[Leftcoast]

There were three student votes that I know of - The first in '72 and a second in '75 covered reinstating the Indian and the one Spiny and I remember in '81 served as an advisory referendum for President Kennedy on alternate names (not including the Indian.)

I believe I voted for Gryphons in '81 but have ever since wished I cast one of the Robber Baron write-in votes.  My memory matches Spiny's - the administration largely ignored the student vote, pointing out that Students were only one of the three main constituencies which also included Alumni and Faculty/Staff.  (We all guessed large donors were a fourth group that had a big thumb on the scale)

I had a native American classmate who invited me to one of the Native American student association meetings (SAIO?).  I came from a California Sierra foothill community where our high school name, the Chieftains, had never been a problem for the relatively large Indian population so I was interested in why the dynamic was different on a college campus.  (It was also early in the term and it didn't hurt that she was quite cute.) 

The Stanford club was strongly opposed to any move to resume the Indian name.  From my outsider viewpoint some of the opposition was  offense over the caricature and the negative racial stereotyping in fan cheering.  Some of it seemed like an activist element siezing on a rallying point to energize their community.  I left thinking it didn't really matter whether I or anyone else felt they SHOULD be offended or not - a substantial number of my fellow students were very offended and I couldn't see why our team's nickname should be a divisive issue. 

I made up my mind then and there and 30 years later I'm still glad we moved on even as I understand the pain of folks who spent THEIR college life rooting for the Indians rather than the Cardinal.

Notice that my experience mirrors the mixed feelings and stratification underlying the SI article - The Native Americans in my local/home community were either supportive or ambivalent about the Chieftain name.  In fact, Indian nicknames are popular at the rural high schools where many Native Americans go to school.  In addition to my mountain area high school, our grade school team was called the Chiefs and a nearby grade school's mascot was taken from the name of the local tribe.  I'd never heard of this being an issue and there were many visible signs of support for the mascot and the teams.

The more politically charged college campus environment was another story entirely.  The Native American students at Stanford had no strong pre-Stanford affiliation with the mascot and opposition was near universal among the Native Americans I met.

Here's a historical document that some may find interesting - Omsbudsman Amsterdam's 1972 Memorandum to President Lyman that led to the removal of the Indian symbol.  Notice he tackles the alumni issue head-on.

http://lib.stanford.edu/files/8655_amste..._feb_3.pdf

[Leftcoast]

There were three student votes that I know of - The first in '72 and a second in '75 covered reinstating the Indian and the one Spiny and I remember in '81 served as an advisory referendum for President Kennedy on alternate names (not including the Indian.)

I believe I voted for Gryphons in '81 but have ever since wished I cast one of the Robber Baron write-in votes.  My memory matches Spiny's - the administration largely ignored the student vote, pointing out that Students were only one of the three main constituencies which also included Alumni and Faculty/Staff.  (We all guessed large donors were a fourth group that had a big thumb on the scale)

I had a native American classmate who invited me to one of the Native American student association meetings (SAIO?).  I came from a California Sierra foothill community where our high school name, the Chieftains, had never been a problem for the relatively large Indian population so I was interested in why the dynamic was different on a college campus.  (It was also early in the term and it didn't hurt that she was quite cute.) 

The Stanford club was strongly opposed to any move to resume the Indian name.  From my outsider viewpoint some of the opposition was  offense over the caricature and the negative racial stereotyping in fan cheering.  Some of it seemed like an activist element siezing on a rallying point to energize their community.  I left thinking it didn't really matter whether I or anyone else felt they SHOULD be offended or not - a substantial number of my fellow students were very offended and I couldn't see why our team's nickname should be a divisive issue. 

I made up my mind then and there and 30 years later I'm still glad we moved on even as I understand the pain of folks who spent THEIR college life rooting for the Indians rather than the Cardinal.

Notice that my experience mirrors the mixed feelings and stratification underlying the SI article - The Native Americans in my local/home community were either supportive or ambivalent about the Chieftain name.  In fact, Indian nicknames are popular at the rural high schools where many Native Americans go to school.  In addition to my mountain area high school, our grade school team was called the Chiefs and a nearby grade school's mascot was taken from the name of the local tribe.  I'd never heard of this being an issue and there were many visible signs of support for the mascot and the teams.

The more politically charged college campus environment was another story entirely.  The Native American students at Stanford had no strong pre-Stanford affiliation with the mascot and opposition was near universal among the Native Americans I met.

Here's a historical document that some may find interesting - Omsbudsman Amsterdam's 1972 Memorandum to President Lyman that led to the removal of the Indian symbol.  Notice he tackles the alumni issue head-on.

http://lib.stanford.edu/files/8655_amste..._feb_3.pdf