Sports Archives - Page 44 of 54

Chickasaw Woman to Cheer On NBA Pros as Thunder Girl

TheAdaNews.comKatie Callaway, of Oklahoma City, during her audition for the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder Girls — TheAdaNews.com
Katie Callaway, of Oklahoma City, during her audition for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder Girls

A Chickasaw woman’s dream has come true. And she’ll get to share it with thousands.

Katie Callaway will cheer on basketball pros and fans as a member of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder’s dance team.

“I am so excited,” Callaway said in a news release. “I can’t wait to get on those sidelines and entertain the best fans of any city with an NBA team.”

Callaway, 26, sat in the stands as a fan for six years before she decided to try out. But, she didn’t make the team on her first try.

“I worked hard, very hard, to improve my technique,” Callaway said reflecting on the failed effort. “I worked on leaps, turns, and pointed toes. It was a full-on effort for a year. It was tough.”
The final audition process consisted of three rounds: a choreographed routine, a question and answer session, and a solo dance. Only 38 women were selected as finalists from nearly 100 hopefuls. The group of 38 was eventually narrowed down to 20.

She auditioned at the Riverwind Casino in Norman, Oklahoma in front of a packed house. Now that she’s one of the 20 Thunder Girls, Callaway is looking forward to the team’s first game in November.

“I wondered what it would be like to be down there. I wondered how exciting it was for the team and how much they looked forward to it,” she said in the news release.

Callaway is an Oklahoma resident. She attended Ada High School where she was a cheerleader, but she was born in England where her father was stationed in the U.S. Air Force. Her mother is Chickasaw and works for the Chickasaw Nation. For years, her grandfather, Jack Wells, served as a Chickasaw tribal legislator and her great-grandmother, Delta Wells, was an original enrollee with the tribe.

“We’d go to festivals and I was a member of the Governor’s Honor Club,” Callaway said. “I learned my heritage is important and tradition is important. It is essential to know one’s self. I am very proud of my Chickasaw heritage.

But, Callaway won’t quit her day job. She’s a drilling engineer technician with Chesapeake Energy where she analyzes drilling for natural resources. She started working there as a receptionist and moved up rather quickly. Callaway is also a graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond where she studied public relations.

Not only is she excited about cheering on the fans, but as a Thunder girl, Callaway will also have a chance to work with her community. “Being a part of the organization will give me that opportunity to give back, which is something I’m looking forward to very much.”

Oneida Indian Nation plans symposium on ‘Washington Redskins’ name at NFL meeting hotel

In its latest effort to get the Washington Redskins to change their name, the Oneida Indian Nation of upstate New York will hold a symposium at the same hotel where NFL will meet Monday.

NEWS WIRE SERVICES

October 4, 2013

The Oneida Indian Nation says the Washington Redskins’s name is a racial epithet.

The Oneida Indian Nation of upstate New York said Thursday it will take an in-your-face approach in its ongoing battle to get the Washington Redskins to change the team’s name.

The tribe, which says the name is a racial epithet, will host a symposium on the topic Monday at the same Washington hotel where the National Football League is holding its fall meeting, beginning the next day.

Opponents of Racist D.C. Mascot to Hold Event at NFL Fall Meeting

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The Oneida Indian Nation is taking its ‘Change the Mascot’ campaign a step further.

On Monday, October 7^th, the Nation plans to convene in Washington, D.C. to hold a public conference calling on the NFL and its teams to end the use of the slur, Redskins.

The conference, which will be held in the Ritz Carlton, in the same hotel as the NFL’s Fall Meeting, is open to the public and press.

This conference comes just weeks after the Nation broadcast its “Change the Mascot” radio advertisements, and months after students at Cooperstown Central School District in Cooperstown, New York, made national news by voting to change their teams’ name from ‘Redskins’ to the ‘Hawkeyes.’

“As proud sponsors of the NFL, we are encouraged by how many leaders are standing up, speaking out and joining the grassroots effort to get the Washington team to do the right thing and change its name,” said Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter in an earlier news release.

