Are you anti-Chief or pro-Chief? Before I answered that question I decided to educate myself on the topic and saw this research paper as the perfect opportunity. What I wanted to know was when was the Chief Illiniwek introduce, what the deal is with the dance, and who and why did this anti-Chief movement start. The tradition of Chief Illiniwek was started on October 30, 1926, during a football game against the University of Pennslyvania. Raymond Dvorak, who was the Marching Illini director of the time, chose the person, Lester Leutweiler, who portrayed the first Chief Illiniwek. Lester Leutweiler, a...
logos, regalia, mascots --plus many inauthenticities--are blows to Indian pride and self-esteem since they constitute non-respect of important rituals. http://fantasia.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~jayr/NG.HTML.

Another way she protests against Chief Illiniwek is through her art and educating other about the cons- of Chief Illiniwek. The most interesting form of her protest was through her art. For example, she has drawn a caricature of Abraham Lincoln, which completely ridicules him, but she calls it a symbol of pride honoring him"since we are in the Land of Lincoln." So basically she uses it as a comparison to the way the anti-Chief supporters view the Chief.