived here, but to call them the Hurons is not only offensive, but reflects a deep misunderstanding of who these men and women, who they claim to want to honor, actually were. [There is no evidence that the Wyandot people ever lived here.]
[The above photo above of Michelle Lietz was taken by AM 1700 staff photographer Kate de Fuccio when Lietz, Sutton and Phillips came to visit The Saturday Six Pack. If you missed that episode, you can listen to the audio of the interview here.]
update: The following was left by local historian Matt Siegfried in the comments section.
A proper historical understanding of the Wendat (which was not a tribe, but a confederacy of four, possibly five tribes) coming out of this would be a real learning experience, and hopefully one of the positives to be gained in the process of fighting the mascot and the ignorance and hostility behind it.
Real briefly: all groups now identified with the name Wyandot (with the partial exception of the Quebec band) are in fact a composite of many different Iroquoian culture groups, mainly located in southwest Ontario, that were dispersed by the Haudenosaunee (the “Five Nations” of the Iroquois) in the Beaver Wars of the 1600s. The surviving groups (much of this population was absorbed into the Haudenosaunee) shared exile with many Algonquin groups (some of which had been enemies before) in the Lake Superior region.
These Iroquoian had, though distinct groups before the Beaver Wars, shared more or less a common culture, clans and similar languages, the role of the original Wyandot in being interlocutors for the French, as well as their established multi-tribal governance system gave them predominance among the exiles (and the French).
After the end of the Beaver Wars in 1701 this area could again be lived in and traded through and a large group of Wyandot established villages here when Detroit was founded. The position as “senior” member of these exile groups (Algonquian and Iroquoian) would remain for generations with the council fire of Native confederacies often being at the Wyandot villages along the Detroit River.
While referring to themselves as Wendat (Wyandot is the anglicized version of Wendat or Ouendot) for certain ceremonial and political reasons, the first and foremost identity of all Wendat would have been a clan identity and not tribal. The Wendat of the Detroit area themselves were differentiated between Catholics and traditionalist, between those who favored continued alliance with the French and those that did not, among many other issues. Often these disagreements led to whole separations of groups and the establishment of new bands.
A group of early Catholic converts who settled with Jesuits in Montreal after the 1649 dispersal refer to themselves as Huron.
No group in the US has ever, ever, referred to themselves as Huron, and the name was rarely used by the English and never officially by the US government (except as an identifier). All the official treaties refer to these groups as Wyandot, as do all of the maps from the time. The Huron River was so named because of Wyandot settlements nears its mouth on Lake Erie. The Algonquian speakers borrowed the name and called the river Nottawayseepi (Nodaway is an Algonquian word for Iroquoian speakers.)
The Huron never formally lived in Ypsi. This area was Potawatomi in the entire time Europeans were in the area, from 1701 on and was probably referred to as Moguago’s Town. The Wyandot had a reserve in Flat Rock which opened after their lands along the Detroit River were taken; this lasted about twenty years until removal in 1842. Many died in that removal.
The fact that early Ypsilantians thought Wyandot lived here and not Potawatomi betrays their own ignorance and the scale of the changes that happened in that short period. Everyone in the region would have known just twenty years before when the fact that this area was Potawatomi was common knowledge, after all, Ypsilanti lies on the Potawatomi Trail (the trail from Lake Erie TO the Potawatomi….)
Native histories are just as complicated and varied everyone else’s; we can’t all be expected to know everything, but we should know enough to call things by their correct name and, most importantly, be open to learning when we do not know instead of digging in our willfully ignorant heels.
Deep respect to the Native American Student Organization for what should be seen as simple historical justice and accuracy. Once we get this right, maybe we can give our attention to redressing more completely the wrong that continues to be done to Native peoples; the denial of whose birthright remains at the basis of the American birthright.
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Wasn’t there a story years ago about Martin getting into drunken shouting match with a donor in DC about EMU’s decision to stop using the Huron? At that time she was very much against its return if I’m not mistaken.
From the Ann Arbor News.
