research in story form: a narrative account of how one person made a difference against all odds

8/3/2019 Research in Story Form: A Narrative Account of How One Person Made a Difference against all Odds

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Against all Odds1

Research in Story Form:

A Narrative Account of How One Person Made a Difference against all Odds

Elizabeth M. Delacruz

Professor of Art Education University of Illinois

Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Florida Online Masters Degree Program in Art

Education

[email protected]

October 2011 working draft for:

K. M. Miraglia, K. M., & C. Smilan, C. (Eds.). Inquiry in Action: Paradigms, Methodologies

and Perspectives in Art Education Research. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.

Running Head/Short Title: Against all Odds

Key words: narrative research, Indian mascots, Charlene Teters, white privilege


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Abstract

This chapter describes how narrative research functions as a form of engaged scholarship within

a community practice. The community of practice of interest is art education, although I note

that art education overlaps with several other communities of practice (artists, art historians,

educators and developmental psychologists, museum educators, child care providers, therapists,

civil rights workers, community leaders, etc.). Following a brief description of some of the goals,

beliefs, and methods of narrative research, I share an account of my own research and work on

an issue I have engaged since 1998. In my account, I explain why I came to believe that the use

of Indian mascots in US non-Native American Schools is a practice that needs to end, and how I

acted upon that belief in my efforts to persuade the NAEA to address this issue. The third section

of this chapter is devoted to the individual who made a difference against all odds, Native

American artist and educator, Charlene Teters, who through her own research, storytelling, art

making, social/political interventions, and courage, changed national discourse and

understandings about this issue. The accounts shared in this chapter are given as stories,

interspersed with reflections and critical commentaries. My conclusion considers how the power

of stories may inform and shape our overlapping communities of practice.


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This chapter describes how narrative research functions as a form of engaged scholarship

within a community practice. The community of practice of interest is art education, although I

note that art education overlaps with several other communities of practice (artists, art historians,

educators and developmental psychologists, museum educators, child care providers, therapists,

civil rights workers, community leaders, etc.). Following a brief description of some of the goals,

beliefs, and methods of narrative research, I share an account of my own research and work on

an issue I have engaged since 1998. In my account, I explain why I came to believe that the use

of Indian mascots in US non-Native American Schools is a practice that needs to end, and how I

acted upon that belief in my efforts to persuade the NAEA to address this issue. The one person

who made a difference, mentioned in the title of this chapter, is not I, however. It is Native

American artist and educator, Charlene Teters, who through her own research, storytelling, art

making, social/political interventions, and courage, changed national discourse and

understandings about this issue. It is fitting then that the third section of this chapter is devoted to

Charlene Teters. The accounts shared in this chapter are given as stories, interspersed with

reflections and critical commentaries. My conclusion considers how the power of stories may

inform and shape our overlapping communities of practice.

Research as Storytelling

All human communications are a form of storytelling about some aspect of the world

(Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). Communications scholar Walter Fisher defines storytelling, or

narration, as symbolic action, words, or deeds, that have sequence and meaning for those who

live, create, or interpret them (1987). Stories are embedded in our myths, imagery, and rituals.


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They embody the cultural histories and aspirations of individuals, communities, and even

nations. Stories reinforce communitarian values (Campbell, 1949). Theyprovide external order,

a cultural script, and lasting evidence of aspects of life that are inherently fleeting and intangible

(Bruner, 1991; Bruner, 2004; Kramp, 2004). Cultural anthropologist Ellen Dissanayake observes

that when enriched and expressed in heightened and evocative ways, our rituals of personal and

cultural expression make specialthat which we most value and want to communicate to others

(Dissanayake, 2003). Our rituals bind us to one another in a live lived together, informing,

shaping, and solidifying who we are and what we aspire to become.

Ourrituals of research take place in varying ways for differing purposes, and in a

multitude of different kinds of sites. Governmental, scientific, commercial, religious, medical,

and educational institutions gather, analyze, and disseminate information in efforts to understand,

predict, and sometimes even control human populations. Community groups, civic organizations,

and professional associations also gather and utilize data to advance their goals. Individuals,

groups, and institutions ask questions about some aspect of concern, look systematically into the

matter, and then share and act upon their findings. The research report, in almost every case, is

an explanation about some phenomenon, often accompanied by a call to action based on that

explanation. Long understood as a systematic search for knowledge and understanding, research

has always been a form ofstory telling, that is, a way of sharing inquiries and discoveries in

narrative form.

