SEMO PANEL LIKES INDIAN NICKNAMES

A Southeast Missouri State University committee Wednesday voted that the school's athletic teams keep their Indian and Otahkian nicknames.

The men's teams are nicknamed the Indians and the women's teams the Otahkians.

A handful of committee members wanted to scrap the nicknames.

"Any ethnic group should not be used as a symbol," said Robert Skelton, a Southeast history professor who is part Indian. "To me it is a moral issue," said Skelton, whose ancestors include Cherokees and Chickasaws.

Some committee members suggested that athletic boosters might quit supporting the school if the Indian and Otahkian names were dropped.

Alumni have an attachment to the nicknames, said student member Tom Tomlinson. "It is something familiar to everybody in the community," he said.

"Most students want to keep it," student member Jamie Frisella said of the Indian nickname.

The committee, which has more than 20 members, has yet to decide on a mascot. The mascot doesn't have to be an Indian, said Jim Biundo, co-chairman of the committee and assistant to the president at Southeast.

Committee members said the university needs to do a better job of educating the public about the area's Indian heritage.

"Let's not just give it lip service," Biundo said.

He said the problem with Indian mascots is that they often end up being caricatures that don't accurately portray the Indian culture.

Chief Sagamore and Princess Otahki, the school's traditional mascots, may be shelved for good, committee members said.

Neither mascot is historically accurate, Skelton said, explaining that Chief Sagamore was chief of a tribe of Indians in New England. Skelton said he has looked through the university's archives but hasn't discovered why the school settled on Chief Sagamore as its mascot.

The school's yearbook also was named for the chief. The university discontinued the yearbook in 1989 in a budget-cutting move.

Princess Othaki was never a Cherokee princess; she was the daughter of an Indian who was a Baptist minister. The Cherokees don't have princesses, Skelton said.

The princess designation was the creation of whites and a society that looked on the native American as the "noble red man," he said.

Othaki is believed to have died on the Cherokee Trail.

Southeast abandoned the Indian chief and princess mascots 10 years ago. Since then it has experimented briefly with two other mascots. Neither caught on.

The university hasn't had a mascot for the past several years.

The university president, Dr. Dale Nitzschke, appointed the committee last fall to recommend a mascot. Nitzschke acted at the request of students, who said a mascot is needed to help improve school spirit at athletic events.

Biundo said the committee will make its recommendations to Nitzschke by the end of this semester.

Although the committee wants to keep the Indian and Othakian nicknames, Skelton said the Cape Girardeau area has no strong ties to Indian culture. Skelton said various Indian tribes traveled through the area but none stayed for long.

The Cape Girardeau area was not a permanent home for Indian tribes, he said. The Capaha Indians lived in the area in the 1500s, but soon moved away.

Delaware and Shawnee Indians later migrated to the area, crossing from Illinois. Cherokees and Chickasaws also traveled through the region, he said.

Skelton said universities often wrongly portray Indian cultures with their mascots. Florida State University has its Seminole warrior who rides around on an Appaloosa even though the Seminole nation never had that breed of horse, he said.

Biundo and other committee members acknowledged that Indian mascots have become controversial. Some schools have replaced Indian nicknames; others have kept them.

"Institutions have been all over the board with this issue," Biundo said.