The Nation, along with U.S. Lawmakers: Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-District of Columbia), Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota), and special guests hope to spur a discussion that will lead to change.

“We should be treated as what we are: Americans,” Halbritter said.

Book Review: Washington Football Team Remains Clueless When it Comes to Its Name

Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins

By Thomas G. Smith
Beacon Press | 277 pp | $20.48
ISBN 9780807000748

Levi Rickert, Native News Network

Reading “Showdown: JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins” allows the American Indian reader a fast clue as to why the ownership of the football team, located in the nation’s capital city, has remained clueless as to why the vast majority of American Indians oppose its name.

Washington “Paleskins”

I know there have been surveys done that proclaim the opposite. And, I know the media have a way of finding someone’s uncle Indian Joe, who is eager to get on television to declare he thinks it is an honor when non-Indians use Indians as mascots.

I honestly don’t believe the surveys and feel sorry for uncle Indian Joe from the Does-Not-Get-It Tribe. I know a survey can be commissioned to deliver desired results for the entity commissioning the survey. The tobacco companies did it all the time when they were attempting to prove second-hand smoke does not injure the non-smoker.

I know the vast majority of American Indians I know find the term “redskins” akin to the “N” word. Even the Merriam-Webster defines the word as offensive.

I must disclose the book is not about the name of the team per se. The author devotes less than a full page to the fact American Indians took the use of the name to court in the early 1990s.

“Showdown” discusses how the National Football League was behind Major League Baseball in integration of African Americans into its ranks. The book is about how the Washington football team was the last team to have an African American on its roster.

The book’s central figure is the Washington football team’s owner, George Preston Marshall, who was a brazen racist.

“Blinded by racism,” author Thomas G. Smith writes,

“Marshall refused to tap into the pool of African-American talent,” despite the franchise’s shortcomings on the field. ”

Smith suggests that to keep in good favor with his mainly white, Southern fan base and not hurt his profit margin, Marshall refused to draft black players from 1946 through 1961, making his team the only team in the professional league to have an all white team. During this time, the team had a dismal record of 69 wins, 116 losses and 8 ties and went through eight coaches.

However, Marshall’s racist hiring policy would be challenged by President John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall.

In 1961, the same year the Kennedy administration came into power, Marshall purchased a 30 year lease for a newly built 54,000 seat stadium, writes Smith. The landlord was the federal government. When President Kennedy issued an executive order creating the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, Secretary Udall, after consulting Interior Department attorneys and decided to move against the Washington “Paleskins”, as he referred to the NFL franchise.

Citing a no-discrimination provision in the stadium lease, Udall gave Marshall an ultimatum, integrate the team or lose the stadium.

“Showdown” does a good job of describing how the team relented and became integrated. However, Marshall – even after his death in 1969 – stipulated in his will that the Redskins Foundation with funds from his estate was not to direct a single dollar toward “any purpose which supports or employs the principle of racial integration in any form.”

Unfortunately, the team, through a couple of different owners since Marshall, remains clueless as to the use of the word it uses for its name – much to the gross disrespect of American Indians across the nation.

He’s 12, He’s Fast and He’s an All American

By Jack McNeel, Indian Country Today Media Network

Few people can say they’re All American athletes by their twelfth birthday.

Xavier Guillory has taken it one step further with his second title in a national track and field competition. Two years ago in Wichita, and this year in Greensboro, North Carolina, Xavier, a Nez Perce tribal member, achieved All American status.

The 12 year-old competed in the U.S.A. Track and Field Junior Olympic National Championships which were held in late July in Greensboro. Xavier qualified to race in three events at the National Championships: 400 meters, 800 meters, and 1500 meters. Brackets are broken down into two-year age levels and he competed in the 11-12 age bracket.

The country is divided into 16 regions and athletes must qualify as one of the top five finishers in their events at regional competitions to be eligible to compete at the National Championships where only the top eight in each event earn All-American status. About 8500 track athletes from around the country compete in regional events and even qualifying for nationals is a major accomplishment.