Like stories, research is shaped by human aspirations, grounded in their particular

cultural and historical contexts, and shared within and across communities of practice. A

community of practice, in briefest terms, is an organized, multi-layered group of affiliated people

engaged in similar disciplinary or professional work (Wenger, 2006). The profession of art


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education, and the National Art Education Association (NAEA) in particular, is my primary

community of practice. I learn from, contribute to, and conduct my work (research, teaching, and

public engagement) utilizing the goals, standards, knowledge, skills, and tools acquired through

my affiliation with other art educators, many of whom are members of the NAEA. As a multi-

layered and highly varied group of individuals with diverse interests and agendas, we also cohere

around a set of common aims. And we read, apply, conduct, and share our research as a key

aspect of our affiliation with one another. In other words, we learn from and are shaped by the

professional practices and insights offered in formal and informal research reports, oftentimes

with great generosity, by colleagues.

Our research methods are as varied as we are. This chapter is about narrative research.

Firmly aligned with a post-positivistic stance, narrative research emerged in the later part of the

last century as both a new and an old form of inquiry, borrowing and blending ancient oral

traditions and cultural history writing with contemporary post-Marxist qualitative inquiry

methods. Now applied across a wide variety of contemporary disciplines in the humanities and

social sciences, narrative inquiry and writing (also referred to as narratology) may include

biography and autobiography, life writing, phenomenology, introspection, life stories,

autoethnography, memory-writing, ethnopsychology, narrative interviews, portraiture, self-

portraiture, a/r/tography, ethnohistory, revisionist and feminist histories, case study, oral history,

and folklore (Casey, 1995-1996; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Kramp, 2004). Like much of

contemporary qualitative research, narrative research embraces, in varying degrees the following

values, inquiry strategies, and reporting protocols (Barone, 2007; Coulter & Smith, 2009):

Rejection of the ideology of scientism with its canons of objectivity


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Abandonment of the search for a grand totalizing narrative Creative blending of cultural, existential, political, and postmodern perspectives Reliance on a variety of naturalistic documentary, data collection, and inquiry strategies Desire to excavate and illuminate hidden or marginalized aspects of human experience Heightened attention to the multi-dimensional contexts in which experience is grounded Interest in social interactions; concern for unequal power relations Acknowledgement of the importance of the conscious subjectivity of the researcher Privileging of the voice of the researcher and/or the subjects/participants as co-narrators

Writings convey the holistic qualities of experience

Use of evocative language, poetic devices, and metaphoric thinking Attention to the literary quality of the writing itself

Narrative research in education encompasses a vast range of genres and interests. These

include studies of teachers lives, studies of teachers thinking, teachers stories, classroom

stories, school ethnographies, curriculum studies, educational criticism, critical race studies,

feminist critiques, teacher-student collaborative inquiries, teachers critical autoethnographies,

and teachers phenomenological investigations into the nature and meaning of their work

(Barone, 2007; Casey, 1995-1996; Coulter & Smith, 2009). Primary data for narrative research

in education include first hand experiences, memories, personal diaries, observational field notes,

journal records, interview transcripts, photographs, audio and video recordings, stories and

observations shared by others, letters, autobiographical writings, and a plethora of school

documents such as curriculum frameworks, mission statements, evaluation plans and

instruments, lesson plans, instructional handouts, newsletters, books, advertisements, web sites,


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parental and community member communications, all kinds of student artifacts and production

in other words, just about anything associated with teaching and learning, institutions, people,

and contexts.

Finally, narrative research is authentic in that it neither manipulates the natural setting nor

obscures or marginalizes the voice of the researcher. It is holistic in that it holds in highest regard

the embeddedness of both the actors and the acts of inquiry in their multilayered network of

interhuman relationships. It is empowering insofar as it brings to the foreground a critical

consciousness of the hidden consequences of power imbalances and social inequalities within

these interhuman relationships, both giving voice and conferring agency to both the narrator

(researcher) and the subjects of the research.

In the narrative research tradition, Id now like to tell you a story. It is in part a story

about how the NAEA came to formally engage the issue of Indian mascots in US schools. But

its really the story about how a painting student at the University of Illinois started a national

movement and brought to our attention as art educators a great social injustice and a gross form

of miseducation of American children.

How the NAEA Came to Engage the Issue of Indian Mascots

In the late 1980s Native American artist Charlene Teters was recruited to come to the

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to study art. Charlene and her children were

shocked to see University of Illinois' Chief Illiniwek perform at a UIUC basketball game, and

the variety of comical caricatures of Native Americans appearing all over campus and

throughout the Champaign-Urbana community. Charlene spoke out, calling The Chief and its

associated images and rituals racistand miseducational, and she asked the university to stop


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this practice. The officials of the university were not persuaded, but agreed to look into the

issue. A growing number of faculty, students, and citizens gradually joined Charlene in her

requests. At the same time, a large number of equally vocal individuals and groups also

opposed removing the Chief as the mascot of the university. Amidst threats, police intimidation,

and willful ignorance of those she encountered, Charlene persevered based on the assertion "We

are people, not Mascots".

