Indian Team Nicknames Were Dropped For Consistency--Not As PC Sop, Wisconsin Paper Says

By: Mark Fitzgerald The Wausau (Wisc.) Daily Herald's decision to bar publication of Indian-related team nicknames was a matter of "intellectual consistency," not out of any sense of political correctness, the newspapers executive editor and opinion page editor say.

"One of the first reactions we got was that people thought this was a bow to political correctness, but we believe it's an exercise in intellectual consistency," Opinion Page Editor Pete Wasson said in a telephone interview.

Executive Editor Mark F. Baldwin noted that the paper had editorialized that a local high school should change the names of its sports teams from the Mosinee Indians, and that its fan should stop using gestures such as the "tomahawk chop" and a motion that suggests shooting an arrow during games. A local controversy over the name prompted the paper to reexamine its own policies, he said.

With the policy, adopted last week, the Daily Herald becomes apparently the sixth newspaper in the nation to formally bar published references to Indian-related team names, according to a report by Richard Prince in his online Journal-Isms column on the Maynard Institute's Web site. The others, identified in a 2003 survey by the Native American Journalists Association are The (Portland) Oregonian; Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star; Portland (Maine) Press Herald; St. Cloud (Minn.) Times and the Kansas City (Mo.) Star.

The 21,769-circultaion evening paper is owned by Gannett Co.

Baldwin said in a telephone interview that the policy is one sports editor Chris Schulte had urged the paper to adopt for a long time.

The policy will also apply to national professional teams such as baseball's Cleveland Indians and football's Washington Redskins. Readers, though, probably won't notice much change there, Baldwin added: "We've been moving in the direction towards less and less coverage of pro sports" in favor of local teams.

Reader reaction has been muted, in part because the paper chose to take a low-key approach to its announcement, Baldwin said. The policy change was discussed in a column by Wasson.

In a letter to the editor, Wausau resident Maria Schalow, who said her great-grandmother was a Potawatomi Indian and who graduated from Mosinee High, said the name and mascot was ?chosen for pride--not for degrading people.?

Schalow added: Instead of trying to fight to make the district change its mascot, why don't you educate others on why it is important to be proud of that symbol.?