In the regional tournament held earlier this year in Seattle, Xavier set a new club and personal best time of 2:18 in the 800 meters, running for the Mercury Track Club of Spokane. “He ran an incredible race and everything came together,” said his father, Raphael Guillory. “Last year his fastest time was around 2.25.”

Xavier with his parents (Photo courtesy the Guillory family)

But during the Nationals, running conditions were not optimal at race time. Temperatures were hovering in the 80’s and humidity was high. Then, just before the 800 meter race was to start, a lightning storm hit. The runners were taken to the lockers to sit and wait until the storm passed and they remained there for nearly three hours.

One good thing came from this unexpected delay. It gave the kids a chance to get acquainted. Xavier later told his dad that one of the things he enjoyed most about the Nationals was getting to know the kids he was competing against.

When the race finally did start, it ended in a tight finish. “It was a pack coming around that last 100 meters,” Raphael recalled. “As they sprinted for the goal they kind of thinned out. There was only about three seconds between first and eighth place finishers.” Xavier finished 8th, but just over two seconds behind the winner.

So how did Xavier feel about the national meet? “Even though I’m experienced there, there’s still that feeling it’s my first year. I’m nervous, just thinking about the races the whole time. It’s fun but you also have to get serious about it. The thing I have trouble thinking about is competing with national athletes.”

He also ran in the 400 and 1500 meter finals. His finishes weren’t quite as high, finishing 35th of 52 runners in the 400 and finishing 14th of 41 runners in the 1500, but Xavier was competing with the nations’ best junior runners.

“It’s a lot of training; a lot of discipline,” Xavier added. “All the hours you put in for a short amount of time for a race, but you need it.”

He hopes and plans to return next year where he will move up a class to the youth division. But for right now, it’s football season. Fortunately the two sports don’t overlap. “There’s the side of me that wants to take track,” he says. He’s a running back in football and says this year he’ll also play cornerback, “and kick returner and punt returner,” he adds.

His family also stresses education. “Xavier has done very well. He’s really strong in science and reading and writing,” Raphael says. He’s now moving into middle school and they have him in a summer math program just to keep his chops up mathematically and to give him that added confidence.

“When we got back I told him to just be a kid; play with your sisters, go to the store, run around, hang out,” Raphael said. “Then football is mentioned and he’s going out[side] with his football. The kid’s a motor. I tell him to chill out and he just doesn’t know,” Raphael laughs.

The ‘Blackskins’ Story: A Strong Image Provokes a Strong Reaction

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

On Friday, ICTMN published an essay, “Fun Racism Quiz: Would NFL Have a Team Called Washington Blackskins?”, and provocative image by Gerard Miller that he had published some time ago, as a college undergraduate. Miller, an African American, said that the piece had convinced some of his fellow students — ones who didn’t care about the controversy over the Redskins football team name — that it was an issue they should care about.

The image is a strong one, and it inspired strong reactions from many of our Facebook followers, as well as debate in a comment thread that has now stretched to over 500 entries. There are many insightful comments in the thread—and many that aren’t insightful.

Wayde Sid McCloud contributed one of the first responses, and to some extent hit the nail on the head: “When the African American cries racism, America has your back 100%. When Native Americans talk about racism towards them, it’s ignored!”

He may be exaggerating with “has your back 100%” but it’s safe to say that America has developed pretty good radar when it comes to racist images and words directed at African Americans. The Blackskins image is obviously racist. Nobody could argue that it is a “tribute” to African Americans. Through perseverance, the black community has largely succeeded in educating the rest of America about what images and words are disrespectful and harmful—but, unfortunately, Native Americans haven’t gotten to that stage. When Natives call out an image as racist, they are often challenged. Everything from “It’s a tribute” to “You’re just being politically correct” to “It’s a tradition—get over it.” Would anyone advance those same arguments to a black person who was (rightfully) offended by the Blackskins image?

