Mascot, Maiden, Memory: How Rockton Uses Hononegah to Rewrite Indigenous Removal

SINCE THE CONCEPTION OF HONONEGAH COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL (HCHS), non-Indigenous citizens of the greater Rockton area have claimed to use the school to honor the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) and Potawatomi people whose ancestral land the community rests on. In previous decades, this “honoring” has manifested in the sports culture of Rockton, as the high school's football team, the Hononegah Indians, is cheered on by the mascot Princess Hononegah, a non-Indigenous cheerleader dressed in what the community considers Indigenous attire—a frilled buckskin dress with purple and gold beads. After entering the field, the mascot performs a caricatured dance to a stereotypical Indigenous song played by the high school band. In the spring of 2020, a group of students created a petition that called on HCHS of Rockton, Illinois, to remove its Indigenous mascot and racist traditions.A separate petition titled “Keep the Indian” was established in response. Thousands of students, alumni, and community members displayed their support for the high school's racialized mascot and team. Individuals had varied reasons for signing. One claimed that the “mascot honors the noble and brave fighting spirit of the Indians, one that Hononegah athletes hope to emulate,” suggesting that the high school's athletes harness the strength of the stereotyped fighting Indian, a caricature that reinforces racist notions of “s*vagery” associated with Indigenous communities.1 Another signer stated that “Hononegah and the image of the ‘Indian’ is [sic] now MY history and MY heritage,” demonstrating how through the high school, non-Indigenous individuals believe themselves to have a claim to Indigenous culture. However, these images of “Hononegah” and “the ‘Indian’” are not authentic but instead based on stereotypes. Signers cried for the school to “Keep our Indian spirit alive,” signifying that the “Indian spirit” no longer belongs to the Indigenous groups of the region. The racialized iconography and traditions operate as the community's own cultural heritage.While the petition garnered media attention, it became clear which side prevailed. The Indian head featured on the school's fieldhouse remained, and there were no signs of disbanding the Princess Hononegah tradition or rebranding the Hononegah Indians to a less racist and offensive mascot. Months later, community members continued to advocate for the mascot at school board meetings; non-Indigenous alumni still feared the loss of their imagined heritage. Several locals irately questioned the school board as to what would be done to protect Princess Hononegah. The school board assured the alumni that no changes would be made to the mascot, but one woman felt the need to emphasize her support for keeping Princess Hononegah. She explained that her brother had worked construction on a reservation out west and that while he was there, the Indigenous people living on the reservation refused to help him. She believed that Indigenous people were lazy and that the school board need not debate retaining the Indigenous mascot, either because the Indigenous community did not care—due to their supposed idleness—or because the opinions of the Indigenous people were irrelevant—due to their lack of agency.2How could an institution that prides itself on honoring Indigenous people have produced an alumna like this? If HCHS and the community of the greater Rockton area hold such admiration and pride for the region's Indigenous heritage, how could its alumni see Indigenous people as slothful? I believe the way in which the community views the original inhabitants of the region, and the way local institutions have instructed community members to view them, explains this discrepancy. By manufacturing and maintaining an “Indian spirit” for the region, and perpetuating racialized characters of Indigenous people, the greater Rockton area facilitates a community that not only feels entitled to an Indigenous heritage but also misremembers Indigenous removal. I define the greater Rockton area as comprising the citizens of Shirland, Rockton, Roscoe, and South Beloit, Illinois, as students of HCHS live in these communities, and to a lesser extent the municipalities of Rockford, Illinois, and Beloit, Wisconsin, as their community members have participated in Rockton's pageants and football games. Through the Macktown Living History site—a historic park used to memorialize Hononegah and her husband, Stephen the people of Rockton and use the land to an and of the Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi people that to remove the local in the the of Stephen a The that an Indigenous by her her Indigenous community to him. In this was a or Indigenous Hononegah of Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi was an at a by her the of Hononegah and that its was an of the local community what had and In separate the citizens