Read more:
http://www.annarbor.com/news/emu-president-susan-martin-on-argument-involving-alcohol-i-made-a-mistake-and-i-own-it/
There’s also been talk of a Huron statue.
http://emutalk.org/2012/07/emails-shed-light-on-argument-between-emu-president-susan-martin-and-alumnus/
Many years ago, I graduated from Miami University which, for most of its history since the 1809 founding and the start of organized football in the 1880s, used the Redskins as a mascot. The descendants of the native american tribe moved (or perhaps were moved) to Oklahoma, but they maintained cordial ties with the university. The understanding for years was that the school would keep the mascot until and unless the tribe decided it was no longer appropriate. While it was not without controversy among the members of the Miami, the tribe did pass a resolution of support for the mascot in the early 1970s. Over the next 25 years, in spite of periodic calls from Native Americans and members of the Miami University community to eliminate the use of the Redskins name, the university held to its policy of keeping the name unless support was withdrawn by the tribe. That happened in the mid-1990s, with the tribe changing its position, and for the 1997-98 year, the school began using its current Red Hawks nickname.
I didn’t like the Redskins name when I was at the school, but the process the school used always struck me as at least semi-honorable. They promised to make a change if the tribe thought it appropriate, and the board of trustees kept their word in spite of the same kinds of appeals to “tradition” that EMU has seen. Even today, almost two decades later, there are still calls to bring back the Redskins name, but no one takes them seriously.
I haven’t heard any local Native Americans calling for a return of the Huron name. It’s a shame EMU doesn’t learn from the fine university in the state to our south.
(Here’s a link to a story about the Miami Chief paying a visit to the university in the early 1970s: http://miamioh.edu/about-miami/diversity/miami-tribe-relations/miami-tribe-leaders/chief-olds-first/index.html)
A proper historical understanding of the Wendat (which was not a tribe but a confederacy of four, possibly five tribes) coming out of this would be a real learning experience, and hopefully one of the positives to be gained in the process of fighting the mascot and the ignorance and hostility behind it.
Real briefly: all groups now identified with the name Wyandot (with the partial exception of the Quebec band) are in fact a composite of many different Iroquoian culture groups, mainly located in southwest Ontario, that were dispersed by the Haudenosaunee (the “Five Nations” of the Iroquois) in the Beaver Wars of the 1600s. The surviving groups (much of this population was absorbed into the Haudenosaunee) shared exile with many Algonquin groups (some of which had been enemies before) in the Lake Superior region.
These Iroquoian had, though distinct groups before the Beaver Wars, shared more or less a common culture, clans and similar languages, the role of the original Wyandot in being interlocutors for the French, as well as their established multi-tribal governance system gave them predominance among the exiles (and the French).
After the end of the Beaver Wars in 1701 this area could again be lived in and traded through and a large group of Wyandot established villages here when Detroit was founded. The position as “senior” member of these exile groups (Algonquian and Iroquoian) would remain for generations with the council fire of Native confederacies often being at the Wyandot villages along the Detroit River.
While referring to themselves as Wendat (Wyandot is the anglicized version of Wendat or Ouendot) for certain ceremonial and political reasons, the first and foremost identity of all Wendat would have been a clan identity and not tribal. The Wendat of the Detroit area themselves were differentiated between Catholics and traditionalist, between those who favored continued alliance with the French and those that did not, among many other issues. Often these disagreements led to whole separations of groups and the establishment of new bands.
A group of early Catholic converts who settled with Jesuits in Montreal after the 1649 dispersal refer to themselves as Huron.
No group in the US has ever, ever, referred to themselves as Huron, and the name was rarely used by the English and never officially by the US government (except as an identifier). All the official treaties refer to these groups as Wyandot, as do all of the maps from the time. The Huron River was so named because of Wyandot settlements nears its mouth on Lake Erie. The Algonquian speakers borrowed the name and called the river Nottawayseepi (Nodaway is an Algonquian word for Iroquoian speakers.)
The Huron never formally lived in Ypsi. This area was Potawatomi in the entire time Europeans were in the area, from 1701 on and was probably referred to as Moguago’s Town. The Wyandot had a reserve in Flat Rock which opened after their lands along the Detroit River were taken; this lasted about twenty years until removal in 1842. Many died in that removal.
The fact that early Ypsilantians thought Wyandot lived here and not Potawatomi betrays their own ignorance and the scale of the changes that happened in that short period. Everyone in the region would have known just twenty years before when the fact that this area was Potawatomi was common knowledge, after all, Ypsilanti lies on the Potawatomi Trail (the trail from Lake Erie TO the Potawatomi….)
Native histories are just as complicated and varied everyone else’s; we can’t all be expected to know everything, but we should know enough to call things by their correct name and, most importantly, be open to learning when we do not know instead of digging in our willfully ignorant heels.
Deep respect to the Native American Student Organization for, what should be seen as simple historical justice and accuracy. Once we get this right, maybe we can give our attention to redressing more completely the wrong that continues to be done to Native peoples; the denial of whose birthright remains at the basis of the American birthright.