I became faculty member at the University of Illinois in 1988 and had just gotten tenure

as the Indian mascot issue was ramping up. Although I was aware of the brewing Indian mascot

issue at UIUC, I gave it little consideration until I heard Charlene speak at a UIUC Faculty

Senate meeting in 1998. (I was a member of the Senate at that time.) Charlene was asking the

Senate to endorse a resolution calling for the retirement of Chief Illiniwek. University of Illinois

police were visibly present at this meeting. I asked one of the officers if they expected violence,

and was politely informed that they were present just in case trouble erupts. At this meeting,

the Faculty Senate voted 97-29 to officially ask the UI Board of Trustees to retire the Chief. In

response, the Trustees spent $315,000 further "studying the issue", but decided to keep Chief

Illiniwek for 9 more years (Werth, 2007). In 2007, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees

finally retired The Chief, realizing that UI would not prevail in court against a 2006 NCAA ban

on hosting post-season athletic events (including bowl games) at universities with offensive

racist mascots.1

That was the short version of Charlenes history with the Indian Mascot issue, woven in

with my own. A longer version of Charlenes history with this issue appears in the following

section, and still longer versions appear on Charlenes website, in her art, lectures, writings, and

interventions, and in the many articles and documentaries that have been written about Charlene


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over the past 20 years.

Working at the UIUC whilst all of this was taking place, I wrote an essay about Charlene

and the Indian mascot issue. That essay was published in the NAEA journalArt Education in

2003. As I reflected on Charlenes story and assertions, I recounted in my essay toArt

Education that Indian mascots, logos, and caricatures had always been part of my visual

landscape. I made Indian dioramas in grade school. I watched the Lone Ranger and Tonto on

television. I made Indian artifacts" to trade with other Brownie Scouts at a summer camp in

Wisconsin named after some long-departed Indian tribe. I studied traditional Native American

art in graduate school and I earned academic degrees from two universities that had Indian

mascots, the University of Illinois and Florida State University. I was teaching at the University

of Illinois as the Indian mascot issue gained momentum, but I was uninvolved for the first few

years. Teters' characterization of "us" as racists seemed too harsh, and I was quite sure that we

were not racists.

But I was moved by Charlenes eloquent and focused speech to the UIUC Faculty Senate

in 1998. She spoke about her life experiences as a contemporary Native American, and she

talked most passionately about her children. The more I studied the Indian mascot problem and

the more I listened, the more I learned about racism in the US. I had to personalize Teters's

story in order to understand her words. I was a mother now. I thought about my own children

and the many children that I have taught over the years. I considered how Native Americans'

pleas to eliminate this practice were met with such indifference and intense resistance. I

wondered why, in denial of compelling arguments against, this use of Indian mascots persisted.

I initially concluded that the practice was not intentionally racist and that Indian mascots were

just too much fun to give up, too normalto abandon. But such a realization was inadequate by


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itself. As I further I researched this issue, I began to filter my understandings through writings

about White privilege and Critical Race Theory.2

It wasnt just that Indian mascots were fun, or

that White people in the US lovedIndian culture. And it wasnt just that this was a UIUC

tradition a nostalgic, sentimental honoring of Native American courage and spirit. Rather

this practice was a classic example of centuries old institutionalized White privilege,3 resistance

to change, and what Native American scholar and educator Cornel Pewewardy identified in

1998 as disconscious racism. I wrote about White privilege in my 2003 essayArt Education as

well, realizing that I myself was a beneficiary of White privilege to the detriment of Native

Americans. And at the end of the essay, I called for a NAEA resolution supporting the

elimination of race-based mascots in US educational institutions.

Over the next few years, I asked for and easily gained support for this resolution from the

NAEA Early Childhood Affiliate Group, the NAEA Women's Caucus, the NAEA Social

Theory Caucus, and the NAEA Higher Education Division. In April 2009 I presented "A

Resolution Calling for the Elimination of Race-Based Mascots in American Educational

Institutions"(see Appendix A) to the National Art Education Association Delegates Assembly.

Through one of the regional VPs of the NAEA, I shared in advance of the Delegates Assembly

meeting a resource document about the Indian mascot. This resource document explicated the

rationale for the resolution, talked about the harmful effects of Indian mascots on Native

Americans, and contained a hyperlinked list of similar resolutions that had already been passed

by Tribal Councils and highly respected national scholarly and educational associations. I was

anxious but hopeful that at the 2009 meeting of Delegates my request for passage of this

resolution would be met with understanding and support amongst my fellow art teachers.


