In her Sept. 30 letter regarding the T-Shirt produced for a St. Mary's Central High School football game, Tina Fricke said that she saw only that "the Indian represents the Mandan Braves" and that she did not see anything offensive about that.

She wondered why United Tribes Technical College officials "seem to enjoy being offended by taking things out of context."

I am amazed at the writer's lack of knowledge and understanding about other cultures.

Let's see, now. How is looking at that T-shirt and seeing my race and culture depicted as a trivial symbol of an unimportant football game "taking things out of context"?

The writer seems to assume that my culture and my race no longer exist, are part of ancient history or so trivial and unimportant that it is acceptable to use us as symbols for a sports team.

Do any of our sports teams use an Asian person for a mascot, or an African American, or a Jewish person?

If not, why is it acceptable to use Indians as mascots?

I have news for the writer.

We Indians are still here, we practice our culture and we are not symbols - not for Mandan High School nor any other sports team.

We are not mythical or deceased people, like a Saint or the Vikings; we are not animals, like the little fish mentioned by the writer; or anything other than real human beings.

And, as living, breathing human beings, neither my granddaughter, myself, nor any Indian nation of which I am aware ever gave anyone permission to use our race as symbols for football teams or any other sports teams.

Which makes me say again: The T-shirt offended me.

It offended my granddaughter.

It offended many people I know, including many non-Indians.

Why is it so hard for anyone to say "We're sorry; it won't happen again" to us as American Indians, as real people living and working in this community?

When we can come together and acknowledge who we are as human beings, of different cultures and races, and acknowledge that we are all important to this community and that we all deserve respect and dignity, maybe we can begin to see the points of view of others.

Maybe then we can learn to say "We are sorry" and work to prevent these kinds of things from happening again.

(The writer is dean of finance and business services at United Tribes Technical College. - Editor)