Tulsa Proper Jan. 2014 | Page 6

‘Redskins’ offended by the Indian statue Tulsa, OK - Administrators with Union High School are sharing their frustrations and disbelief that the American statue was never considered to be located at their school. Union school’s Biology “How” Introduction teacher, Rick Fields, stated “We’re a school with a mascot of Redskins, that right there, in and of itself, factually, creates the perfect reasoning to be the home for the American. We should have been given the statue.” But there is a small number of Tulsans who are against the idea. Stacy Jones, hair stylist and of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe, said, “Where does Union get the balls to not only have a racist mascot but to then want to build a statue to become a giant gaudy piece of metal. Here’s an idea. Why not donate the money to scholarships for Native Americans?” A representative for The American statue replied, “Why not donate the money to scholarships? Ah yes, but that’s what you’d expect. Where’s the fun in that? A giant guy with his junk the size of the Golden Driller, now that’s fun! ...Did I just say that out loud?” However, Union didn’t want to respond directly to Stacy, an “Indian”, but offered a rebuttal with a press release stating, “In this day and age, in the Union community, “Redskins” is not derogatory. So since we said it officially in a press release, that makes it not racist. However we were offended by being overlooked as a viable site for the American statue. We can use the statue as a learning experience for our students. We can hold math classes up in the observation deck. The students could measure the size of the shadow over Tulsa in inches, feet, miles, you name it.” 6 TULSA PROPER