Okay, sorry for the length….
I bet we could kickstarter a bunch of money to have sweatshirts and hats made for a Native American high school somewhere if they’d agree to change their name to The Fat White Bankers.
Matt the local historian:
“All the official treaties refer to these groups as Wyandot, as do”
Why then does a Google search return a link to a wikipedia article that quotes a 1760 Treaty of Peace and friendship?
“THESE are to certify that the CHIEF of the HURON tribe of Indians, having come to me in the name of His Nation, to submit to His BRITANNICK MAJESTY, and make Peace”
Matt: do you have any knowledge of how EMU came to pick the name Huron for their sports team? Was Wyandot or Potawatomi already taken?
Stupid Hick, glad you’ve mastered the art of the computer keyboard and a search engine.
I was referring to US treaties. Since you’re googling treaties, notice how after the British take over (in the time of the treaty you mention) from the French in the 1760s, the former French name is less and less used. You’ll also notice in that treaty, since your googling, that all of the signatures are clan based signatures and none of them are represented by a bristly wild boar.
And since you clearly did google it, the best you can come up with is a British treaty using the french term when they first take power in this region? You may well find others, but they will pale in comparison to the numbers that use of Wyandot and get used progressively less. Incidentally, three years after that Treaty, the majority of the Wyandot rose against the British, and without regard to what they were referred to as. The other questions you’ll have to ask the university. Or you can ask the University of Michigan who owes its existence to the stolen legacy of the Wyandot why they chose not to call themselves the Wyandot after their “benefactors”.
Matt, you seem defensive, but I suppose I might be too if I staked my reputation on having historical insight that can be called into question in 15 seconds by any stupid hick on the internet. Of course you meant US treaties. Seriously, do you know anything about the history of the EMU team name and why it was picked? I take your silence as ‘NO’.
I am done with willful ignorance and wounded whiteness, so the convo – at least from my end- is closed with stupid hicks.
The only thing I’d really disagree with here, Mark, is your characterization of “the Eagles” as a less offensive and more appropriate mascot. The whole Huron thing is a battle that took place well before my time at EMU and since I’m not an alumni who had some sort of attachment to “The Hurons,” I don’t quite understand why there are still people holding on to the old mascot 25 years later.
That said, “Eagles” was lame lame choice. Throw a brick out a window and you’re going to hit a school with “Eagles” as their mascot. Clearly, the golden opportunity was “Emus,” as in “The EMU Fighting Emus.” I am completely convinced that all of the “Once a Huron, always a Huron” crowd would have chuckled and said “Emus, huh? That’s kinda cool” and the Hurons would be as forgotten as the Normalites.
You have chosen well, Matt Siegfried. I am proud of you.
And, as for other names, Seven, I would have preferred the Herons. They are my favorite local birds, and names are so close that you could reuse almost all of the letters.
Or, better yet, The Baby Herons.
You cannot tell me that there’s a cooler animal than a baby heron.
An paper that compares the histories of three university native American mascots, including EMU’s story, can be found by googling “Mark R. Connolly”. I wonder if spending another half hour on Google would qualify me for a Masters of History at EMU?
How did CMU keep Chippewas? My understanding is that they met with the leaders of the Chippewa Tribe, and offered full scholarships to tribal youth, started a Native American studies program, and banned the mascot from doing the “traditional” war dance and whoops. That seems to me to be a very good way to keep the “tradition” as well as serve an underserved community. Can someone correct me if I am wrong?
If a tribe consents to use of their name and endorses a mascot, does it make it OK, or is it still offensive?
I don’t know exactly what was involved with the Chippewas, but I think the difference there is that’s what they call themselves– remember, the Native Americans the European settlers called the “Hurons” didn’t call themselves that, and as I understand it, “Huron” was a sort of mashed-up slur term. On the other hand, the Chippewas were okay with the tribe name being associated with the university. Same with the Florida State Seminoles, by the way.
Blackhawks down 2-1 against Tampa Bay.
Susan Martin sleeps with a Smith & Wesson, and a copy of the Magna Carta under her pillow.
“At today’s meeting, members of the Native American community presented President Susan Martin with a seam ripper and a message — use it to take “hidden” Huron logos off marching band uniforms at the school.”
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/06/16/huron-logo-emu/28828217/
EMU Herons would have been a much better choice than Eagles
Green Heron’s are clever enough they use bait while fishing