The university of chief illiniwek? Consuming “indianness” in the shadows of memorial stadium

Looking back, I remember the moment, as a graduate student many moons ago (or, perhaps, it just seems like it), going to a football game my first semester at the University of Illinois and witnessing the much talked about halftime spectacle of its “embodied mascot” (King, 2007), Chief Illiniwek, performing (fake) “traditional” war dances. It was altogether too easy to get caught up in the pomp and circumstance of the moment: swaying back and forth with fellow students and alums alike as the marching band played the traditional “Three-In-One”; experiencing the crescendo of emotion; joining in the sense of collective membership in some grand idea – school spirit, or whatnot. A sense of community prevailed throughout. At the same time, it was also really, really, unsettling, recalling the mesmerizing, unified, pride-in-nation imagery running rampant throughout Leni Riefenstahl's (2006[1936]) Olympia. And this was only the first time I had experienced the ritual performance in person.