Brytanium

Hey what's up man? I'm from Bad River! Always cool seeing Natives help battle the misconceptions a lot of non-native folks have about our people.

Aside from the lake you're not missing too much

Im a Bad River tribal member (northern Wisconsin) and I had an internship with the great lakes Indian fish and wildlife commission (GLIFWC). Part of my job was to transcribe these interviews with elders across the Wisconsin communities on wild rice traditions and generally once you got these elders taking, they would often go back to when they were kids and everything that they used to do. It was super cool to hear about how things used to be and what they used to do during the different seasons. It was a shit load of typing but very informative!

What's up brother, Ojibwe from Bad River. You ever feel like you miss out on opportunities that other tribes have that didn't sell away most of their land/rights? Bad River members don't get paid out and are generally more poor but what we don't lack is our land and resources. We have Lake Superior and thousands of acres of land we can hunt and gather on without answering to anybody.

For me the problem lies within how they do it. Most of these mascots are inaccurate caricatures of indigenous people which is offensive to a lot. It's also irritating that a lot of these places don't do anything to show respect for the first Nations but insist on using their silly cartoons as their representation. I just ask why the need to use them to begin with? Find another mascot or do something to show you're just not using it as a symbol of a 'warrior' like setting up scholarships or giving profits from merchandise to these already disgustingly poor tribes.