Letters to the Editor
The Symbol
TO THE EDITOR:
I am one of a great number of alumni who deplore the dropping of the Indian symbol. No one seems to be able to make the owners drop the name "Washington Redskins." Must we now drop the names "Indian corn." "Indian meal," and "Indian pudding?"
I wish the Alumni Magazine would put a question in an issue to give chance for the alumni to express an opinion, such as: "Do you want the Indian symbol restored?" Many alumni who would not write a letter would sign a question such as this. The Trustees would be surprised at the "Yes" votes. Please put it in.
Scarborough, Maine
TO THE EDITOR:
May I stick in my Indian penny's worth?
Today, on a plane, I saw an Army colonel whose uniform had a shoulder patch which con- tained a profile of an Indian. The patch it seems has been a proud possession of the 98th Division, the Iroquois Division, for over 50 years.
Can't you picture some recruit telling his sergeant he wants to see the general so he can demand that the name be changed? Maybe to something less offensive like creampuffs or marshmallows unless the bakers of America would object, in which case maybe better to have no name at all? The general's reaction could provide an even better scene.
I would be willing to bet that the 98th has both the intelligence and guts never to drop the Iroquois name, if someone were to be so stupid as to ask for it. And I'm equally sure that the Second Army Division which also has an Indian symbol won't change either. Why should it? And why should Dartmouth have when you get right down to it?
As I've wondered before, should the Shawmut Bank in Boston be forced to give up its stalwart brave? Maybe not as soon as the Mass. Turnpike should be made to remove the arrow from the Pilgrim hat in all illustrations of its symbol? And should lacrosse have been played for the last time by Dartmouth men? If we can't use the symbol, why should we be privileged to borrow a sport? Lastly, did any Indian or member of any other minority group ever complain about the "Helpee Selfee" laundries I have seen here and there? If not, how about first things first?
Pittsford, N.Y.
TO THE EDITOR:
In the history of the College there has never been a period in which the administration has distinguished itself so unfavorably as now - permissiveness and a smug belief that nothing of consequence exists except the present. To whom Dartmouth belongs and the unending con- tinuum of this belonging has escaped this administration. Any institution that dismembers its past can look only for trouble in its future.
The Indian symbol and the Indian yells - their captivating origin and their lasting hold on all who have identified with Dartmouth, have been blatantly and selfishly discarded; as one Sioux Indian has said, in a puerile fashion. This is a disgrace to the thought level Dartmouth has represented for so long. Only when such things are restored will Dartmouth belong again to all of us. Disembodied academic concepts will not preserve identity with the College to the fullest - or even in large measure.
Nashville, Tenn.
TO THE EDITOR;
Suggestions and discussions in recent issues of the Alumni Magazine stimulated the Class of 1911 to take a YES or NO vote, with the foillowing results:
41 or 86% of the 48 men still alive in our Class and 7 of the 1911 widows answered a questionnaire presented to them as part of the February 27, 1974, issue of our Class Newsletter Up.
1. I favor restoration of ROTC on campus:Men YES - 39 NO — 2Widows YES — 6 NO — 1
2. I favor restoration of the Indian Symbol:Men YES - 36 NO — 4Widows YES — 6 NO - I "Ho-Hum"- 1
Of the 4 men voting NO
One said "Too controversial and suggest 'The Owls'."
One said "Would change to YES if 75% of the Indian graduates expressed a desire to have it restored."
One said "Should have a symbol about the north country and ice."
One added "But undergraduates interviewed all liked the Indian Symbol."
Of the men voting YES
About half of them added special commernts such as "Never could understand or follow the logic of the decisions reported to us" and "Never should have been dropped." Two words really express the gist of the special comments - "Emphatically YES."
Contoocook, N.H.
TO THE EDITOR:
If Green Key and the Alumni Council and other agents of the present College administration were determined to alienate a great number - I believe the vast majority - of Dartmouth alumni, they could hardly do so more effective than by their continuing unfairly one-sided handling of the Indian symbol matter, as reported on page 16 of the February AlumniMagazine.
That report states, among other things, that "many" ... [others] ... "expressed strong sentiments for reinstatement of the Indian symbol, which initially had been eliminated by the GreenKey committee as a possibility for consideration." I'm a class secretary, and I wasn't aware of the a priori elimination from consideration of the Indian symbol as a possibility. To have eliminated it from the voting was manifestly unfair, like saying, "If you don't vote the way we think you ought to, your vote won't count." (Author's emphasis.)
So I voted for the reinstatement of the Indian symbol as the emblem of Dartmouth College, as apparently did "many others," and it was only on reading the News of the College in the February issue, received early in March, that I learned that votes for the Indian symbol didn't count.