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At the meeting of the NAEA Delegates Assembly, through a questionable4 Roberts Rules

of Order procedural maneuver, the Delegates voted 42 to 20 not to even discuss the race-based

mascot issue. The resolution was, for all practical purposes, dead in 2009. I was not sure if the

NAEA Delegates had taken the time to read the resource document I provided. I realized in

retrospect that I had gone into this meeting ill prepared for the task. But even worse, I had the

naivet and audacity to think that this was something I could or should be doing on my own.

I still knew that the issue and the time were right for the NAEA. I now had to rethink the

strategy.

Over the following year I asked several other art educators to join me in the goal of

passing a NAEA resolution calling for the elimination of race-based mascots in US educational

institutions.5 I specifically asked well respected individuals who were knowledgeable about

invested in issues of social justice and critical theory studies in art education.6 Wanting a

broadly based coalition with numerous informed voices and viewpoints, I sought individuals

from diverse scholarly, cultural, racial, age, and geographic backgrounds, women and men, gay

and straight, artists, educators, and administrators for help. Importantly, some of these

individuals needed to be Native American.

Now working with a rainbow coalition of nationally respected art educators, artists, and

Native American consultants, the original 2009 Resolution, previously modeled after numerous

resolutions already passed by countless organizations and councils, was significantly modified

into much softened 2010 Position Statement Regarding the Use of Indian Mascots in non-

Native American Educational Institutions. Whereas the original 2009 Resolution boldly called

Indian mascots racist and called for the complete elimination of this practice, the revised 2010

Position Statement asserted that some individuals find race-based mascots problematic, asked


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that teachers encourage school districts with Indian mascots to engage in conversations with

Native Americans about these mascots, and that they be proactive in helping their school

districts design new mascots. We also revised and expanded the Resource Document (Delacruz

et al., 2010) explaining the issue. We provided more extensive background information about

Native Americans; connected the mascot initiative to our National Visual Arts Standards, the

NAEA Constitution, Mission, and Strategic Plan, and to the official theme of the 2010 annual

conference: Social Justice. And we expanded the still growing list of respected national and

state organizations, agencies, scholarly and educational associations, health care organizations,

and Tribal Councils who concurred that Indian mascots were harmful to children, to Native

Americans, and grossly miseducational to non-Native Americans. We vetted our proposed

Position Statement and the supporting Resource Document through a newly formed NAEA

Platform Working Group, headed at that time by regional NAEA VP Dennis Inhulsen.7

I cant say that I was entirely satisfied with the compromised and much weakened NAEA

Position Statement we all agreed to, but it was abundantly clear that this was the very best we

could hope for.

In my April 14, 2010 presentation to the NAEA Delegates Assembly, I changed my

presentation strategy as well (from the previous year). I was given 6 minutes in 2010 to present

the proposed Position Statement. I made no assumptions this time about whether or not the

Resource Document we prepared and shared in advance of the meeting had been read by the

Delegates. During my 6 minutes I showed contemporary Native American art and photographs

of Native American artists (about 30 images) as I read excerpts from the National Visual Arts

Standards, the NAEA Strategic Plan, and the NAEA Constitution. My spoken text excerpts

were direct quotes from these documents. They articulated our beliefs as a professional


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community about cultural diversity, human dignity, and teachers ethical responsibilities to

teach accurately and to ensure that all children are treated with respect.

Toward the end of my slide presentation to the Delegates, I also showed a variety of

disturbing and unambiguously racist images of people from diverse racial groups, including but

not limited to Indian mascot images and caricatures of Native Americans in common use in US

schools. And I asked as these images were shown, How is it that in a 21st century democratic

multi-cultural society, our schools create and proliferate images of an historically oppressed,

federally recognized, and currently our most at-risk racial group as comical, large-nosed, buck-

toothed, scantily-clad, tomahawk-wielding savages? and How is it that students parodies of

our Native American brothers and sisters racial features, culture, and religion are actually

encouraged in US schools today?

Before I share the outcome of the Delegates vote at this meeting, it is useful to also know

that for the 2010 annual convention NAEA had changed their process of presentation and

voting at Delegates Assembly meetings. Under the leadership of then NAEA VP Dennis

Inhulsen, the new process included an open forum poster session in which Delegates could

write comments on large poster sized craft paper tablets, and talk to presenters face to face,

informally. The vote would occur following this opportunity for conversations. Many of the

Delegates who spoke to me during this session talked about fearing loosing their jobs if they

raised controversial issues in their home districts. They also talked about the difficult working

conditions they were experiencing, their lowered budgets, lay offs in their districts, and a

general lack of respect and support for art education in the first place. I always responded to the

second concern first, that building support for art education in schools across the country is our

number one priority. I then replied that they should never jeopardize their jobs for this or any


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single issue, but I suggested that they might be able to work behind the scenes and even under

the radar screen to begin to study the Mascot issue and identify others who are also concerned

in their school districts. My point was and remains today that togetherwe need to work on these

issues from within the system. We just cannot do any of this alone. Those were lessons I

learned from my research about Charlene Teters.

