Letters

Yeas or nays

For the first two years after graduation, the first items I read in the Alumni Magazine were: 1) athletics; 2) class news; and 3) remainder. Then I discovered the Letters to the Editor and for the past 23 years it has been number one, and even now athletics sadly begins to share second place with the obituaries. The latest magazine has finally made me take the time to write my first letter. Through the years, I have cheered at a letter supporting my thoughts and hissed between gnashed teeth at those letters diametrically opposed to me, and literally cried at some of the memories and thoughts shared by alumni of all ages.

To me this letter department is Dartmouth — all of it. The latest issue reflects perhaps the ultimate collage of literary submittals that I can remember. If this is done intentionally, I applaud you. If not, then I suggest that you look closely at this issue and continue the variety of publications.

I would like to suggest a slight change or addition. Many times I have wished to write a letter to some of the individuals to either correct their erroneous thoughts or to show support for their opinion. An example would be a letter to Sid Goldman, a former classmate who doesn't remember any athletic achievements during his tenure at the former Indian school. I could remind him of the football, basketball, hockey, and ski championships that were won in that period. A dimming memory also recalls that the rugby club killed everybody on several tours to England, and in his intramural sport (squash) there was a nationally-ranked individual. Would you print the addresses of the individuals whose letters are submitted so that we could start some correspondence?

To those alumni who have the time and energy, I would appreciate hearing yeas or nays, cheers pr hisses, or whatever, to the following necessarily short statements of personal opinion.

1. To me, the Indian symbol was one of honor, not denigration. Millions of Poles have rallied behind and fought for the "Banner of the White Eagle," which happens to look like a scrawny chicken. Those who voted the Indian out, I submit, have the weakest sense of values and perhaps should not have enrolled at Dartmouth at all. Perhaps the demise of intercollegiate competition at all levels (athletics to glee club) can be traced to a lack of a banner to follow into battle or to associate one's self with. Who would like to follow a Big Green pile of —?

2. ROTC is a valid choice to have on any campus, especially ours. If you must fight, fight with your best men and best weapons. Can you imagine the plight of a black or Jewish Dartmouth student majoring in religion trying to establish a gay students group on campus if we had lost World War II? Those letters castigating ROTC on the grounds of overspending should be aware that rules of procurement are established by civilian bureaucracy which must be and is adhered to by the military procurement agents who are constitutionally bound to follow a civilian leader.

3. The rightful position of the gay students group is probably in the trash can. If we all join the group, then, within the next generation, we won't have to worry about the Indian, the bomb, or anything.

4. Which reminds me... the growth of the gay students movement seems to have paralleled the changing of Dartmouth from an all-male school to a coed school. Is the gay movement a form of rebellion against coeds? It seems to me that every school in the nation has coeds and that there was and is a place for an all-male or an all-female school in our education system. I think there is a direct correlation between Dartmouth going coed and the drop in athletic achievements. Where the school once had 1,000 new men every year to participate in all programs the College offered, the job must now be done with 500. It's impossible. Maybe the College should drop some intercollegiate activities in order to concentrate on a few in a more competitive manner. Finally, I don't ever remember a student who wanted a date not getting one whenever he wanted. Girls would come up at any time (at their expense of course). P.S. Recent coeds, my best friend is my only wife of 23 years.

Those who care to respond to these statements or to other momentous problems of the College please write me at 712 Hanover Street, Dallas, TX 75225, so that I can collate the responses and let everyone know the results in another Letter to the Editor.

Dallas, Tex.

Wrong priorities

I enjoy watching football at the collegiate level and appreciate and respect its primacy among fall collegiate sports. Indeed, some of my best friends were football players in their youth!

Nonetheless, isn't four pages of football, including 2 1/3. pages on the other Ivies in the September issue a bit much? Will Dartmouth be playing field hockey, men's and women's cross-country, men's and women's soccer, and women's tennis this fall? There are, surely, estimable students worthy of mention on those teams and I doubt I'm alone among loyal alumni/ae in feeling your priorities are wrong.

Swarthmore, Pa.

[The author, who lettered in tennis, was alsocaptain of the squash team and an all-Americanin soccer. Currently he is the athletic director atSwarthmore. Ed.]

The symbol (cont.)

The last issue carried a letter from William Johnson '70, which deprecates the alumnus who decries the abolishment of the Indian symbol because there are more important issues these days. There are more important issues but the people who abolished the symbol are the ones who initiated the controversy. And there are plenty of alumni who are more important to the College than the few who oppose the Indian symbol who can handle more than one issue at a time. The controversy will not go away as adequately stated in the letter from Nichol Sandoe '19 calling our attention to Dartmouth's official seal. In further evidence, I enclose a clip from the October 27 Los Angeles Times referring to the Cornell game which the Indians won.