And then there was the action, or non-action, by the Alumni Council. At least some member or members had the enterprise to suggest that "all alumni should be polled by mail regarding their attitude about the Indian symbol and its use by the College." And at least there was "spirited exchange." But in the end the spiritless majority (unless it had been ruled that votes for the polling of alumni wouldn't count) prevailed, and "the Alumni Council finally voted to table the motion for a poll of alumni on the Indian symbol until its June meeting."
It is stated that the anti-poll majority (if it was a majority) argued that such a poll "would inflame passions and endanger the Native American educational program at Dartmouth." It is my understanding, on reasonably good authority, that that program is already pretty moribund, if not entirely dead. And as far as the inflaming of passions is concerned, the College administration's efforts to eliminate our Dartmouth Indian symbol - efforts sneakily con- ceived and continuingly sneakily executed - will keep those passions inflamed, to the detriment of Dartmouth, until there are no members of classes before the late sixties left.
I hope that Dartmouth and its Indian symbol will survive longer than that. I think that her chances will be better with the restoration of her proud Indian symbol, and the restoration of the active loyalty of those thousands of alumni who loved and still love the College, and who loved and still love the Dartmouth College Indian symbol.
Wah Hoo Wah!
Damariscotta, Maine
(Current concern for the Indian symbol, as evidenced by letters in this and past issues of the Alumni Magazine suggests a review of some pertinent information:
Indian students at Dartmouth never staged a demonstration of protest against the use of the symbol, but did argue persuasively, in appropriate forums, against such use.
Acutely conscious of the history of Indian peoples over the past several centuries and of the plight of many Indians today, the students objected to the use of an Indian as a mascot, to caricatures showing drunken "braves" dragging "squaws" to reunions, to the sale of diapers and toilet seats adorned with Indian emblems - abuses which were distressingly common.
The Indian symbol has no claim to antiquity or official sanction as far as Dartmouth is concerned. Throughout most of the 19th century, the pine tree was regarded as the symbol of the College. Dartmouth athletic teams were not generally known as "Indians" until the 1920s.
The Dartmouth Alumni Council is the only agency of the College to address itself directly to the use of the Indian symbol. Findings of its study committee were reported to all alumni in the Bulletin of June 1972. Those findings concluded, in part: "... the committee finds it inappropriate to recommend official abolition of an Indian symbol that was never officially adopted at Dartmouth. The committee is sympathetic with issues raised by Native American students [and] ... we are personally pleased to see that the use of the symbol is diminishing at Dartmouth.... We feel that this issue can best be resolved by programs of communication and education ... rather than by official fiat."
In several instances, including Dartmouth athletic uniforms, songs, and architectural adornments, use of the Indian symbol continues.
Where the Indian symbol has been discontinued, as the football cheerleader, it has been done so voluntarily and by decision of the persons directly involved. Ed.)
Franklin McDuffee
TO THE EDITOR:
I have just received the March issue of the Alumni Magazine, and was much interested in the letter concerning Franklin McDuffee, from Stewart Schackne '27. Along with many others, I am glad to see that Franklin McDuffee has been given credit for "Dartmouth Undying."
I remember Franklin McDuffee very well" He was a particular friend of my brother. Edward W. Morris '30, who died in 1943. I have a copy of McDuffee's Newdigate Prize poem, "Michelangelo," which he gave to Ed, and on the back page, in McDuffee's beautiful fine handwriting, is the following little poem, which so far as I know has never been published
Spring Song
(Don't you feel like this sometimes?)
The smell of brown damp earth, the smell That only comes with April rain, Mark of the subterranean swell That passes through the ground again!
I will go into the woods, and look For twigs that are dry enough to burn. And take a green birch stick, and cook Streaked bacon in among the fern. And I will sniff the white wood smoke And fill my friendly pipe, and sing. With head thrown back against an oak This unpretentious song of spring.
FMcD
Apple Valley, Calif.
"Some Political Bias"
TO THE EDITOR:
May I suggest that it would be very reassuring to many who suspect some political bias in the selection of candidates for receiving honorary degrees at Dartmouth if such an honor were bestowed upon the English Department's Professor Jeffrey Hart, the brilliant columnist whose sane point of view on matters of public interest appeals to many of us in the Dartmouth family.
Meredith, N.H.
"What the Hell"
TO THE EDITOR:
If your current aim with the covers of the Alumni Magazine is to bewilder and disconcert your alumni and cause them to wonder, you will deserve first prize for accuracy.
But if your desire is to educate us as to what is called "modern design conception," please let us sink back into the dismal ignorance that characterized us when we were being subjected to education at Dartmouth and finally took our degrees.
With hundreds and hundreds of possible illustrations for your covers, few of us can understand why you have taken your present tack; and the comments I have heard range all the way from "Why?" to "What does it mean?" to "What the hell?"
New London, N.H.
TO THE EDITOR:
The last [March] issue of the AlumniMagazine was more like old times.
The one before was so disgusting that I immediately junked it for obvious reasons.
Greenwich, N.Y.
