- The Meskwaki adoption case has been resolved with the decision by the mother, after three months of living with her child, to keep the baby.
- The NCAA has backtracked somewhat on its recent decision to disallow most Indian mascots, logos, and team names from post-season games. The newly released appeals process would allow colleges to cite the support of the Indian groups being represented — e.g. the Seminoles in Florida State University’s case — to strengthen their cases.
- In related news, USA Today has a round-up of editorial opinion on the NCAA’s new mascot policy.
- Also related, despite the current visibility of the mascot issue, the town of Fox Lake, Ill., is considering reviving the Indian-head logo they abandoned some 50 years ago. Fox Lake was once home to a community of Meskwaki, before the government pushed the Meswkaki west of the Mississippi River to their current homes in Iowa and Kansas. Says Meskwaki tribal historian and perhaps-too-nice-guy Johnathan Buffalo:
“We don’t want to berate this little town just because they want their Indian head back,” he said. “But they should remember us, that we used to live there and their houses might be built on our graves.”
If the village reverts to the logo, it should be reworked to reflect a correct image of the Meskwaki, who never wore the headdress depicted on the old logo, he said.
- In White County Arkansas, meth use is linked with arrowhead hunting. The sherriff, the improbably-named Pat Garrett, hypothesizes that arrowhead hunting gives the hyperactive and hyper-alert methheads something to do while they are tweaking, but there’s an economic angle as well — good collections can be worth good money, which can come in handy given the kinds of legal problems that can accompany meth use.
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