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Of Warrior Chiefs and Indian Princesses: The Psychological Consequences of American Indian Mascots

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01973530802375003

1532-4834

Stephanie A. Fryberg, Hazel Rose Markus, Daphna Oyserman, Joseph M. Stone,

Media Influence and Health

Abstract Four studies examined the consequences of American Indian mascots and other prevalent representations of American Indians on aspects of the self-concept for American Indian students. When exposed to Chief Wahoo, Chief Illinwek, Pocahontas, or other common American Indian images, American Indian students generated positive associations (Study 1, high school) but reported depressed state self-esteem (Study 2, high school), and community worth (Study 3, high school), and fewer achievement-related possible selves (Study 4, college). We suggest that American Indian mascots are harmful because they remind American Indians of the limited ways others see them and, in this way, constrain how they can see themselves. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Dawn Tato, Glenn Adams, Brad Myles, Brooke Swaney, Rebecca Covarrubias, and Becky Wenzlau for helping with data collection, coding, and editing the final article and Jeff Greenberg for reading earlier drafts of the article. We also thank the Research Institute for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University and Russell Sage Foundation for supporting the first author during the completion of this research. Notes 1In February 2007, the University of Illinois announced that Chief Illiniwek would “no longer perform at athletic events on the Urbana-Champaign campus,” and in March 13, 2007, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees voted to retire Illiniwek's name, image, and regalia (University of Illinois Office for University Relations Citation2007). Since then, Chief Illiniwek was brought out of retirement for a special appearance at the University of Illinois homecoming parade (Saulny, Citation2007) and the “Council of Chiefs,” a group of previous Chief Illinewek performers, named a student to portray the chief for the next academic year (Monson Citation2008). 2A multivariate analysis of variance of the state self-esteem subscales (appearance, sociability, and performance) by condition was conducted, F(9, 210) = 1.98, p < .04. The main effects for condition were significant for appearance, F(3, 70) = 3.28, p < .03; and sociability, F(3, 70) = 3.11, p < .03; and trend-level significant for performance, F(3, 70) = 2.63, p < .06. Planned contrasts revealed that appearance in the Pocahontas (p < .01), Chief Wahoo (p < .03), and negative stereotypes (p < .04) conditions were significantly lower than the control condition. For both performance and sociability, Pocahontas (p < .02 and p < .05) and Chief Wahoo (p < .04 and p < .05) were significantly lower than the control condition, but no differences were found between the negative stereotypes and the control condition. Notably, however, both Pocahontas and Chief Wahoo conditions (p < .02 and p < .02) yielded lower levels of sociability than did the negative stereotypes condition. 3We pilot tested many images for the Stereotypically Negative Outcomes condition, but we were unable to find a picture that participants recognized as both portraying difficult life circumstances and as being about American Indians.