Some commenters (and there is no telling, on Facebook, whether the people chiming in have read the article) saw the Blackskins image as a “cheap shot” directed at African Americans, and wondered why American Indians would “attack” another group that also faces discrimination but isn’t involved in the Redskins mascot discussions. The Blackskins image was not an attack on African Americans.

Look how far we have come—from a country that allowed slavery 150 years ago to one in which the Blackskins image would not be tolerated for a second. Every thinking American sees that it is racist, and that’s laudable progress. And “Blackskins” isn’t even a racial slur anyone uses.

Unfortunately, take the same image, substitute a 19th-century conception of a noble Indian and print the word “Redskins—which is a slur according to any dictionary—beneath it, and America goes blind to the racism. So blind that it’s considered suitable for t-shirts, bumper stickers, and baby attire. And that’s the point. American Indians have seen black Americans make great strides in reclaiming human dignity after brutal historic oppression. Black Americans in the year 2013 have made progress toward that mountaintop, and as a black man, Gerard Miller knows that. He also knows that American Indians would like to catch up.

Prep football: Tulalip Heritage 78, Rainier Christian 54

Source: The Herald

KENT — Sophomore tailback Robert Miles Jr. rushed for 209 yards and six touchdowns, and fullback Bradley Fryberg scored three touchdowns and added 21 tackles and three interception on defense as Tulalip Heritage ran away from Rainier Christian Friday night at Kentlake High School.

Sequoyah Football Players “Man Up” for Prostate Cancer Awareness

Sequoyah players place small blue ribbons to promote prostate cancer awareness on their helmets.

Source: Native News Network

TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA – When the Sequoyah Indians march across Thompson Field to battle the Beggs Demons Friday night in a game being billed as the “Man Up Game,” players will be sporting a small blue ribbon promoting prostate cancer awareness on their helmets.

“I think we are one of the first high school teams in the state to help promote prostate cancer awareness like this,”

said Greg Bilby, public health educator for Cherokee Nation Cancer Programs.

“If these young men can influence members of their families or anyone at the game to get checked, then we’ve done some good.”

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. It’s the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths for men in the country. Native American men are typically diagnosed at a later stage of cancer growth when treatment options are limited, leading to higher mortality rates than other ethnicities, according to the American Cancer Society.

“Anytime you can get a large group of people together and bring attention to something like cancer awareness, there’s never a negative in that,”

Sequoyah Football Head Coach Shane Richardson said.

“Cancer reaches everyone’s family and everybody’s life in some way, so being involved in bringing attention to it is something we take pretty seriously.”

For Sequoyah’s campus security officer, Deputy Marshal Clay Troutman, who works football games, the cause hits close to home. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010 and lost both his father and grandfather to the disease. Troutman was fortunate to catch the cancer early and is currently cancer free.

“Prostate cancer isn’t really something that you talk about around the water cooler. As guys, we don’t think about it, we don’t talk about it, but I think it does need to be recognized,”

Troutman said.

“I’m in full support of the team, or anybody wanting to help promote awareness for the men in the crowd.”

Sequoyah also holds an annual “Think Pink Game” for breast cancer awareness on October 4, and a “Pack It Purple Game” for domestic violence awareness on October 17.

For general information about prostate cancer awareness, contact Greg Bilby at 918.453.5381 or greg-bilby@cherokee.org.

List of schools that changed Native American nicknames

Source: USA Today

Debate over whether the NFL’s Washington Redskins should change their nickname (see: Christine Brennan’s column) continues to grow.

Here is a list of notable colleges that changed Native American mascots and/or nicknames in recent history:

– Stanford University – Indians to Cardinal (1972)

– Dartmouth – Indians to Big Green (1974)

– Siena – Indians to Saints (1988)

– Eastern Michigan – Hurons to Eagles (1991)

– St. John’s (N.Y.) – Redman to Red Storm (1994)

– Marquette – Warriors to Golden Eagles (1994)

– Miami (Ohio) – Redskins to RedHawks (1997)

– Seattle University – Chieftains to Redhawks (2000)

– Louisiana-Monroe – Indiana to Warhakws (2006)

– Arkansas State – Indians to Red Wolves (2008)

– North Dakota – Formerly dropped Fighting Sioux in 2012. No nickname currently.

