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I agree with you on this one. The names should have been changed a long time ago. I know my sister went to a school that had Indians as their mascot, and she graduated in the late 1980's. It was changed in the early 90s to the Cardinals. I also remember when I was at UAF, one of the other CCHA hockey teams had Indians at their mascot. I think it may have been Miami University (mu_agd don't hesitate to correct me), but looking at the CCHA page now, none of the mascots are Native American related at all. I know it was one of teams we played, as it came up in coversation at a game with some other students. As Native Alaskans and Native Americans it bothered them and they considered making a statement with their displeasure when that team came by writing a letter to the student paper, and not coming to the game. It wouldn't have been an obnoxious protest, as that wasn't the style of these folks. However this girl said in ALL seriousness "Well we play Notre Dame, they are the fighting Irish, and that offends ME because I am Irish!!!". We knew trying to explain the differences would make her little brain explode.
Playing off that girl, I am Norwegian and having "Viking" as a mascot doesn't bother me. Why? Because we as a people haven't been exploited, decimated and almost wiped out in our own lands. My school mascot now is closely related to a Viking and since the whole situation is different, I have almost a sense of pride. There are a lot of mascots schools could let the current students and alumni choose from that could represent them individually. I know with UAF we were the "nanooks" which is a polar bear, but the Native tradition was honored since we used Nanook instead.
To be the Devil's Advocate John, how do you feel about the use of "Rebel" and the Stars and Bars for school mascots? My cousins all attended the same "south" side highschool in a town, and they are "The Rebels". A student from another school's team was offended by that and refused to play there until it changed. They ditched the Stars and Bars but they still have "Johnny Reb" as a mascot.
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