For Kate Douglas '03, the debate over the role of the "Indian" symbol is not about the caricature or the power of images -- the debate is about Dartmouth coming to terms with its history and carving out a new identity. Douglas' other reason for concern about the symbol is simple: her friends are offended.
"It's not just about Native Americans. It's about Dartmouth's history," Douglas said last night after the last of a week-long series of discussions held by Student Assembly to provoke dialogue about the Indian symbol. "It's about Dartmouth still being in a place today where it's trying to create a new identity, or it should be."
Almost 30 years after College trustees made the first recommendation to discontinue the symbol's use, campus opinion is still split, said Amit Anand '03, chair of Student Assembly's Student Life Committee.
In 1974, the College's Board of Trustees determined "use of the [Indian] symbol in any form to be inconsistent with present institutional and academic objectives of the College in advancing Native American education."
Tonight, after a week of discussion, the Assembly will debate the passage of a resolution that calls for a trade-in program -- allowing members of the community to trade in paraphernalia bearing the Indian image for a comparable item with the Dartmouth insignia -- as well as a search for a new mascot to be determined before the end of this term.
Opinions within Student Assembly and in every campus debate, Anand said, are diverse. Even Native Americans at Dartmouth cannot make a statement about the Indian symbol that represents the whole group because of varied views, Guila Irwin '03 said.
The Assembly's Student Life Committee initiated discussions about the College's unofficial mascot, the Indian, Winter term as the 30th year of debate on the issue approached. Anand hoped the discussion would allow people to reflect on different arguments without the yelling he has witnessed at previous meetings.
"This isn't about one group. It's representing the community. SA's job is to make sure that this is a welcoming place for everyone," Anand said.
However, the principles of community respect and creating a safe environment often conflict with the protection of free speech, he said. Students at the discussion focused on the Dartmouth community and what the Indian -- the unofficial mascot picked up in the 1920s and 1970s -- means to students today. They discussed who wears the Indian symbol and why: some may wear the Indian symbol as an anti-administrative statement, others in reverence to the history of the College, others to exercise their right to wear it and others who do not know what the symbol means.
The symbol is not indicative of racism, students said, and individuals have varied relationships to the symbol. Several students wanted to know why it is offensive.
"When does a symbol become a symbol that everyone can rally around and what makes it offensive?" one student asked, wondering where the line was drawn between a school on a reservation with an Indian mascot and Dartmouth's unofficial Indian mascot.One student suggested that Native Americans and the NAD community at Dartmouth could embrace the Indian symbol, reclaim it, and turn it into something positive.
"That would be submitting to a system we didn't necessarily agree with," Irwin said.
Irwin and several other Native American students contributed more personal perspectives to the discussion. Afterwards, Irwin said she wished she could talk to more people about the Indian symbol.
"I don't like it. I hate it every time I see it. It doesn't represent a number of natives on this campus. I don't look like that. It offends a lot of my friends. It's representative of something that's not here anymore, of ideals that are not here anymore."
One student mentioned that Wheelock's commitment to educating the Indians -- the basis for Dartmouth's foundation -- was more accurately a commitment to Christianizing Indians, and that Dartmouth has never had a great history of promoting the education of Native Americans.
The symbol represents a nostalgia for a false history, one student said. Students said that although those who are offended must speak up, the responsibility to resolve the mascot issue should perhaps not lie solely with NAD or certain individuals.
The resolution put forth by the Assembly promises a mascot by the end of this term.
Anand was confident that his committee's resolution would pass in Student Assembly and that an official mascot would be determined. The statement's potential sponsors include the President's Office, the Dean of the College, the Dean of Student Life and Student Assembly.
"We will have to work hard to convince everyone, but I'm confident that the resolution will prevail,"Anand said.