OTHERS:

– Illinois – Removed Chief Illiniwek as official mascot in 2007. Athletics teams are still called Fighting Illini.

– Bradley and Alcorn State – Both schools stopped using Native American mascot but have retained their Braves nickname.

– William and Mary – Adjusted Tribe logo to remove feathers to comply with NCAA. Athletics teams are still called Tribe. (2007)

Of note: Utah (Utes), Central Michigan (Chippewas), Florida State (Seminoles) and Mississippi College (Choctaws) all appealed successfully to NCAA after being deemed “hostile and offensive.”

Each cited positive relationships with neighboring tribes in appeal.

Redskins to face protests at Lambeau during Packers home opener

Rick WoodAaron Rodgers tries to cross the goal line in the Packers’ October 2010 road game loss against the Washington Redskins. — Rick Wood
Aaron Rodgers tries to cross the goal line in the Packers’ October 2010 road game loss against the Washington Redskins.

By Meg Jones, Journal Sentinel

When the Green Bay Packers take the field at Lambeau on Sunday for their home opener, they won’t be the only ones taking aim at the Washington Redskins.

Packers fans walking in to Lambeau Field through the Oneida Nation Gate will see Oneida members and others protesting the use of the Redskins logo and mascot, which they say is offensive to Native Americans.

“The warrior image is not the image we want to be portrayed,” said Brandon Stevens, an Oneida Nation elected official. “We’ve moved past the time of Western encroachment and how the West was won, and that’s where all the images are taken from — when we were a valiant enemy.”

Members of the Wisconsin Indian Education Association’s Mascot and Logo Task Force are expected to gather outside Lambeau Field before the noon game holding signs protesting the Washington Redskins’ choice of mascot. The group also has scheduled a seminar on the topic on Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The Packers declined to comment on the mascot issue. The protesters contacted the team to ask permission to hold signs outside the stadium, and the Packers will set up an area where they’ll be allowed to protest.

“We respect that reasonable people may have differing views,” National Football League spokesman Brian McCarthy said Tuesday in an email. “The name from its origin was always intended to be positive and has always been used by the team in a highly respectful manner.”

A Washington Redskins spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

It’s not just the Oneida Nation in Green Bay pressing the Redskins to change their mascot. The Oneida tribe in upstate New York already has publicly called on the NFL team to get rid of the name.

In a radio ad that began airing Monday before the Redskins season opener, a member of the New York Oneida tribe called on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to “stand up to bigotry” by denouncing “the racial slur” in the team’s name.

Redskins owner Dan Snyder has said he’ll never change his team’s name.

For more than two decades the Oneida tribe in Wisconsin has opposed the use of Indian characters and names in insensitive ways including sports teams, Oneida Nation spokeswoman Bobbi Webster said. When the Redskins last visited Lambeau, in October 2007, Oneida members held signs at the stadium saying they were not mascots, Webster said.

The topic is timely given the standoff between the Mukwonago School District and the state Department of Public Instruction over the school’s use of the Indian logo and mascot. The state’s deadline for Mukwonago to drop its Indian mascot passed last month. The School Board in July voted to take no action to change the nickname and logo, despite the possibility of daily fines for not complying with the state order.

On Sunday the protest group plans to provide information to Packers fans lining up to get inside the stadium, raising awareness of sports mascots and logos that are derogatory to Native Americans. Webster said it’s not an official protest by the Oneida Nation, which is a major sponsor of the Packers and has the naming rights to the entrance on Lambeau Field’s east side.

Stevens, a member of the tribe’s business committee, said Native Americans are no longer simply fierce warriors.

“We’re educators, we’re community members, we have families and go to work like everyone else,” Stevens said. “Having those negative stereotypes takes us back 100 years.”