Chief Illiniwek

The student portraying Chief Illiniwek performed during halftime of Illinois football and basketball games, as well as during women's volleyball matches.

A non-binding resolution to make "Alma Otter" the official mascot was placed on the spring 2019 student election ballot, but failed to receive a majority, although some see the vote as a sign of progress.

[13] During sporting events, Chief Illiniwek was portrayed by a student selected via audition and wearing authentic Lakota (Sioux) clothing.

The current costume was sold to the university marching band by Frank Fools Crow, chief of the Oglala Sioux (a nation unrelated to the Illiniwek), after being sewn by his wife.

All but one have been men: one woman, Idelle (Stith) Brooks, served in 1943 due to the shortage of male students during World War II; she was called "Princess Illiniwek."

Whereas, when in May 1995, a WICD reporter interviewed members of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Chief Don Giles said, "We do not have a problem with the mascot.

[24] On January 17, 2007, the executive committee of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, issued a resolution asking that the University of Illinois return the regalia to the family of Frank Fools Crow and cease the use of the Chief Illiniwek mascot.

They argued that this obstructed the creation of a diverse and tolerant learning community, harmed the reputation of the university, and promoted an inaccurate image of Native Americans.

A 1995 ruling by the United States Department of Education found that the mascot did not violate Native American students' civil rights.

[2] On January 13, 2000, the board of trustees of the University of Illinois passed a resolution concerning the issue of the continuation of the Chief Illiniwek performances at its athletic events.

Pursuant to this resolution, the board retained Louis B. Garippo, a former circuit court judge in Cook County, to assist in conducting a dialogue on Chief Illiniwek.

In 2006, the University Board of Trustees opted to study the issue and passed a resolution calling for "a consensus conclusion to the matter of Chief Illiniwek."

Supporting Chief Giles was another tribal elder, Ron Froman, who stated that the protesters "don't speak for all Native Americans, and certainly not us.

On November 11, 2005, the NCAA, stating that it had "found no new information relative to the mascot, known as 'Chief Illiniwek' or the logo mark used by some athletics teams that depicts an American Indian in feathered headdress,"[36] upheld the ban on the University of Illinois.

[40] The addition of the adjective "fighting" originated about five years before the appearance of Chief Illiniwek, as a tribute to Illinois soldiers killed in World War I.

The state of Illinois was named by French explorers after the indigenous Illiniwek people, a consortium of Algonquian tribes which thrived in the area.

The word Illiniwek or iliniwek is the plural form of ilinwe and means "those who speak in the ordinary way," although it has often been mistranslated as "tribe of superior men.

[47] In April 2014, an indigenous student, Xochitl Sandoval, sent a letter to the university administration (which she also posted on her Facebook page) describing her thoughts of suicide resulting from the daily insults she felt due to the continued presence of "The Chief" on campus, including other students wearing the old image and name on sweatshirts and the continued "unofficial" performances by the current "Chief", Ivan A. Dozier.

"[51] In August 2017, University Chancellor Robert Jones made the decision to ban the school's "War Chant", in response to critic claims that said the music stereotyped Native Americans and prolonged the divisive debate over Chief Illiniwek.

""Debating it was not going to do anything but kind of re-initiate a lot of the agony and the angst that have been a cancer that has been eating away at this university for more than a decade," Jones said of the closed-session ruling.

A non-binding resolution to make "Alma Otter" the official mascot was placed on the spring 2019 student election ballot, but failed to receive a majority, although some saw the vote as a sign of progress.

[9] In December 2022, the National Congress of American Indians endorsed efforts to find a replacement mascot, though the kingfisher was not explicitly mentioned.

"[59] In February 2023, the Association on American Indian Affairs endorsed adopting a new mascot, saying, “Retiring harmful imagery is commendable but not formally replacing that imagery allows for stereotypes to continue and fails to give the University community a new identity that is truly representative of them.”[60] In July 2023, the Native American Rights Fund endorsed the belted kingfisher as a replacement mascot.

[70] An event called "Students for Chief Illiniwek Presents: The Next Dance," happened on November 15, 2008 following the football game against Ohio State University, in the Assembly Hall.

[72] On February 26, 2010 the webpage of Students for Chief Illiniwek posted nearly fifty email correspondences, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, of several members of the university administration attempting to prevent the "Next Dance" portrayals.

The revelation of free speech violations by the administrators was criticized by free-speech advocates, including the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which currently gives the University of Illinois a yellow light rating.

School officials removed the announcement post from social media saying they did not have the time or personnel to address the bad language and personal attacks that were made in the online comments.

[70] At the game, about 100 protestors assembled at the main entrance to the State Farm Center displaying signs and chanting opposition to the Chief.

Pro-chief members of the commission characterized the exclusion of Native American imagery from future traditions as "discriminatory" while opponents view the Chief as a racist past that should be not be commemorated.

These included expanding the school's American Indian Studies program, repatriating sacred artifacts to indigenous people, offering in-state tuition to students from federally recognized tribal nations, having a campus historian develop an accurate history of the school's use of Native American symbols, and creating a council to develop new traditions for the student body.