MINNEAPOLIS -- Some American Indian leaders are upset with Jane Fonda, Jimmy Carter and other Atlanta Braves fans who have been doing the 'tomahawk chop' to cheer on their team.
Roger Head of the Indian Affairs Council of Minnesota said Monday the Braves fans' tomahawk chop, drum beating, chanting, wearing of feather headdresses and painting of faces is 'absolutely shameful' and 'horrible.'
'Don't they think they're offending anyone in this country?' Head asked.
Clyde Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement said the Atlanta fans are stereotyping the image of Indian people.
'They're portrayed as a bunch of savages who carry weapons and wear war paint all thetime,' Bellecourt said.
The offending Braves fans include Fonda, who has campaigned for many liberal causes in the past, and former president Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, who are known for their support of human rights issues. They all did the tomahawk chop with Braves owner Ted Turner, who is Fonda's boyfriend, at a game last weekend.
'I couldn't believe it,' Head said. 'These people are sensitive?'
Phil St. John, a Dakota Sioux and leader of a group called Concerned American Indian Parents, said the Braves fans don't know the harm they are doing.
'The people in Atlanta don't realize they're talking about an entire race of people and it hurts to see these white boys in the bleachers singing and chanting like that,' said St. John, whose group pushed for an end to the use of Indian images for high school athletic team nicknames and mascots.
Head, St. John and Bellecourt said the wearing of feather headdresses and facial war paint dishonor Indians because those are used in traditional religious ceremonies.
'You wear a headdress only twice -- when you honor a loved one or when a loved one passes on,' St. John said.
Head said, 'It's akin to taking a ritual of the Catholic Church and making fun of it.'
Bellecourt said for Indians the feather is the highest possible honor that could be given. 'It's equivalent of the Medal of Honor of the armed forces,' he said. 'It is nothing that little children would wear.'
