Sterling HolyWhiteMountain is a fiction writer and essayist. He currently lives on the Blackfeet Reservation, and directs the writing center at Blackfeet Community College.When I think about the Cleveland Indians I think about growing up on the Blackfeet Reservation in northwest Montana. I think about going out with my friends in the summer evenings to hit softballs and, when there werent too many cars parked nearby, baseballs. And I think about a hat I wore all the time, sprung from that common mid-90s mold, with a huge, grinning Wahoo stretched across the front. I was as much an Indians fan as you can be in a state where baseball isnt a thing, on a reservation where basketball is the only thing, at a time when professional sports on TV were not easily accessible.Though I cant say for sure, my identification with the team was probably twofold. I had some sense that I was an Indian, in particular Blackfeet, and the goofy iconography and name were familiar. The name of our high school basketball team is simply the Browning Indians. Kids on this reservation, like kids on many reservations, grow up hearing older people refer to themselves as Indians, though it is becoming more common now for people to refer to themselves by their respective tribal names, in their respective languages, those indigenous languages that precede the arrival of English in North America by millennia. And Wahoo-like imagery is still not uncommon in Indian Country, though it is typically used for humorous or ironic purposes -- our way of turning the stereotype on its red face.For many reservation people, the truth of the Wahoo image has been slow to arrive. Even if we have difficulty admitting it, were aware that Indian people come in all shapes, sizes, colors and attitudes. Although Wahoo is based on a degrading stereotype stemming from a time when America was trying to destroy American Indian people while simultaneously mocking and romanticizing us, it is difficult for that stereotype to take hold in a place where 99 percent of the people are Indian. Like people in any dynamic community, we see each other every day (for better and for worse). There is a palpable distance between the falsehood of the stereotype and our lived experience; Wahoo is overcome by the reality of real Indians, with real names, real hungers, real loves and real problems. Yet reservation Indians live with the difficulties of the noble-savage stereotype each time we cross the boundary lines of our respective homelands and enter that other world called America. We deal with the difficulty of overwhelming American ignorance regarding Indian people -- something Indians who live off-reservation deal with every day.These issues of stereotype are, however, familiar by now, and it has been the great failure of the Indian-mascot debate to connect the issue to something other than racism and the self-esteem of individual Indian people. What remains unaddressed is the true history of Indian Country, which is to say the true history of the United States: a story of abrogated treaties, of tribal sovereignty limited by Congressional law and of specious Supreme Court decisions, all of which have either hampered or destroyed the ability of tribal people to govern themselves as political sovereigns on their own land. It is this history that created a set of systems that keep tribal nations locked in a suffocating political and economic limbo. American Indians are not minorities in any traditional sense. We are the descendants of the original majority, citizens of over 500 distinct tribes, and holders of special legal and political status resulting from the treaties we signed with the U.S. government, the same government that broke every one of those agreements.Right now, while the Cleveland Indians have a chance to win their first World Series since 1948, the most significant American Indian protest of the last 40 years is taking place just north of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. At Sacred Stone Camp, hundreds and sometimes thousands of people have been camped for months, protesting an oil pipeline whose route crosses land taken from the Lakota people by Congress, a violation of an 1868 treaty between the Sioux and the United States. More than a hundred peaceful protesters have been arrested in the last week alone, and, as construction has brought the pipeline nearer to the Missouri River, neither side has shown any sign of backing down.It is a strange thing to consider, that while the Cleveland Indians play a baseball game televised to millions of elated fans, all of whom will see the Indians egregious mascot paraded across their TV screens, real Indians will be standing in the way of a pipeline that could endanger not only the water supply of multiple reservations, but also the lower halves of both the Missouri and Mississippi River ecosystems. These latter Indians are the ones I know. The ones who assert their sovereign rights even when those rights are not recognized. The ones who travel from all over the country to support a particular tribes cause because, though we are all distinct peoples, we are nonetheless all in this together. The ones who will laugh, as we American Indians tend to do, even in the darkest of circumstances.Because I cannot be in North Dakota this week, I will undertake my own lesser protest action, that of bearing witness to the World Series. I will bear witness to how far we havent come since the time of broken treaties. I will bear witness to the distance between here and a future when tribal nations can govern themselves without U.S. federal oversight. I will bear witness to Wahoo, who is not merely a symbol of disrespect, but one that reminds Americans and American Indians alike how the United States has failed to honor its agreements with tribal people.And while I watch this Series, my nieces and nephews will surely be around, because they are always around, doing what little kids do. Each one of them beautiful, each one of them Blackfeet, each one of them nothing like Indians are supposed to look. I will watch this Series for them, because, despite the resurgence of Wahoo imagery, it will not always be this way. Someday, when there is less money to be made, Cleveland will come to its senses. Its so-called chief will fade into Native American studies classrooms and Internet searches, and all of us will be better for the loss. I will watch this Series because I want to tell these kids, when theyre old enough to understand, that once there was a World Series played when the most racist mascot imaginable was everywhere you looked, while at the same time Indians, real ones, were being illegally arrested in another state, peacefully protesting a pipeline that endangered millions of Americans. I will tell them that, despite all of those things being past, the history that made them lives on -- and they will fight that history for the rest of their lives. 