of this in have a to this Indigenous I to that the in which the Rockton community to memorialize or and a continued in the of the and the of the the greater Rockton area as a community and as and the Hononegah as the community's and her Indigenous community as and the region. with and to how this community has HCHS and the Macktown historic to that of for Indigenous removal. also a of the of and Indigenous tradition that of to and to The the of the region. the to the of institutions with Indigenous living history and Indigenous people in History of Rockton were to be the in of Indians no of to local used to that he could have done the Indigenous for less it the of this a that Indigenous people were the that would be on the Rockton at Hononegah the was as and Hononegah at and the Macktown in that to such and their themselves to the in and One Rockton the of the as on the of the and their to the Hononegah a for the greater Rockton community to and their this Ho-Chunk people also Hononegah to their community's In The Rockton that a group of Ho-Chunk people were to the The did not the Ho-Chunk would Indigenous or the community's to Indigenous at the However, the of the displayed with Ho-Chunk cultural at Hononegah local the that Ho-Chunk people a the the had their The Rockton the as of and that “the were it was the non-Indigenous Rockton themselves the to honor in the region, Ho-Chunk of as and Ho-Chunk that the Rockton's of Rockton students in a South a culture of and for Rockton citizens of and Indigenous The that were in with one a dressed as “the Indian and the a as a a the of HCHS in the and pageants produced at the Rockton community imagined of and Indigenous people to how Indigenous land the of Rockton's non-Indigenous of in the of in the that in this in or for in the of and local as an to to the Indigenous played in the of In to that which could be for their how and Indigenous in the with to an Indigenous in the to to through of a Ho-Chunk to in the region. to the with Ho-Chunk for the of Ho-Chunk to and Ho-Chunk claim to of the Ho-Chunk with the with the the Potawatomi people were to as a of and the Ho-Chunk on and to their claim to the that the and that this Ho-Chunk and this of Ho-Chunk and in the region, its be on the in which the Rockton community has this of and the of its the and Hononegah with local Indigenous as to supposed to and However, and the of Indian as as the of of a with Ho-Chunk with on in the in that he was to the and the Ho-Chunk for he also to to believed that the and have in “the had it not for local Ho-Chunk people in the Ho-Chunk to not the of their that to the in the in that Indigenous a of the local Ho-Chunk people were to the the to an Stephen to the of Indian Ho-Chunk at that he to the that the Ho-Chunk to one longer in their and and for to their in the to which to to advocate for the Ho-Chunk people of the on the for the that has [sic] [sic] to the of this and people this the of Indian the could not the Ho-Chunk community to used with the Ho-Chunk people in the to the the Ho-Chunk to and he played an in Indigenous through with the Ho-Chunk the of Indigenous to advocate for the Ho-Chunk community to the of Indian the of the to the Indigenous of is in the with the of or Potawatomi the of of Ho-Chunk the with the is in which for made the of Several later, the that Hononegah, he was on to and to Indigenous has not the of one out of Indian with the of a an by to of land for In this that he for he to the Indigenous History of Rockton, a local history that on of by an Indian that to to of a of to to an in the he participated in a of Indigenous Ho-Chunk and to the of the Ho-Chunk However, the greater Rockton a image of and the Macktown that the as a historic Rockton, a for living locals while with and and Indigenous Macktown with to the community with its own at the the themselves as on the culture of and Indigenous in a I Indigenous people and at the in the of and one of these that he it to people and that like the school was by I the of the area like this there is the the to their heritage,” suggesting that the at as of the greater Rockton of the at Macktown the history of Indigenous but that it was not the of their I a dressed as an Indigenous a that he had the at Macktown that the he he was to with students that is one history and and are to and By the of the that in Stephen he had the he and to that a and what have to live in a Indigenous that played a I Stephen participated in to which he Stephen one of that to the Indians I Macktown or the as a participated in Indigenous removal. see as the of a was a and a and to the on the at but as a for people Another a Indigenous removal. 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people in the of the the of and the of racialized in the community's and football not only as but also as a way for citizens of the greater Rockton area to their own community as and the high school its land and to the Indigenous people of the region. 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