The symbol should be settled the way the ROTC matter was by executive decision. I renewed my participation in the Alumni Fund because of the gutsy stand taken by President McLaughlin. There were two fine letters from alumni on ROTC which I hope were read by all alumni. If there are some faculty members who are unhappy with ROTC on the campus, I suggest they show the depth of their conviction by resigning.

Pasadena, Calif.[There is probably no healthier hallmark of asound academic environment than vigorous,well-reasoned difference of opinion on controversial matters. And we are glad to report that"Love it or leave it!" is not in vogue at theCollege. Ed.]

Roots

If the United States endures for another 5,000 years, Dartmouth alumni will have one throwback to the past to comfort them: The Alumni Magazine will still be titillating its readers with five or six letters each issue bemoaning the College's caving in on the Indian symbol question.

In this case, I must confess the tepee and tomahawk crowd has a valid point to buttress its cause. Given the current ineptness of Dartmouth athletic teams, I would hesitate to opt for banners and cheerleaders' sweaters emblazoned with a beaded and befeathered likeness of my Uncle Buster. Wasn't Wounded Knee enough?

In the interests of objectivity, however, I must insist that the Native Americans' claim to denizenship is based on a flawed premise. They are not native at all. Their ancestors crawled out of the bogs somewhere in Asia, eventually exhibiting the good sense to escape from the horrors of Mongolian cooking by emigrating across the Bering Strait to the American continents.

Besides, history is little more than a recording of tribal meanderings about the globe and the extermination of the intransigent. My own Celtic forebears were chased from their origins in eastern Europe across the continent to Britain, where they were accorded the further humiliation of being driven by assorted Angles, Saxons, and Normans to the farthest reaches of the Caledonian coast.

We must also face the fact that Florida State athletes are labeled Seminoles with no screams of anguish emanating from the edges of the Everglades, though there may be cogent reasons why the sunbelt tribe chooses to ignore such effrontery at the moment. Right now, the Seminoles are so time-pressured in their successful pursuit of wealth earned in selling cigarettes at bargain basement rates to aficionados of lung cancer that they may lack the hours and the energy to campaign for justice.

For myself, I care little whether the College symbol is a noble redskin or a bedraggled corporal in Coxey's army. The institution, splendid in its endeavors and set down on one of the most glorious pieces of real estate in all New England, offers sustenance galore.

Do we need more to recompense us for our loyalty?

Melbourne Beach, Fla.

Vox Machina

1 enjoyed Nick Sandoe '19's comments in his letter published in the October issue of the Magazine. Certainly the depiction of Indians on the official College seal is in keeping with the original purpose of the College.

If these Indians must join their athletic brothers in limbo, I suggest the following changes in the College seal: 1) replace "Vox Clamantis in Deserto" with the phrase "Vox Machina in Deserto"; and 2) replace the Indians with an Apple Computer!

Hopefully everyone would rally to this new symbol, perhaps with a cheer which went something like "An Apple a day keeps defeat away!" Perhaps some better printouts would then appear on the scoreboards!!

Your October cover lead me to this observation: At an alfresco lecture one day, Asked the prof, 'Can you hear what I say?' He roused a sleeping young giant, Who, being less than compliant, Said, 'I did, man!' and ambled away!

Tequesta, Fla.

A sensible solution

Letters appearing in the October issue from alumni Arthur Nichols '45, Stuart Barber '34, and Nichol Sandoe '19 contain a thread of sensible thinking about the muchcommented-upon Indian symbol issue. Mr. Nichols, in particular, suggests that the symbol might be modified to emphasize its positive aspects, at the same time stripping from it any denigrating characteristics. Similar thinking could be applied to other Na- tive American traditions associated with Dartmouth such as, for example, "Eleazar Wheelock," by replacement of objectionable references such as "for the heathen."

Obviously a significant segment of alumni favors readoption of the symbol and other traditions including songs, cheers, etc. that go along with it. Those of us who feel this way did not, in our time, consider these traditions to be putting down the Native American, nor would we wish to readopt the symbol now if that were to be the clear perception.

By proper reintroduction of the symbol in a positive manner and by simply cleaning up associated traditions such as "Eleazar Wheelock" and assorted cheers, the result could be preservation of these Native American-related traditions that clearly honor them, which in turn could be acceptable to both sides, providing a sensible solution to this never-ending controversy. The possibility of readoption and preservation in a totally positive vein should, I think, merit serious consideration by President McLaughlin and the Trustees as a potentially viable compromise.

Sunriver, Ore.

On tradition

We are what we are today because of what we were yesterday. This applies to institutions as well as to individuals. Traditions are a result of our past. The Indian symbol, which reflects the excellence of Dartmouth's past, is a tradition which obviously is very important to a good number of alumni. This number includes me.

I suggest everyone concerned with the College read or reread the Letter to the Editor in the October 1985 Alumni Magazine from Arthur N. Nichols '45. Mr. Nichols makes a great deal of sense.