On April 15, 2010 the NAEA Delegates Assembly passed by a vote of 52 to10 the

proposed NAEA Position Statement Regarding the use of Race-based Mascots in Educational

Institutions (See Appendix B). Right after their vote, the Delegates gave themselves and the

newly accepted Position Statement a standing ovation. On April 18, 2010, the NAEA Board of

Directors on unanimously passed (12 to 0) this Position Statement. The NAEA, our community

of practice, now stands with Charlene Teters and the hundreds of scholarly and educational

associations agencies, health care agencies, governmental agencies, religious organizations, and

Native American Tribal Councils that maintain that the use of Indian mascots in non-Native

educational institutions is a potentially harmful practice needs to be changed.8

Charlene Teters, Against all Odds!

Charlene Teters is a member of the Spokane Nation. She grew up in the city of Spokane,

Washington, a place that was built up around the original Spokane village tribal site. She earned

her BFA at the College of Santa Fe. While in Santa Fe, Charlene was invited to come to the

University of Illinois to study painting. The then chair of the UIUC Painting Department flew to

New Mexico explicitly for the purpose or recruiting Native Americans to the School of Art and

Design at UIUC. At that time, Chief Illiniwek was a 75-year-old "tradition" at the Urbana-

Champaign campus, the official University of Illinois mascot, and a registered trademark of the


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university. During halftime at varsity home games, an athletic White male, barefooted and

dressed in full Lakota Sioux Regalia, including a headdress made of eagle feathers,9 and orange

and blue face paint, does his interpretation of a Sioux Fancy Dance to the Marching Illini band's

"Indian" tom-tom medley. It was here that Charlene Teters and her children first saw the

University's team mascot. Charlene recounted her experience at the University of Illinois in her

1988 presentation to the UI Faculty Senate, sharing her reasons for opposing Indian mascots, and

Chief Illiniwek in particular.

When I first arrived here 10 years ago it was with a great deal of excitement. Was

honored to be here amongst you I came full of dreams. But what I found was a

community permeated with Indian concoctions: a campus bar with a neon sign, HOME

OF THE DRINKING ILLINI; a sorority's MISS ILLINI SQUAW contest; fraternity

brothers wearing Colored paper headdresses to go to the bar to drink, and act out negative

stereotypes of Indians. My dream turned to a nightmare... This ignorance is our biggest

enemy and this enemy seeks to silence and deny the truth... The very presence of 20th

century Indian people challenge the ignorance, and your students are arrogant about their

ignorance of Native Americans and their history... This issue is much larger than the

University of Illinois and "Chief Illiniwek... We are not mascots or fetishes to be worn

by the dominant society. We are human beings. (Teters, 1998, para 5)

In a 2000 interview with the Rebecca Johns for the National Education Association journal,

Thought and Action, Charlene shared her shock at the nature and extensiveness of the

disparaging images of Indians present throughout the university and the wider community,


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Everywhere you could possibly print the caricature, it was thereon posters, on Coke cans, on

peoples cars, on businesses, on toilet paper (Johns, 2011, p. 122). Charlene also recalled, It

was really frightening to find ourselves in this place where they ridiculed and humiliated Native

people so openly, and so unchallenged for so many years. This prejudice seemed so invisible and

unnoticed by anyone, even other people of color, that these caricatures didnt seem to be out of

the norm (Johns, 2000, p. 124). Charlene also shared that when she raised the issue with the

individuals who recruited her, she was told, Well, you cant do anything about it, so just keep

your mouth shut, get your degree, and then get out of here (Johns, 2000, p. 123).

One of the three Native students who were recruited to UIUC with Charlene left the

university after only two months here. Charlene, on the other hand, took action, challenging UIs

legitimacy in its use of this mascot. She stood outside the UIUC football stadium with a sign that

read, We are humans, not mascots, and demanded that UIUC stop using eagle feathers (a

sacred symbol in several Native cultures) in the Chief Illiniwek headdress. That's when the real

battle began for Charlene, "My phone would not stop ringing ...phone calls day and night, and

the hate messages, some hate messages directed specifically at me and my children" (Johns,

2000, p. 126). Charlene began to fear for her safety and the safety of her children, "My son was a

high school student. He was 16. He was picked up by the police a number of times, and it was

harassment. They would drive him back home. The police were saying, we know where you live,

we know who your kids are" (Johns, 2000, p. 126). Charlene remembers that newspaper articles

ridiculing her began to appear in the Daily Illini, the campus newspaper. By this time, Charlene

was thinking of leaving UIUC.