Help Thyself
TO THE EDITOR:
It appears to me that because of the high cost of fuel, the College instead of having a summer vacation of say one hundred six days from about June seventh to September twenty-first - as used to be the situation, that classes should be run during the summer, and the so-called "summer vacation" should now be set from November twenty-eighth to March fourteenth, also one hundred six days. This "reversal" of the year would go far to save on fuel. Certainly until new methods of heating are devised, such a plan should be considered. All colleges and schools in the northern part of our country may soon have to do this or go down the drain financially.
One other suggestion as to raising more money for College expenses should, in this alumnus' opinion, be noted. Each year we are asked to increase our College gift. That is all right, but why does the College insist on playing big football games like those against Yale, Harvard, Cornell and others in Hanover when the same game played in, for one example, the Yale Bowl, would bring in not thousands, but hundreds of thousands of dollars? Certainly it is much easier for both colleges involved to raise money this way than to run the games with small crowds in cramped (Hanover, New Hampshire) quarters (motel accommodations and the like) as is now the custom, at least for one of the big games.
Many of us wish to help our College, but sometimes the College can do more to help itself! Certainly inflation must be fought with extraordinary actions.
Portland, Maine
(Mr. Maynard's suggestion for exchanging winter for summer is being considered by several New England colleges, but year-round operation, now in full swing, renders it impractical at Dartmouth. As for football receipts, when Yale plays in Hanover (once every four years), the difference in net income for Dartmouth is about $35,000 - not "hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Dartmouth Blue
TO THE EDITOR:
All the recent uproar about Indians, school colors, et al. has not particularly upset me. As a college professor myself I know how student and faculty generations change in their values and interests and insights. Also, as a historian of education I know how ephemeral traditions are and were. If Dartmouth men really want to honor Dartmouth tradition, they ought to campaign to make the school symbol an evangelist, a Puritan, or a missionary. In many ways I suspect American Indians were but the instruments through which Wheelock and his allies were expressing their Christian faith.
Despite these feelings, the muse recently visited me and her subject this time was Dartmouth and the controversy about symbols. The objective correlative for me was a calendar which the Alumni Fund sent me and which I hung over my desk. Better Dartmouth than the Girl Scouts! I enclose the poem with little expectation except that others like me from the silent generation may enjoy and understand it.
Dartmouth Blue
Lines Penned in Reaction to the 1974 Dartmouth Calendar Freshman tomorrows have become alumni yesterdays.
This calendar never lies, just records The days, the weeks, the year my carcass feels Slipping by with breathless regularity. The photos change; the skier plunging downhill
Dissolves replaced by marching gra
A cheering football crowd a campus Christmas tree. Beneath, the numbered grids hang heavy.
The daily boxes, like coffins, hold my scribbled notes:
Choir rehearsals Wednesday nights, the weekend guests, Two dental appointments, a trip to Washington, Deadlines for submitting bills and income tax.
But how much more these grids and pictures comprehend!
Once I was green as Dartmouth spring, Felt expectation like the maple sap arise Ambitious for a luscious summer and a fruitful fall.
I've changed; from half my three score years and ten I look ahead and spy the hurtling end. Behind, the disappearing past, lengthening - That me no reunion - above, below - can resurrect.
And yet my college years remain sure-fixed. Like longitudes and latitudes they chart my days, Judge my nights, guide my wanderings Through hurricanes we call the "modern" world.
How ironic! Despite our Vietnams, our Watergates, Despite my lonely weals and woes, some faith remains.
Dear alumni office, spare me these calendars of Dartmouth blue!
To those who've gone before, Dartmouth must stay green.
Bloomsburg, Pa.
Technicality
TO THE EDITOR:
I am truly sorry that Mr. Sheridan Dodge felt that I "was making women the brunt of cruel and undiginified 'jokes.' " (I think he meant to say "butt" rather than "brunt.") And I apologize for causing hurt sensibilities. All I meant to do was ring a change on the often-referred-to 12-man technicality.
There was no attempt to be cryptic. As a former editor of the Official IntercollegiateSoccer Guide, I have often held up to scorn people who try to "win" games which they have "lost" by resorting to hair-splitting technicalities, and I suppose this attitude was in my sub-conscious self.
My mother was one of the first activists in the suffragette movement as early as World War I. My wife has been active on social welfare cultural, and college boards of trustees directors. My daughter has been a social worker and a teacher of English and sociology in the ghetto schools of Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Ga. And my six-year-old granddaughter wishes she were a boy so she could play hockey.
I am a former vice chairman of a commission on human rights, and I have fought for and will continue to fight for the rights of minorities,including women.
Clearwater Beach, Fla.
(Mr. Schmelzer is replying to a letter in the February 1974 issue by Mr. Dodge who was replying to a letter in the October 1973 issue by Mr. Schmelzer. This has gone far enough. Ed.)
