Concerning The Day’s article, “Push against Native American logos, team names reopens question in Montville,” (Jan. 22), the only reason why the perpetuation of this nonsense persists in Montville and elsewhere is because Native Americans lack the political and economic clout to stop it. That’s why we don’t have athletic teams named the “Caucasians,” “Whiteskins,“ or “Honkies,” for example, because the folks understandably offended by those characterizations do comprise the political majority and they would not stand for it. But that reality is ignored when it comes to denigrating Native Americans, a class of people that our Anglo forebears spent the better part of 300 years attempting to annihilate via introduced diseases, biological warfare, territorial confiscation and slavery. So much for the “honor and respect” rationale offered up by the apologists for perpetuating the status quo.

In the aforementioned article, Mohegan Chief Marilyn Malerba got it right when she advocated for the discontinuation of American Indian mascots and American Indian named teams. It’s time to listen to those who wish to be treated as human beings and not some caricature on a banner, T-shirt or athletic jersey.

Jack Welch

Ledyard