In the midst of all of this Charlene received a phone call from Kenneth Sterns of the

American Jewish Committee, an expert on anti-Semitic hate crimes. Sterns convinced Charlene


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to stay and fight. Charlene shared his advice, If you leave, they win because this is why theyre

doing this. They want you to leave because you cant really address these things from the

outside (Johns, 2000, p. 127). Tim Giago, founder ofLakota Times, a publication that

eventually becameIndian Country Today also reached out to Charlene. Charlene stayed and

formed the Native American Students for Progress. Giago began writing about Charlenes

situation and the UIUC controversy over its mascot. As her challenge progressed, Charlene also

received assistance from a local attorney, Brian Savage, who filed Freedom of Information Act

requests of the University of Illinois for its internal memos regarding this issue. During this time,

Charlene describes a hostile local press aimed at tripping her up in interviews, an openly hateful

public at large, and an indifferent administration at the university. Over the years, numerous UI

faculty and student organizations became invested in the issue, joining their voices with

Charlenes in asking the University of Illinois Board of Trustees to retire its Chief Illiniwek.

During this same time, under Charlenes leadership, the Native American Students for Progress

grew into a national coalition, aligned with the American Indian Movement, and merged forces

with the newly formed National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media

(http://www.aimovement.org/ncrsm/).

Charlene Teters completed her MFA at UIUC and returned to New Mexico. UI eventually

retired Chief Illiniwek in 2007, but retains its trademark copyright over the logos and continues

to use the Fighting Illini name for its sports teams. In the end, the NCAA ruling and the potential

loss of revenues from athletic events, and not moral questions or educational concerns, was the

deciding factor for the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Charlene is now a professor at

the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and remains involved as an award winning

artist, educator, and nationally engaged activist for Native American rights. She was awarded the


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Person of the Week Award from ABC World News Tonight in 1997 and her story and the issue

of Chief Illiniwek is the subject of a nationally aired award-winning documentary In Whose

Honor? by Jay Rosenstein. Over the years, Charlene Teters has been called the Rosa Parks of

American Indians in news stories and press releases about her work.

Telling the Story, Narrative Research, and Communities of Practice

My thesis in this chapter is that research is a form of storytelling, and that insofar as the

writing addresses things that matter in an informative, critical, and insightful manner, narrative

research is a particularly rich kind of research. Written in the voices of the researchers and her

subjects, narrative research appears as first hand accounts, introspective reflections, and critical

analyses of underlying issues raised by such accounts. Filtered through the lens of biography,

autobiography and critical theory, certain experiences that stand out as important; and as is the

case with the stories told in this chapter, narrative research often reveals and questions power

imbalances and social injustices embedded within particular social relationships and

institutionalized practices. Some of my favorite research writings that convey both compelling

stories and critical understandings include Robert Coles Their Eyes Meeting the World(1995),

George Dennisons The Lives of Children (1999), Carole Gilligans In a Different Voice (1982),

Madeline GrumetsBitter Milk(1988), Jonathon Kozols Savage Inequalities (1992), Vivian

Paleys White Teacher(2000), and Neil Postmans & Charles Weingartners Teaching as a

Subversive Activity (1971). Each of these writings embody their authors in-depth and long-term

research and analysis of professional and social practices that matter greatly to a great number of

people; they privilege the voice and life experiences of the researcher and her/his subjects; and

they effectively blend inquiry, systematic data gathering, critical analysis, and persuasive


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writing. Most importantly, these writings tell compelling stories about things that draw our

attention to the lives of specific people. They are stories are about the lived experiences of our

brothers and sisters, families and communities. We are able to personalize these stories and see

the world through the eyes of others. And as these stories call into question issues of social

injustice, we are compelled to interrogate and reconstruct our own beliefs, values, and practices

and to act upon those reconstructions.

My own narrative research published as scholarly texts include my previously mentioned

essay Racism American Style and Resistance to Change: Art Educations Role in the Indian

Mascot Issue (2003), Entrepreneurial Strategies for Advancing Public Engagement as a Form

of University-Sanctioned Professional Activity in the New Creative Economy (2011), The

Teacher as Public Enemy # 1 (2011), What Contemporary Asian American Artists Teach Us

about the Complicated Nature of 21st-Century Americans Multilayered, Transcultural, and

Hybridized Identities and Art Practices: Implications for an Intercultural and Social Justice-

Oriented Approach to Teaching Art (in press), and Acts of Engagement (in press). These

writings talk about my experiences, reflections, critical analyses, and understandings about

my/our work as art educators wishing to make a difference in the world. My goals in have been

to embed my research into stories and to contribute to understandings that foster changes in

personal, and professional practices. These are both modest and audacious goals. Its hard to

know what real impact any of this has on the lives of children and families. Yet, I continue, now

in my 30th year as an art educator, ever hopeful. And I am informed and inspired by countless

other art educators who have similarly shared their research.


