Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
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The National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media (NCRSM), a group headed by Native American leaders Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Vernon Bellecourt, Michael Haney and Charlene Teters, announces the resolutions adopted during "Mending the Circle", this year's Symposium that took place October 15th-17th, 1999 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

           (1) The NCRSM calls upon all sports news professionals and networks to declare their reporting racism free, as Major League Baseball presents the 1999 World Series. The NCRSM specifically requests members of the media to stop encouraging the chop, the chant and stop repeating racism through inflammatory headlines like: "Scalp'em!, Massacre them!, etc". Racially insensitive headlines, crowd shots, audio tracks of Hollywood chants (used by Turner Broadcasting, among others, to incite the stadium crowds), all contribute directly to dehumanizing a valuable group of people and are not consistent with a spirit of dialogue and cooperation..

           (2) The NCRSM renews its call to all professional, collegiate, and school sports teams, as well as corporations that use indigenous peoples and/or their cultures and traditions as images, names, mascots and/or logos for profit and entertainment, to abandon such practices. Most of the imagery used in this way involves the desecration of spiritual and religious symbols, and infringes upon Native people's traditional and cultural property rights.

           (3) The NCRSM joins the NAACP, the Chicano and Latino communities in calling for an increased representation of people of color in the film and entertainment industries. The NCRSM calls upon the entertainment industry to give preference to Native actors and entertainers when casting for portrayal of Native Americans. There are too many non-Indians playing Indian roles while our talented Native actors and entertainers struggle to succeed.

           (4) The NCRSM adds its support for the tourism boycott of South Carolina, called for by the NAACP National Board, until the state stops flying the Confederate flag from its Capitol. In addition, the NCRSM challenges the NAACP to strengthen its resolution against Indian mascots passed during this year's annual convention, by calling for a boycott of professional and collegiate teams with Indian mascots, logos or names; particularly the Washington football team with its stadium located next to the NAACP National Headquarters. The NCRSM asserts that just as the Confederate flag presents an affront to the sensibilities and dignity of people of African descent, so does the term Redskins to Native people. This term originally referred to the buying and selling of Indian people's skin and body parts for bounty during the U.S. government's active and overt campaign to exterminate Indian people.