U. of Illinois Wonders if Vandals or Racists Damaged Indian Art
An outdoor exhibit of American Indian art is vandalized five times in two months. Are the culprits destructive students, racists, or both?
It depends whom you ask.
Beyond the Chief, a collection of street signs honoring different tribes, opened in February at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Within five weeks, vandals had bent the signs and — in an instance that suggests the culprit was either a poor speller or British — written in permanent marker: "Uh oh I vandalised this!"
Robert Warrior, director of American Indian studies and curator of the exhibit, says that the campus has traditionally been unwelcoming to American Indians and that the tensions worsened after 2007. That was the year the university bowed to pressure from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and scrapped the popular Chief Illiniwek mascot.
Edgar Heap of Birds, a professor of Native American studies at the University of Oklahoma, is the artist behind the exhibit. He has been creating street-sign artwork for the past 20 years, and none has been defaced until now.
American Indian faculty members at Illinois asked Chancellor Richard H. Herman to condemn the vandalism as racist, something he has so far declined to do. He sent a campuswide e-mail message after the third incident, saying that an attack on one group is an attack on the university.
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Ed
It depends whom you ask.
Beyond the Chief, a collection of street signs honoring different tribes, opened in February at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Within five weeks, vandals had bent the signs and — in an instance that suggests the culprit was either a poor speller or British — written in permanent marker: "Uh oh I vandalised this!"
Robert Warrior, director of American Indian studies and curator of the exhibit, says that the campus has traditionally been unwelcoming to American Indians and that the tensions worsened after 2007. That was the year the university bowed to pressure from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and scrapped the popular Chief Illiniwek mascot.
Edgar Heap of Birds, a professor of Native American studies at the University of Oklahoma, is the artist behind the exhibit. He has been creating street-sign artwork for the past 20 years, and none has been defaced until now.
American Indian faculty members at Illinois asked Chancellor Richard H. Herman to condemn the vandalism as racist, something he has so far declined to do. He sent a campuswide e-mail message after the third incident, saying that an attack on one group is an attack on the university.