The Appropriation of Native American Culture for Sports Logos, Mascots, and Nicknames.

Native American imagery and symbols—as logos, mascots, and nicknames—have been commonplace in American sports since the early‐twentieth century. This review presents scholarship on this practice at the intersection between the sociology of sports, race/ethnicity, higher education, politics, and social movements, as well as other relevant social sciences. Scholarship has emphasized this imagery's social origins, public opinion, social psychology, and socio‐political trends in the conflict over and often elimination of such symbols. As a disproportionately American practice, Indigenous imagery in sports is linked to the history of settler‐colonialism, racialization, and corporate capitalism, and is found throughout all levels of sports (high schools, colleges and universities, and professional). After the US West's frontier closure, and during the height of Jim Crow and racial lynchings, many educational institutions adopted Indigenous imagery—motivated by a masculinity crisis and American myth‐making as a settler‐colonialist society. Sociological scholarship has used many methodological approaches, but has emphasized public opinion of the practice, using surveys to predict support for symbols, comparing racial differences, and criticizing how some surveys purportedly offer "support" to the practice via unreliable, non‐representative survey techniques. Social psychological studies has explored both the motivations for support and the consequences for the practice, giving particular attention to the impact on Indigenous people (especially Indigenous youth's self‐esteem), in contrast to evidence of improved white self‐efficacy. The long‐standing conflicts generated by the practice date back to the 1960s with the National Congress of American Indians and 1970s' "red power" movements, specifically the American Indian Movement. These conflicts have pitted institutional actors (e.g., school administrators and team owners) and sports fans against movements for Indigenous autonomy and anti‐racism. Conflicts have involved widespread resistance from sports fans and alumni, against various waves of racial justice mobilizations. Decolonization efforts have aimed to achieve Indigenous self‐determination, the right to evade psychological disparagement in the face of both physical and cultural genocide, and to instead be empowered by ownership of their own cultural identity. While most universities and some professional sports teams have ended this practice, many have not—especially at the primary and secondary education levels. Thus, this research continues to occur within an active period of changing practices, and aims to respond to both evolving conditions and new scholarly questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]