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Against all Odds20

In closing, I have attempted to demonstrate in this chapter how narrative research has the power

to inform and shape both personal and professional actions. I have interwoven stories about

Charlene Teters, my own research on the Native American mascot issue, and the work of my

colleagues and I in attempting to shape the professional practice of art education through our

work with the NAEA. What emerged from my own research is the realization that Native

American culture is diverse, complex, and constantly changing; that Indian mascot images and

characterizations of Native Americans and their cultural practices are not merely historically and

educationally wrong, they are harmful; and that as art educators dedicated to the highest

standards of practice it is my/our responsibility to advance historically and culturally accurate,

educationally sound, and socially just curricular policies. But what has also emerged from this

research is the power of the story, Charlenes story, and how it has informed and shaped the

discourse, policies and practices of educational institutions across the country, including as of

2010, the NAEA. I have positioned the National Art Education Association as my/our

community of practice. Notably, Charlenes communities of practice include the art world, the

Native American community, and the world of higher education. As for the scholars, artists,

educators, mothers, administrators, leaders, activists, and anyone else who might happen to read

this chapter, our communities of practice overlap in significant ways with Charlenes and it

behooves us to hear her story and to be moved to action by it. Were all in this together.


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Against all Odds21

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Regarding the Use of Indian Mascots by non-Native American Schools and Educational

Institutions. Retrieved from http://www.arteducators.org/about-

us/Resource_Material_Regarding_the_Use_of_Indian_Mascots.pdf


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Delacruz, E. M. (2011). Entrepreneurial strategies for advancing arts-based public engagement

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Appendix A: NAEA Resolution Calling for Discontinuation of All Uses of Race Based Mascots

by Educational Institutions (2009)

Whereas we, as members of the world's largest professional art educational organization,

strongly support the thoughtful teaching and scholarship of art and other forms of material

culture by people with diverse cultural beliefs and practices; and

Whereas we deplore prejudice based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age,

disability, size, marital status, or economic status and we reject the use of names, symbols,

caricatures, emblems, images, logos, and mascots that promote such prejudice; and

Whereas the United States Commission on Civil Rights issued a Statement on the Use of Native

American Images and Nicknames as Sports Symbols that called for an end to this use of

American Indian images and team names by non-Indian schools; and

Whereas the Modern Language Association, the American Psychological Association, the

National Governor's Association, the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the

National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the National

Council of Churches, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Amnesty International,

and other highly regarded national, regional, state, and local organizations have called for an end

to race-based mascots; and


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Whereas, the depiction of Native Americans as Indian mascots and sports team logos is said by

Native Americans to be a negative means of appropriating and denigrating Native American

cultural identity that involves the inexcusable and immoral display and depiction of ceremonial

symbols and practices that have religious and cultural significance to Native Americans; and

Whereas the National Congress of American Indians, the American Indian Movement, the

National Indian Education Association, and all 376 recognized Native American Tribes assert

that the use of derogatory Native American images such as Indian mascots and caricatures by

public and private schools, universities, and sports teams perpetuate a stereotypical image of

Native Americans that is likely to have a negative impact on the psychological health, well-

being, and future success of Native American children;

Be it therefore resolved that we request that the membership and leadership of the NAEA call for

the immediate discontinuation of the commercial use of race-based images, nicknames, sports

team names, mascots, logos, performance, and persona by non-Native American schools,

universities, and sports teams.


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Appendix B: Position Statement Regarding the Use of Race Based Mascots in Educational

Settings [Adopted April 2010]

NAEA considers Race-based Mascots in educational institutions to be representations that can

be seen as derogatory. Visual art educators are encouraged to support their communities in

addressing how such images impact all lives. Race-based Mascots offer teachable moments for

art classrooms; opportunities to explore the complex and problematic ways that ethnic mascots

and similar visual representations convey information about people, communities, cultures, and

civilizations. For Example, Visual art educators working in non-Native American schools with

Indian mascots are encouraged to ask their school to consult with and be informed by Native

American Tribal Councils, and to participate in identifying new positive images worthy of

representing their school and communities.


