'Redskins' Nickname Lives On in California

by Jim Brown
September 29, 2004

(AgapePress) - The governor of California is being commended for vetoing a bill that would have barred schools from calling their athletic teams the "Redskins." The failed legislation has authored by West Hollywood Democrat Jackie Goldberg, who claims the term "redskin" is racially offensive.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been under fire of late from family advocates for putting his signature to several pro-homosexual measures. But "political correctness" took a back seat recently when the governor vetoed Goldberg's bill, saying "decisions regarding athletic team names, nicknames, or mascots should be retained at the local level."

The proposed ban, which would have banned the use of all American Indian nicknames or mascots, would have affected six schools in California, one of them within ten miles of the Tulare home of Assemblyman Bill Maze.

"Here locally we have two Native American tribes [the Tule and the Tachi Yokut], both of them within 20 miles or so of the local high school," the lawmaker explains. "And for the past almost 80 years [tribal representatives] have gone over [to the school] and dedicated and done training of the students about the use of the 'Redskins' name and [expressed] their favor of them using it."

Maze agrees with the governor's statement that the bill would have undermined the authority of local school boards. And he says both the Tule and the Tachi Yokut made their feelings about the matter known to lawmakers in the capital.

"The tribal council chiefs of both the local tribes ... had written letters to the governor," he says. "They had gone to Sacramento and testified to the committees that this was not a problem, and I think the governor [put] a great amount of credence in that, understanding that they were in favor of it."

Maze says that it is "ludicrous" that in the midst of California's fiscal crisis some of his colleagues are introducing measures to ban things like Indian mascots, dove hunting, and the de-clawing of cats. In light of that, he wonders how some of them can justify their existence as public officials.