Review
“Each of the essays provides a different perspective, but all agree that the use of Indians as mascots is demeaning, patronizing, and a paradigm of Indian-white power relationships. . . . Separate articles by King and Springwood treat perceptively those Indians who support mascots, and are alone worth the price of the book. . . . One need look no farther for information on why and how Indian mascots exist and ought to disappear into oblivion.”—Choice
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Choice )
“Every time I watch the Washington Redskins or the Cleveland Indians (with their grotesque Chief Wahoo) I wonder what it must feel like to be a Native American sports fan and see oneself depicted this way. It just plain gives me the willies. Team Spirits shows me why.”—Rick Telander, sports columnist, Chicago Sun-Times
(Rick Telander
Chicago Sun-Times )
"This is an excellent collection of different viewpoints that challenge readers to reconsider how the selective perceptions of majority groups can persist in keeping down ethnic minorities."—Sunamita Lim, The Santa Fe New Mexican
(Sunamita Lim
The Santa Fe New Mexican )
"A valuable and important volume. . . . Each offering is methodical, careful in its argument, fulsome in its data-work, and above all, careful to avoid succumbing to the almost inevitable polemics such issues appear to raise."—Aethlon
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Aethlon )
“The greatest contribution Team Spirits offers to the literature on mascots is the excellent histories . . . on the origin of particular mascots and efforts taken to change or eliminate them. For in these histories—and in the defense mascot supporters proffer when challenged—lies the potential for understanding why people concoct mascots in the first place and why they grow so fond of keeping them in the face of opposition. . . . Team Spirits should appeal not only to scholars but to activists in mascot disputes around the country.”—David P. Rider, American Studies
(David P. Rider
American Studies )
“An invaluable collection of essays that thoroughly examine the American legacy of Native American mascots. Team Spirits fills an important social, political, and intellectual void in American Indian Studies literature, and serves as the first comprehensive examination of the growing mascots controversy.”—Joseph A. Martin, Anthropology and Education Quarterly
(Joseph A. Martin
Anthropology and Education Quarterly )
“C. Richard King and Charles Fruehling Springwood have collected fourteen critical essays, with a foreword by Vine Deloria Jr., which examine this matter from a variety of perspectives and provide some well needed historical and sociological context for the debate.”—Indigenous Nations Studies Journal
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Indigenous Nations Studies Journal )
About the Author
C. Richard King is an assistant professor of anthropology at Drake University, and Charles Fruehling Springwood is an assistant professor of anthropology at Illinois Wesleyan University. King and Springwood are coauthors of Beyond the Cheers: Race As Spectacle in College Sport.
