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March 21, 2005

Illinois sued over Chief Illiniwek mascot

The University of Illinois is facing a lawsuit over the use of the Chief Illiniwek mascot. In the suit, the Illinois Native American Bar Association and at least one Illinois-Chicago student seek to force the school to stop using the Chief as its sports mascot.

Illinois has used The Chief for 78 years. The university issued a statement saying it is not violating any discrimination laws or its own anti-discrimination policies.

"University counsel will thoroughly review the plaintiffs' suit and respond appropriately," the statement said. "Meantime, the Board of Trustees continues to move forward with its process aimed at reaching a consensus conclusion to the Chief Illiniwek issue."

Maybe I'm misunderstanding some aspect of the case, but haven't the courts pretty much given sports team the go ahead on Native American references and images?

Posted by Kevin Donahue

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Comments:

  1. Jeff said:

    posted on April 20, 2005 7:32 PM — 24.197.126.228 — link — abuse?



    Missed this at the time it was originally posted... the NCAA has a committee that's formulating a "plan" for dealing with schools still using Native American mascots and nicknames.

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