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Everton manager Roberto Martinez says that keeping Baines at the club is a "massive boost and exciting for the future" because he brings "maturity and football knowledge in a very specialized position on the pitch" and an "infectious and positive influence to the rest of the squad. DURHAM, N.C. -- Grayson Allen scored all 21 of his points in the first half, and No. 6 Duke beat Appalachian State 93-58 on Saturday.Luke Kennard added 18 points and Amile Jefferson and Frank Jackson each finished with 15 for the Blue Devils (6-1).They will bring a four-game winning streak into their visit from No. 24 Michigan State on Tuesday night.Kelvin Robinson scored 12 points for the Mountaineers (2-3), who average 89 points but for the first time were held to fewer than 70.Allen, who has been playing through a right foot injury suffered in last weeks loss to No. 5 Kansas, appeared to tweak that foot or ankle when he went down while going for a rebound with about 12 minutes to play and Duke leading by 35. He stayed on the bench for the rest of the game.NO. 7 VIRGINIA 63, PROVIDENCE 52NICEVILLE, Fla. -- London Perrantes and Darius Thompson scored 11 points each and Virginia beat Providence to win the Emerald Coast Classic on Saturday night.Virginia (6-0) entered the game leading the nation in scoring defense, giving up only 39.2 points per game. Providence (4-2) topped the season-high 51 that UNC Greensboro scored against the Cavaliers, but had trouble penetrating the tight defense that denies post touches and forces contested jumpers.Mamadi Diakite added 10 points for Virginia.Jalen Lindsey led Providence with 18 points. Rodney Bullock added 16.NO. 9 XAVIER 64, NORTHERN IOWA 42CINCINNATI -- J.P. Macura scored 18 points, and Xaviers defense dug in during a dominant first half.Xavier (6-0) completely controlled a rematch of teams playing for the second time in six days. The Musketeers beat Northern Iowa 67-59 for championship of Tire Pros Invitational in Orlando last Sunday.The Musketeers looked very comfortable in their second go-round against the Panthers (3-2). Northern Iowa had trouble finding open shots while Xavier raced ahead 30-10, going 4 of 13 from the field with seven turnovers. The Musketeers led 35-12 at halftime -- the fewest points they had allowed in any half for 34 years.Xavier pushed the lead to 26 points early in the second half and was never threatened. Jeremy Morgan scored 14 points -- all in the second half -- for Northern Iowa.NO. 12 CREIGHTON 82, LOYOLA, MD. 52OMAHA, Neb. -- Justin Patton made all eight of his shots and scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, and Creighton shot 74 percent after halftime.The Bluejays (6-0) couldnt shake the Greyhounds (2-4) in the first half, shooting 36.7 percent while getting out to a 30-25 lead. They opened the second half making 17 of 22 shots during a 36-15 rrun to create a 66-40 bulge.ddddddddddddTheir superior size and athleticism became apparent as the Greyhounds wore down. The 7-foot Patton dunked three times and Marcus Foster once during the decisive run.Foster had 16 points and Khyri Thomas and Martin Krampelj added 10 apiece for the Bluejays, who were coming off their championship in the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands.Jarred Jones led Loyola with 13 points and Andre Walker added 12 points and five assists.NO. 17 PURDUE 79, NJIT 68WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Caleb Swanigan had 22 points and 13 rebounds, and freshman guard Carsen Edwards added 19 points for Purdue.Swanigan was a perfect 6 of 6 from the field and 10 of 10 from the free throw line, and Edwards scored 15 second-half points to help Purdue (5-1) pull away from a 37-34 halftime lead.Damon Lynn had 20 of his 33 points in the second half for NJIT (3-4), which also got 12 points from Chris Jenkins.The momentum swung completely in Purdues favor with 9:12 remaining when Rob Ukawuba fouled Swanigan and also was whistled for a technical foul. Swanigan made four consecutive free throws for a 61-47 lead.SOUTH CAROLINA 64, NO. 18 SYRACUSE 50NEW YORK -- Sindarius Thornwell scored 16 points and South Carolina never trailed in its victory in the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational at Barclays Center.Thornwell shot 3 of 6 from the field and made 9 of 10 free throws. He also had six rebounds, five assists, three steals and was named the MVP of the Invitational.Mike Kotsar also had 16 points for South Carolina (6-0), which shot 45 percent (23 of 51). PJ Dozier added 15 and 10 rebounds for the Gamecocks, who gave up 12 of the first 18 rebounds but finished with a 37-30 margin on the glass.Tyler Lydon led the Orange (4-1) with a season-high 18 points. Andrew White III and Frank Howard added 10 points apiece.NO. 25 MICHIGAN 64, MOUNT ST. MARYS 47ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Zak Irvin scored 14 points, Derrick Walton added 12 and Michigan pulled away late in the first half against Mount St. Marys.Moe Wagner added 13 points to help the Wolverines (5-1) bounce back from a 15-point loss at South Carolina on Wednesday. Junior Robinson led the Mountaineers (1-6) with 21 points.Michigan went on an 18-2 run in the first half and led 33-16 at halftime. Mount St. Marys pulled within eight with 4:46 remaining in the game. Irvin responded with a midrange jumper, and the Wolverines were able to close out the game comfortably. ' ' '