Will you be offended? I am not.

Although I still did wear those wooden shoes (you mention) at the first classes of high school (no it was not custom anymore since long but kind of modern again plus you have really warm feet in it in wintertime and you have to know how to walk on it) I find it (still) kind of weird the pic many nations do have about the dutch people. It's mainly not based on history at all. Personally I don't feel or would feel offended if my nationality is used (no matter for what). Since my nationality has nothing to do with who I am as a person.

Good for you. I think as long as the "people" are not "stereo typed" I think a anyone would be proud if a school is named after their heritage. My children's school is "Shawnee" and I see nothing wrong with that, and I think this is why my daughter started admiring the Native Americans, because of the name of her school...

Well, I'm of Scot/Irish/English decent and I don't see anyone dressing like Picts these days (naked and painted blue) but I do see kilts and tams and stuff and I'm fine with that. I think what most Native Americans object to is the more derogatory names, like "Redskins". However, there are always that most vocal minority who will object to anything they think might be a reference to a group when said group doesn't include any of them. I wonder if they've really thought it through, tho, can you imagine the Florida 'Gators having to have real alligators on campus? How about the Texas Longhorns? Yeah, they have mascots, but really...

I don't know what my nationality is, other than American (not native American.. just plain ole American) so it doesn't offend me. I remember when I was a child we were very into watching figure skating and there was a figure skater (I think he was French actually) who wore a shirt that looked like the American flag.. and at one point in his routine he took his shirt off and dropped it on the ice. He didn't do it in an offensive manner.. he meant to be sexy. I found no offense, but it became a big deal to others. Honestly I just think people like to complain about things.

I like to see people dressed up like Native Americans. My mother was part Native American and part of her is from Holland. She had long American Indian Hair and was one of her best attributes. Also my Grand daughter who is also part American Indian, will be taught as much as we can about her Heritage.

I would be offended if it was inappropriately, not to represent the area, or a team. I mean if they were bashing my hertage and their backgrounds. I went to school with a girl who was a native, now I have ntaive in my backgrund. She used it against everything. I just stopped talking to her because it got old after awhile. She wouldn't admit to her problems or anything, it was always your picking on me because I am a native.

As long as they were depicted accurately, I'd be ok with it. If the depiction was a tired or racist stereotype, I'd be offended, but if accurate, I'd be ok.

I have thought that I was "Probably the closest thing to a REAL AMERICAN that is likely." My actual heritage is English, Irish, Scottish, Finnish, German, Swedish, Yugoslavian and Russian. I, and my relatives are TRUE AMERICANS,since America is known as The Melting Pot of the World. The only thing that would help this designation would be if we suddenly found out that there is some Native American somewhere in our family heritage. I just tried to find out if there is a mascot or symbol for the Finnish people, but no such luck, yet. Maybe someone else knows of one. If someone does know, I would be glad to know about it. The only thing I know for sure concerns a famous Finnish runner named Paavo Nurmi who was called "The Flying Finn." I, for one, would feel HONORED to have a nickname like that.

First, I would like to thank you and your ancestors for allowing my family to come to your great country and allow us to stay. I am also sorry for what we (whites) did to your people. I can't say that my nationalities are used as a mascot or anything (Italian, Scotch, French, German and maybe something else), so I wouldn't have any experience to draw on to say how I'd feel about that. I think it's awesome that your so proud of your Native American heritage; I've never had an opportunity to meet anyone from the Choctaw Nation. Where I'm from, the Lenni-Lenape are prevalent, but my ex-fiance was part Cherokee. When he learned of his family's lineage, he had to stop liking John Wayne because of his views regarding Native Americans.

