Native American Mascots

I highly doubt that any of the mascots are being used in order to honor Native Americans. It's possible, but I don't think that it is really what is going on. Most of the fans of the different universities as well as pro teams that use Native Americans as mascots would probably say the same thing. I like what Florida State is doing, how they have their mascot trained by people from the Seminole tribe, this at least brings some authenticity to the mascot. The thing that I didn't understand today about the film was that Chief Illiniwik was a made up character. He wasn't a real Indian chief. So I can understand why many Illini fans did not understand why he was offensive to Native Americans. That being said, I can also understand why Native Americans would take offense to the situation because they probably thought that the Chief's dance was a joke and a horrible misrepresentation of their culture. Besides Dave Chapelle pretending to be a caucasion, I've never really experienced someone imitating my culture. And with regards to Dave Chapelle I thought it was it was funny and didn't really take offense to it. However, there weren't any religious implications involved as there are with the Native Americans. Also I know that the names aren't meant to trivilize Native American culture, and personally I don't think it does because I don't think any different about Native Americans after seeing Chief Illini's dance. I know enough to know that that isn't a true Native American dance. However, I'm sure there are people who think it was, in that case I can understand why Native Americans take offense. But I almost wonder if they would take offense to little kids playing with cowboy and indian toys? Or if they would take offense to people dressing up as indians for halloween?