Emu Indian Logo Offensive
Eastern Michigan University's logo is "dehumanizing" and "in a sense it compares us to animals," Michigan Civil Rights Commissioner Beverly Clark told EMU's Indian Symbol Review Committee in mid-September. The committee was formed as a result of an October 1988 request from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission which called on EMU and other schools with indigenous peoples for symbols to change their names and logos.
The University has used some blatantly insulting depictions of Native Americans in the past, far worse than what is now used. Since EMU (then Michigan Normal College) adopted the name "Hurons" in a 1929 contest, stereotypes and what amount to racial epithets have been criticized and changed somewhat over the years, such as the elimination of the "dimestore Indian" character who had been played by white men at football games.
EMU Chicana and Native American activist Elena Guzman told the Review Committee that because EMU had done little for Indians, it has no right to appropriate Indian symbols. Other critics have noted that the generic Indian logo now used has no relationship to the historic Wendat culture or current Native American reality.
In earlier letters to EMU's campus newspaper, The Echo, the football and men's track coaches defended the Huron name and logo and blasted those favoring a change. Bob Parks, the men's track coach, complained that "the Civil Rights Commission must not have much to devote their time to if they are worried about this particular subject." Football coach Jim Harkema gave his interpretation of what the image portrayed: 'The Hurons were known as a strong, high-fiber, tough, and resourceful people."
EMU's public relations director, Kathleen Tinney, complained that the University had a difficult time getting Native Americans to testify to the committee. She noted fruitless efforts to find any "Hurons" from whom to get an opinion. The committee will forward a recommendation to Vice President for University Relations, Roy Wilbanks for action. AGENDA readers may recall Wilbank's role as the promoter of ties between South African golfer Gary Player and EMU's golf course as what the considered a status symbol for the University. During that 1987-88 controversy, Tinney distinguished herself as a critic of the international anti-Apartheid sports boycott.
This time, the argument in defense of racism is that there are no "Hurons" complaining about it. Critics argue that racism hurts all who are exposed to it, whether they are the intended targets or not.
"Huron" Means "Fathead"
Over the years, issues of history, culture and language have not been a prominent part of the debate. The people who were called the "Hurons" did not cali themselves by that name. Their name was "Wendat." A French version of Wendat (Wyandotte) is the name of a present-day downriver community. "Huron" comes from an old French version of the name given to the Wendat by their relatives and traditional rivals, the Iroquois. "Hurons" means "slobs," or as some literally translate it, "fatheads."
When Europeans first invaded North America, the Wendat lived in the area of Georgian Bay, in what is modern day Ontario. The Wendat allied themselves with the French, who became their partners in the fur trade and their military backers against the Iroquois. Unfortunately for the Wendat, the Iroquois got arms from the Dutch, who were then competing with the French for control of the fur trade. In 1648 the French and Dutch fought a proxy war between their Wendat and Iroquois allies which ended in disaster for the Wendat, who were forced from their traditional homeland and scattered to the west.
A number of the Wendat ended up in what is now Southeastern Michigan, an area which had previously been the traditional home of the Potawatomies. What later became Ypsilanti was a natural place to settle because it was the first portage up river from Lake Erie. Thus in 1 809 when a French trader named Godfroy (the first white man to settle in the area) set up shop in what is now downtown Ypsilanti, he was trading in Wendat country. Godfroy did not get along with his native hosts, however, and his trading post was burned as a result.
This assertion of indigenous peoples' sovereignty was short-lived. In an 18 19 treaty the Wendat were forced to leave this part of Michigan for Kansas. In short order their land was in the hands of white real estáte speculators. The final dispossession and dispersal of the Wendat resulted in the deaths of many individuals and the extinction of the Wendat culture. A generation after the Wendat's expulsion to Kansas, the last survivors were removed with other indigenous people to Oklahoma.
Between 1850-60, Ypsilanti saw ongoing looting of a Native American cemetery which once existed on the site of present-day South Huron Street. With that desecration, the only vestige of Wendat influence in town was a degrading epithet for that people appended to a river, a street, and no w a university's athletic teams.