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A Ciesla Foundation Film

Native American mascoting contributes to the ongoing bastardization of the history of Indigenous People.

Imagining the Indian

Currently in production, Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting is a feature-length documentary that examines the issues surrounding the use of Native American names, logos, and mascots in the world of sports and beyond. The film details the words, images, and gestures many Native people and their allies find offensive and explores their origin and proliferation. Imagining the Indian delves into the history of Native peoples, the impact that stereotyping and marginalization have, and chronicles the momentum of the social movement to eliminate mascoting.

As many schools, teams, and institutions choose to make the change and others meet with continued resistance, The Ciesla Foundation invites you to engage with the film and consider the important subjects it addresses.

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Informed

Breaking News

Land O’Lakes removes American Indian illustration from its packaging

4/16/2020

After over 90 years, Land-O-Lakes removes its American Indian woman mascot from its packaging.

Read More

A Twitter List by ImaginingIndian

"Mascots, stereotypes of Native people lower the self-esteem of Native youth."

Amanda Blackhorse (Diné)

"This country doesn’t do anything voluntarily in terms of granting human rights. It comes through movements."

Prof. James Riding In (Pawnee)

"The Original Sin occurred the minute Europe touched Native shores in North America and South America."

W. Richard West, Jr. (Southern Cheyenne)

"Mascots, stereotypes of Native people lower the self-esteem of Native youth."

Amanda Blackhorse (Diné)

"This country doesn’t do anything voluntarily in terms of granting human rights. It comes through movements."

Prof. James Riding In (Pawnee)

"The Original Sin occurred the minute Europe touched Native shores in North America and South America."

W. Richard West, Jr. (Southern Cheyenne)

"Mascots, stereotypes of Native people lower the self-esteem of Native youth."

Amanda Blackhorse (Diné)

“It’s time for a reckoning.”

“This is an important subject and an important film.”

“Racial slurs shouldn’t be a regular part of everyday conversations, let alone cherished and institutionalized. It’s time for sports fans to open their eyes.”

Tribal Council

Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation
Northern California

Committed to
Our Mission

Our goal is to raise awareness of the issue of Native American Mascoting, expand the understanding, and appreciation, of Native American culture, and empower a movement towards widespread social sensitivity.

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Meet Our Supporters

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We appreciate your shared committment to ensuring this message reaches the masses.

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Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation

Lead Executive Producer | Website

Aviva Kempner

Director & Producer | View Bio

Ben West

Director & Producer | View Bio

Sam Bardley

Producer | View Bio

Kevin Blackistone

Producer | View Bio

Barbara Ballow

Editor | View Bio

Yancey Burns

Associate Producer | View Bio

Contact the Filmmakers

Expand your image of the Native American!

The Ciesla Foundation

Imagining the Indian is produced by The Ciesla Foundation. For forty years, Ciesla has produced documentaries that investigate non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and celebrate the untold stories of Jewish heroes. Imagining the Indian will further Ciesla’s mission of bringing important stories to the forefront, this time focusing on the movement to eliminate Native American mascoting.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Ciesla Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public, tax-exempt educational organization. Ciesla was founded in 1979 by filmmaker Aviva Kempner, who serves as the executive director. Ciesla’s films have received numerous honors and awards including top honors from the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, a George Peabody Award, and the CINE Golden Eagle Award.

Visit CieslaFoundation.org

Ciesla Foundation Films

The Spy Behind Home Plate (2019)

Rosenwald (2015)

Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2005)

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998)

Partisans of Vilna (1986)

© The Ciesla Foundation 2020

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Press Kit Contents

Click on the image to download a high-resolution version.

