Before you read this post take a moment and go to the following webpage: Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry .
Rush Springs Oklahoma, a town featured in many posts here on Expedition Oklahoma. This small town in rural Oklahoma is where my Grandparents settled in 1937 during the Great Depression. With five kids, a tractor and a trailer to move their family they ended up being share-croppers. My Grandmother is all I remember, she was born in 1896, never wore pants, wore her hair in a bun and was about as old fashioned as you could find for a Grandma in the 1980s.
Rush Springs became an ice kingdom just before Christmas 2013.
This town is also one of the few towns in the state who uses the controversial mascot name, The Redskins. Yet, Rush Springs isn't known for its mascot. It is known for watermelons. Yes, Rush Springs is the "Watermelon Capitol of the World." My Grandfather was a melon farmer as is my father. Watermelons are a part of life for many people in Rush Springs.
The Watermelon Feed at the Watermelon Festival in 2012.
Small town athletics are the glue that ties a community together. Communities are no longer united by a universal church where everyone worships the same way, where social conformity demands everyone attend church together. We are a over-extended stressed society who come together for what we value and to many people what they value is sports. Sporting events begin from early childhood and last a lifetime. From little league to the big league, amateur to pro sports matter. Sports are cultural. Sports have taken the form of a secular religion in America. Towns love and defend their masscots, however irrational and silly they are. I can't talk I graduated a Bray-Doyle Donkey and to this day I have to defend my mascot.
Fall of 2012 we watched our Velma-Alma Comets beat the Rush Springs Redskins on their own field. At the time my Daughter was playing for Velma band, while she spent her first three years of early childhood at Rush Springs.
Why am I writing about melons and mascots? First, let's take a moment and look at the history of the word mascot.
"talisman, charm," 1881, from provincial French mascotte "sorcerer's charm, 'faerie friend,' good luck piece" (19c.), of uncertain origin, perhaps from or related to Provençalmascoto "sorcery, fetish" (cf. Narbonnese manuscript, 1233, mascotto "procuress, enchantment, bewitchment in gambling"), from masco "witch," from Old Provençal masca, itself of unknown origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin masca "mask, specter, nightmare" (see mask (n.)). Popularized by French composer Edmond Audran's 1880 comic operetta "La Mascotte," about a household "fairy" who gives luck to an Italian peasant, performed in a toned-down translation in England from fall 1881.
Native Americans are not "Good Luck Pieces." Native Americans aren't "Good Luck Charms," we are people. We are members of 500 Nations.
They are not as Edward Curtis thought "A dying race." The historical romanticism given to them as warriors is not a true representative of al Native people. They were farmers, living in settled towns, they were mound builders, empire builders, artists, athletes. The people of North America were amazing creators who networked and built vast societies.
Native Americans are still here, strong in Oklahoma. We are #NotYourMascot
Oklahoma is a state named for it's "red people"; as people who argue for the Redskin mascot like to point out. I am Chahta Okla, the language of my ancestors gives us all Oklahoma. I am a tribal member, I'm also the descendant of those pioneers and settlers who were seeking a better life. My ancestors were not the plains warriors depicted by these school districts; Chahtas were farmers, they were the descendents of the mound builders. I am sure these small towns do not intend harm with their mascots. The narrative has been told over and over again; reinforced over and over again by the cowboy and the Indian. While hollywood tells the story, athletics reinforce the one stereotypical image of the plains warrior. It is time for contemporary Natives to remind those who told the story of America about the story of our tribes, our people.
A storefront in Rush Springs Oklahoma. The image is that of a caricature of a warrior in a warbonnet.
Any Conservative would argue that veterans deserve respect for fighting our wars; they sacrificed for our freedom. The plains warriors deserve respect. Why? Because our contemporary Plains Warriors are often Veterans of the United States Military. Native Americans represent this country at a higher percentage than any other minority group in the nation. Native people are warriors who will fight for this land. They deserve their religion and cultural practices respected. They earned your respect as veterans of the United States Military. They deserve the acknowledgement that they wear those feathers for a reason.
A month ago Representative Tom Cole came out in support of eradicating the Redskins as an NFL Mascot and now Nancy Pelosi has advocated ending the trademark for the Washington Redskins. This is the first time I agree with Pelosi (yeah, I don't like her). I feel that seeing two very different sides of the political spectrum supporting the same issue as a huge step in the right direction.
My Dad told me that when he was a little boy the school mascot was the Melon Heavers.
In a town that is the "Watermelon Capitol of the World" where the imagery of watermelons and the mascot is mixed throughout the community, it makes perfect sense to embrace the uniqueness of the melon industry. I remember the summers that we raised watermelons on our seven acres outside of Rush Springs, I remember helping pick melons and "heave" them onto a trailer. I remember breaking them in the field and watch their red juice flow onto the red dirt as we ate the hearts out. I would never had this experience as a teenager and adult were it not for the fact that Rush Springs built a town on their watermelons.
I love this little town. This was my Grandma's home. This was my home for nearly a decade. I still do business here. But I think that in a town as unique as Rush Springs their culture is more of melons than their offensive mascot.
The first Saturday in August you will find me here at the Watermelon Festival.
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