I do agree about the insensitivity of the naming of school's teams, mascots and marching bands. But I also take into consideration the fact that many of these schools were founded way before the cultural sensitivity movement began. While it would be wonderful if these schools would change their mascot, marching bands, and team's name and reference; the most difficult thing on the face of the earth is to exact change. I used to love to watch westerns, but I couldn't stand the horrible bloodshed featured in each of them. The American Indians truly got the short end of the stick when the first "white man" landed on what was to become the United States and Canada. As it still is in modern times, we pushed our beliefs on the natural residents of the country and if they didn't change to our way of life they were slaughtered! As it was said in one of the movies about the Pope, the Catholic Church is going to be doing penance for centuries to come for what they did to the American Indians. The priests treated the American Indians like dirt, and they expected them to abandon their beliefs and accept the Catholic way. If not the Indians were beaten, starved, and otherwise abused. Often times they were killed. We took their lands from them, in the name of progress. We called the Indians "savages" while we were killing them, stealing their lands, molesting their women, killing their food sources, and forcing them on extended marches to "reservations". Humm, I wonder who was the savage? We continued to disrespect the American Indian to modern days. As a nation, the Americans continued to abuse nationalities that we felt were inferior...including enslaving the African Americans. The egotistical population felt that the African Americans were no better than a piece of garbage and they could be ripped from their families and sold like merchandise, they could be beaten and killed at the "owner's" whim. I could continue with all the horrible atrocities that have been done to various peoples at the hands of others... and the lack of sensitivity to the various peoples and their beliefs. Until people learn that they are not superior to others, but are the same as everyone else, will we be able to eliminate the racial slurs like the tomahawks, Mohawk hair cuts, and other slurs. Until we reach the point of realizing that "All people are created equal" we will continue to have wars, assassinations, gangs, and killings aimed at a particular nationality or race. I continue to pray that one day people will learn to live in peace and respect of other nationalities, cultures, mental abilities, physical capabilities (I went through that many years ago), and even social economical status. I happened to run into the principal of my elementary school many years ago. The first words out of his mouth were "I remember you! You couldn't play baseball!!! You were sooo stupid you couldn't even hit the ball!" I was so close to slapping him smart (he already was silly and stupid...maybe a good hard smack would have made him a bit smarter!) I was on the sales floor and we were supposed to be polite to the customer no matter what...but I totally lost it. I looked at the egotistical jerk and asked him "Was it that important that I could hit a baseball?" His response was "YES, after all baseball is the national past time and it reflected badly on the school because you couldn't hit the ball". It took me a bit to get my anger under control and then I blew at him "DID YOU EVER ASK ME ABOUT MY ABILITY TO HIT THAT STUPID BALL?" The man looked at me like I had hit him. I continued on with "You never took the time to get to know me, to find out why I couldn't hit the ball, to offer special help in teaching me how to hit the ball. You just have the b-lls to stand there and still criticize me and continue to make fun of my inability to play baseball. Did you ever stop once to think that since I wear glasses that maybe I couldn't see the ball to hit it? I have ambliopia which leaves me with NO depth perception so I couldn't judge the distance to hit that stinking ball. And furthermore, if it reflected badly on the school and you that I couldn't hit the ball...did it ever come to your mind that maybe it wasn't my inabilities but your inabilities as a teacher that reflected badly on the school?" I then turned and walked away. It is those kind of attitudes that keeps the sociological turmoils going. Just like you GardenGerty, please don't replay to my posting with flaming assaults, criticisms, and angry responses. I am simply expressing an opinion and expressing what I have learned through the years.

heres something i dont understand either. we used to have a Squaw mountain here and people raised a big to do about it a few years ago. they said squaw was a bad name to call native american women , so i think they changed it but i cant remember what to. i have native american in my family and ancestry. it doesnt bother me such things.

The Native American lobby is a lot more connected than others. Plus there's the guilt factor. Being part Italian, I'm offended by Jersey Shore. But only because those orange schmucks give us a bad name! Being part Irish, I'm offended that Notre Dame thinks they have a chance to beat Alabama next week! Roll Damn Tide! But on a serious note: "Irish" and "fight" is definitely a stereotype. But I don't think many are offended by it, and there are a heck of a lot of people in America with Irish ancestry. But, then again, even if some were offended, it would never get anywhere. Number one, Irish are considered white. You can't be white in America and have a legitimate complaint about anything unless you're gay, disabled, or some other protected class. Two, everyone loves stereotypes. We all identify one another through stereotypes. So unless it is a protected class of people some feel guilty about, it's perfectly acceptable.

I have always had great respect for native Americans. I have always thought that they were always pushed aside and forgotten. That always bothered me. I agree with you. They are being represented in a positive light really. I think that native Americans should be the only privileged people in this country. After all, they were here first. I also believe that all native Americans should be exempt from everything in this country, like paying taxes. As for my nationality, well, the Italians are always looked at as mafia. I despise the mafia. But I cannot change that. I am also not offended by that because I know I am not involved it that garbage and most italians are not. They are good people. As a matter of fact, I consider myself an American because I was born here.

I don't think it is the use of a nationality as a team mascot that is offensive so much as the images and costumes sometimes depicted for the team. For example, Native Americans (as I'm sure you know) aren't actually red faced but they're often depicted that way. That is offensive part. To perpetuate untrue and racist stereotypes through images.

I wish I could remember the name of the book. It was basically the truth about Columbus, portrayed from the native American side. But it also talked about slavery and many other wrongs. There was a chapter on the Native American reasons for being offended by such portrayals, and it explained it so much better than I ever could.

I'm glad u are proud of your heritage, u should be. Have u ever seen the play in gatlingberg about native americans? I saw it as a child & have had great sympathy for the way they were treated ever since. I have some heritage to w/native americans in my history.

Both Hubby and I agree with you. we felt it an honor for one of our local schools to have Braves as school mascot. Every kid in that school wanted to be connected with the Braves. How could that be considered an insult to Indian fighters who were known as Braves. We lost that fight and the name was changed, at which point I lost interest in the subject. As far as I'm concerned the people who started this were called stupid.

Hi Gerty, What a great question. I think that if my nationality was used to represent a team, that would cause me to feel respect and pride about my heritage. On the other hand, I can also understand how some people may be offended by it. Happy New Year!

I think people of these days should not be discriminating each other. We are in the age of advance technology where no people must not be confronted with harsh words and discriminating action to some extent.

I've never had any real opinion on this. My team in high school was the Buccaneers. Those of us at UCLA were Bruins. I think most schools named their teams for qualities such as toughness, bravery, competence, etc, that are useful in winning. I think it's only when we started to see the country break into the ethnic rather than assimilating into the melting pot this became a problem. When people thought of themselves merely as Americans who had an ethnic background elsewhere, it wasn't the issue it is today when immigrants tend to identify more with their ethnicity than their new nation. Personally, I think only the Native Americans who were here first have any reason to gripe, since they didn't come here to be Americans. Still, though, what's wrong with being a Brave? I believe Indian names were chosen not as caricatures but because they represented qualities important in winning football games. Just my opinion.