Naples, Fla.

Just what isa Native American

Amid all the hullabaloo and resulting correspondence in the Alumni Magazine about the Indian symbol, no one seems to have questioned the College's ridiculous cavingin to a militant minority of Indian students by calling them "Native Americans." Dartmouth was founded for the education of American "Indians." The beloved Dartmouth song says Eleazar Wheelock went into the wilderness "to teach the Indian."

The appropriate federal agency in Washington handles "Indian" affairs. There is an Indian Public Health Service. I get dozens of appeals from voluntary organizations serving American Indians, such as the Association on American Indian Affairs. For some 20 years I was on the board of Futures for Children, whose major program supports several thousand "Indian" children in the Southwest. There is an area still inhabited by Narragansett Indians who maintain their own church, long house, and tribal festivals. The Northeastern University Press has just published a book entitled Restitution: The Land Claims of the Mashpee,Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indians of NewEngland. The newspapers and news magazines heads always refer to "Indians." One of my 1930 classmates, Bill Fenton, is the world's leading authority on the five Indian tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy. So far as I know, these various Indian tribes do not insist upon being called "Native Americans."

And as a Native American myself— I was born here and my ancestors arrived from England in 1624 I resent the appropriation of the term, approved by the College, by the Indian students. Webster's dictionary defines "native" among other things, as "born in a particular place, region, or country." Thus the vast majority of the 235,000,000 Americans are "native Americans." After all, moreover, the anthropologists tell us that the Indians of the Western Hemisphere originally came from Asia via the Bering Strait. So they differ from the rest of us in their "nativeness" only by a few centuries.

It is time for the College to return to calling the Indian students "Indians." If they don't like it, let them go elsewhere. Perhaps some other college will give them free tuition of $10,000 a year.

Kingston, R.I.

[Dartmouth is one of a handful of colleges offering financial assistance on a "need-blind" basisto all of the students it accepts. Typically thefinancial aid package is a combination of a loan,a job on campus, and a scholarship. Ed.]

Misperceptions

Two errors confuse the picture of the Indian at Dartmouth. First, viewers of the Hovey murals (when allowed to see the gems) misjudge them if they overlook the guide. Even if they read it, they still may err, failing to grasp the artist's intent, purely to divert and amuse through the show of delightful levity. Error compounded, result: unfair judgment.

Second, the Indian symbol is called a caricature. I protest it is not, rather a schema, a schematic design such as is used by many businesses and professions. It is designed, as has often been stated, to emphasize the Indian's nobility and bravery. With respect to the character of this design, why can't the committee concerned consult the art department? Hopkins Center is noted for its graphic design. Its verdict could be helpful.

Concord, Mass.

[For the record, there is no College committeespecifically concerned with the Indian symbol. Ed.]

In town again

I read where the Indian Head Bank has taken over the Dartmouth Bank . . . sure will be great to have the Indian back in Hanover!

Milford, Mass.

In high spirits:Another failed tradition

I returned to Dartmouth for the first time this past weekend, set to relive some of my great memories of life on the Plain. Before I even reached Hanover, however, I discovered that one of the Old Traditions had failed. I refer, of course, to the absence of Stolichnaya vodka from the state liquor store in West Leb.

I realize, of course, that the State Liquor Commission believes , that it is doing a service to the Afghanis and Poles who suffer under Soviet imperialism, to the Soviet Jews who are denied exit visas, and to the families of the passengers of KAL 007. I appreciate the state's concern for the rights of these victims of oppression, but do not we, as loyal citizens of a free country, have rights as well? Does living in a land of freedom mean allowing oneself to be constantly tyrannized by the oppressed? I think not.

I believe that the state of New Hampshire, by denying Dartmouth alumni the right to get drunk on the vodka that was such a central part of their four years' intellectual and spiritual quest, is taking a counterproductive approach to the battle against Soviet oppression. If we fight tyranny by "reverse tyranny," no one will be convinced. Rather, we should set for the Soviets an example of freedom. We should demonstrate our tolerance for all customs of our citizens, even if those customs involve drinking our enemy's vodka. We should show how we honor the dignity of all human beings, right down to the Russian peasant who harvests his potatoes.

I call upon Dartmouth alumni (who, by supporting the College, are the bulwark of the New Hampshire economy), to join the fight to Bring Back Stolie. I propose that we begin to demonstrate, our disapproval immediately by refusing to pay New Hampshire sales tax.

Scarsdale, N.Y.

The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine welcomes comment about College affairs and the editorial content of this Magazine. The Editor reserves the right to determine the suitability of letters for publication, using as standards accuracy, relevance, and good taste. Letters should not exceed 400 words and may be edited at the discretion of the Editor. Letters must be signed, with address and telephone included for verification.