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Arizona to Rally Against Native American Mascots in Phoenix, AZ

Marshall McKay and Director Aviva Kempner in Los Angeles, CA

Duke Harjo, Jr. with Producer Sam Bardley in Washington, DC

Producer Kevin Blackistone and Director Ben West with Yocha Dehe at California Native American Day in Sacramento, CA

Amanda Blackhorse and Prof. James Riding In in Phoenix AZ

Dr. Amy West, Director Ben West, and Rick West in Los Angeles, CA

Congresswoman Debra Haaland in Washington, DC

Logo & Title

Amanda Blackhorse at the Arizona to Rally Against Native American Mascots in Phoenix, AZ

Producer Kevin Blackistone, Mary Kathryn Nagle, and Director Aviva Kempner in Washington, DC

Bronson Koenig and Director Ben West in Washington, DC

Logo, Title & Subtitle

Dr. Joely Proudfit in Los Angeles, CA

Congressman Jamie Raskin and Director Aviva Kampner in Washington, DC

Kevin Gover, Director Ben West, and Director Aviva Kempner at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC

Director Ben West at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC

Arizona to Rally Against Native American Mascots

Prof. James Riding in Phoenix, AZ

Kevin Gover and Directors Ben West and Aviva Kempner at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC

Congresswoman Debra Haaland in Washington, DC

Duke Harjo with Producer Sam Bardley in Washington, DC

Mary Kathryn-Nagle with Director Aviva Kempner and Producer Kevin Blackistone in Washington, DC

Congressman Jamie Raskin with Director Aviva Kempner in Washington, DC

Amanda Blackhorse in Phoenix, AZ

Producer Kevin Blackistone and Director Ben West with Yocha Dehe at California Native American Day in Sacramento, CA

Amanda Blackhorse in Phoenix, AZ

Amy West, and Richard West in Los Angeles, CA

Amanda Blackhorse and Prof. James Riding in Phoenix, AZ

Marshall McKay in Los Angeles, CA

Bronson Koenig, and Director Ben West in Washington, DC

Directors Ben West and Aviva Kempner at the Inaugural Indigenous Filmmakers Lounge in Park City, UT

Director Ben West at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC

Arizona to Rally Against Native American Mascots

Prof. James Riding in Phoenix, AZ

Kevin Gover and Directors Ben West and Aviva Kempner at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC

Congresswoman Debra Haaland in Washington, DC

Duke Harjo with Producer Sam Bardley in Washington, DC

Mary Kathryn-Nagle with Director Aviva Kempner and Producer Kevin Blackistone in Washington, DC

Congressman Jamie Raskin with Director Aviva Kempner in Washington, DC

Amanda Blackhorse in Phoenix, AZ

Producer Kevin Blackistone and Director Ben West with Yocha Dehe at California Native American Day in Sacramento, CA

Amanda Blackhorse in Phoenix, AZ

Amy West, and Richard West in Los Angeles, CA

Amanda Blackhorse and Prof. James Riding in Phoenix, AZ

Marshall McKay in Los Angeles, CA

Bronson Koenig, and Director Ben West in Washington, DC

Directors Ben West and Aviva Kempner at the Inaugural Indigenous Filmmakers Lounge in Park City, UT

We Appreciate Your Support!

Thank you to all those that have made a contribution to the film.

Lead Executive Producer

Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation

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Your Support Counts

The Ciesla Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Show your support for Imagining the Indian by sending a contribution today. As a donor, you will be listed on the film’s website. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the full extent permitted by law.

Thank you!

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Let’s Work Together

Interested in supporting at a partnership level? Please contact The Ciesla Foundation directly at 202.244.1347 or akempner@aol.com to discuss partnership opportunities.

Contributors of $10,000 or more will be listed in the film credits.

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Aviva Kempner

Director | Producer

A Washington, D.C.-based filmmaker, creates successful and critically acclaimed documentaries about under-known Jewish heroes and social justice. In 2019, she premiered her fifth commercially-released film, The Spy Behind Home Plate. Her other films include Rosenwald, a documentary about how Chicago businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald partnered with Booker T. Washington in establishing over 5,000 schools for African Americans in the Jim Crow South; Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, about Gertrude Berg, who created the first television sitcom; and the Emmy-nominated and Peabody-awarded The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, about the Hall of Famer who faced anti-Semitism during the ’30s. Both Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, and Hank Greenberg grossed over a million dollars at the box office and are highly ranked, along with Rosenwald, on Rotten Tomatoes. She also produced the award-winning documentary Partisans of Vilna, about Jews fighting the Nazis.