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1 Although the University of Illinois officially retired Chief Illiniwek in 2007, the UI retains theuse of the name Fighting Illini along with copyright licensing and selling of products bearing

the Chief Illiniwek logos. See the University of Illinois Board of Trustees action to retire ChiefIlliniwek at http://www.uillinois.edu/trustees/agenda/March%2013,%202007--Approved%20and%20Reported/001a%20mar%20Consensus%20Resolution.pdf. See theUniversity of Illinois February 2007 news release Chief Illiniwek Will No Longer Perform:NCAA to lift sanctions on Illini athletics athttp://www.uillinois.edu/chief/ChiefRelease2-16-

07.pdf

2I learned about the construct ofWhite privilege in my research on Indian Mascots in the late

1990s. Work that stood out for me at that time included a report The Persistence of WhitePrivilege and Institutional Racism in US Policy: A Report on US Government Compliance withthe International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

compiled by the Transnational Racial Justice Initiative (Quiroz-Martinez, Randall, & Kearney,2001) and the writings of Native American artists and scholars, including Charlene Teters andCornel Pewewardy. Writings about White privilege align with Critical Race Theory. CriticalRace Theory (CRT) originated in the civil rights movement, law and Critical Legal Studies(CLS), anthropology, history, and ethnic and womens studies, and now also informs journalism(Kozol, 1992, 2006) and educational theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). Centering primarilyon issues of racial justice, Critical Race Theory challenges the dominant ideology of Whiteprivilege, disputes governmental and social policies and practices emanating from the notion ofcolorblindness, questions the legitimacy of objective or value-neutral research, recognizes thecentrality of experiential knowledge, and commits itself to social justice, seeking reparation andsocial change. For a good summary of the history of and issues of concern to CRT see Tasso,

2005.3 White privilege is described as a system that accrues to whites (or European Americans)

greater wealth, resources, more access and higher quality access to justice, services, capital --

virtually every form of benefits to be reaped from US society -- than other racial groups. . . .

White privilege has resulted in impoverishment and injustice for the vast majority of thosebelonging to racial minorities. . . . It is an overarching, comprehensive framework of policies,practices, institutions and cultural norms that undergird every aspect of US society (Quiroz-Martinez, et al., 2001, p. 5).

4Roberts Rules of Orderpermit an organization to suspend discussion of a previous motion

through a subsidiary motion To Lay on the Table the motion under consideration. The motionto lay on the table a previous motion is undebatable, it requires only a majority vote, and itsuspends all further deliberation on the original motion being considered. Roberts Rules ofOrderwarns, These are dangerous privileges which are given to no other motion whose

adoption would result in final action on a main motion. There is a great temptation to make animproper use of them, and lay questions on the table for the purpose of instantly suppressingthem by a majority vote (http://www.robertsrules.org/rror-05.htm#28). In direct conflict withwhat I believed then and still believe to be one of the most important purposes of the NAEA (that


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is, to promote and support excellence in art education practices), and in direct conflict withRoberts Rules of Order, Article V, Section 28, the motion to lay on the table my motion callingfor adoption by the Delegates Assembly of the Resolution Calling for the Elimination of Race-Based Mascots in Educational Institutions suppressed all further discussion of the merits of this

resolution. I believed that this procedure was used not merely because of time constraints or theneed to consider more pressing issues, but because the resolution and its underlying issues werecontroversial. I was not allowed at the meeting of the Delegates to challenge this lay on thetable motion.

5 Listed alphabetically, individuals who contributed to and helped shape the Position Statementand Resource Document in 2010 includedChristine Ballengee-Morris, Doug Blandy, LauraChapman, Sheng Kuan Chung, Kristin Congdon, Vesta Daniel, Elizabeth Delacruz, PhoebeFarris, Olivia Gude, Wanda Knight, Ashley Minner, James H. Sanders, III, Patricia Stuhr, andSteve Willis.

6

I also sought and received support from both the past and the then current Presidents of theNAEA Higher Education Division, Melody Milbrandt and John White. I also asked for advicefrom Barry Shauck, the then President of the NAEA, who was very encouraging and helpful inpointing me toward the NAEA mission statement, constitution, and strategic plan. Theseconnections to NAEA goals would become the basis of my 6-minute presentation to the NAEADelegates Assembly in 2010.

7 At the writing of this chapter, I note that Dennis Inhulsen is now the President-Elect of theNAEA.

8 Wanting to move forward from the Position Statement, several colleagues and I who worked on

the 2010 Position Statement also presented two sessions entitled "Native Americans as LivingCulture" at the 2010 annual conference of the NAEA in Baltimore. Phoebe Farris moderated thesessions, and presenters included Ashley Minner, Christine Ballengee-Morris, Steve Willis, andme. We presented an additional session at the 2011 annual conference, adding Native Americaneducator and scholar Lori Santos to our panel. Plans are in process for another session at the2012 conference of the NAEA.

9Chief Illiniweks headdress contained eagle feathers when Charlene Teters first witnessed the

Chiefs performance at the University of Illinois. Charlene challenged the universitys possessionof these eagle feathers on the basis that the Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treatyprohibits the possession, use, and sale of eagle feathers by non-Native Americans. In response,the university replaced the Chiefs eagle feathers with turkey feathers.

research in story form: a narrative account of how one person made a difference against all odds

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