Kempner also co-wrote and is co-producing the dramatic script Casuse with fellow Imagining the Indian producer Ben West. The project is about the Navajo activist Larry Casuse, who Kempner knew while a VISTA volunteer in New Mexico in the early ’70s. While attending the Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., Kempner interned at the Office of the Solicitor at the Department of Interior’s Indian Affairs. Upon graduation, she worked at the National Tribal Chairman’s Association and the National Conference of American Indians. Kempner graduated from the University of Michigan in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and in 1971 earned her master’s in urban planning. In 1976, she earned her law degree from the Antioch School of Law.

Ben West (Cheyenne)

Director | Producer

A freelance writer, producer, director, and consultant with the Ciesla Foundation. He spent many years in television production at Carsey-Werner Mandabach LLC and has worked on feature films for companies like Telenova Productions, and outlets such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. He is currently developing content for television and film. In addition to his endeavors in entertainment, he is Southern Cheyenne and an advocate for Native American rights. West was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California.

img-sam-bradley

Sam Bardley

Producer

A documentary filmmaker with a passionate interest in telling stories rooted in his home of Washington, D.C. He was a writer and producer for the Emmy-nominated film Without Bias, which was included in ESPN’s inaugural 30 for 30 documentary series. He has assisted the development of projects for TV One and BET, including the true-crime documentary series American Gangster, as well as written, produced, and directed several short films and college-level educational videos. Bardley is a graduate of Howard University and Boston University’s Center for Digital Arts.

Kevin Blackistone

Producer

A longtime national sports columnist now at The Washington Post, a panelist on ESPN’s Around the Horn, a contributor to National Public Radio and co-author of A Gift for Ron, a memoir by former NFL star Everson Walls published in November 2009 about his kidney donation to one-time teammate Ron Springs.

Blackistone has covered the Olympics, Super Bowl, Wimbledon, the World Cup, the Tour de France, the British Open, the NBA Finals, Final Four, national college football championship, NFL playoffs, Major League Baseball playoffs, world championship boxing matches and other events on multiple occasions.

Prior to its last issue in 2000, Blackistone also wrote the sports column at Emerge, a monthly review of politics and culture that Time magazine hailed as an “uncompromising voice that made [it] the nation’s best Black news magazine.”

Blackistone is a recipient of numerous awards, including awards for sports column writing from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors, for investigative reporting from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and for enterprise reporting from the National Association of Black Journalists. He was a Martin Luther King Fellow at Boston University as a graduate student.

He has authored academic journal articles on diversity in sports media and hagiography in sports film documentary. He was a visiting lecturer at Beijing Sport University in the summer of 2014.

Blackistone is currently a Professor of Practice at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.

Barbara Ballow

Editor

An Emmy award-winning editor who has been telling compelling stories for over thirty years. She has edited films and videos on topics as diverse as tango dancing to PTSD. Her films have appeared in movie theatres, on network television, cable television, streaming platforms, and in film festivals around the world. Her current films explored the life of baseball player and spy Moe Berg, the legacy of Justice John Marshall, the Right to Die Movement, oil spills, and autism.

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Yancey Burns

Associate Producer

A 2019 graduate of the George Washington University Documentary Film Center, he wrote and directed the award-winning documentary short One Fall, which explores the return of independent professional wrestling to the District of Columbia. Prior to filmmaking, he was a practicing attorney, most recently with the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability, where he prosecuted ethical misconduct in the DC government. He also owns and manages his family farm in Lincoln County, West Virginia, which produces 100% grass-fed Hereford beef. Burns holds a BS in Journalism from West Virginia University, a JD from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, and is currently pursuing an MA in Strategic Communication at the GWU School of Media and Public Affairs.