The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Radio host suggests Indian teams have separate tournament. Listeners want him fired.

February 22, 2017 at 11:09 p.m. EST
(Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press)

The head of the Montana High School Association issued a statement Wednesday proclaiming his body’s principles of “inclusion, opportunity and tolerance” in response to a Billings radio personality’s suggestion that a separate basketball tournament be held for Indian teams. Paul Mushaben of KCTR claimed that “unruly” crowds supporting some of those squads had created unsafe situations.

Mushaben pointed to “another instance this week,” although he did not provide specifics in a Tuesday post to his station’s website that was later removed. Mushaben wrote that an “Indian team involved in a tournament left people re-thinking if it’s worth it or not to host a tourney.”

“The crowd is so unruly and disrespectful of the facility that it may be time for the MHSA to proceed with an all Indian tourney,” he wrote, claiming that conditions at tournament games featuring Native American squads were “not safe anymore.”

“Enough is enough and it’s the kids that suffer,” Mushaben added.

In response to a Facebook user’s question about why the post was taken down, WCTR replied, “Because we do not promote racism in any form whatsoever.” The station offered an apology and said that “this is being dealt with,” although Mushaben continued to co-host his morning show on Wednesday. An executive with KCTR did not immediately reply to The Post’s request for comment.

“The MHSA has not received any concerns from the tournament managers of the recently held district tournaments on crowd issues from this past weekend,” the league’s executive director, Mark Beckman, said in a statement provided to the Billings Gazette. “The MHSA will not exclude or discriminate against any participants or their fans, and further is concerned with the intolerance expressed through certain online postings and social media.”

“A lot of this stuff, I think, is a bit of urban legend,” said Gerald Chouinard, a public schools superintendent for Lame Deer, Mont., which includes the headquarters of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Chouinard added to the Gazette, “But to say that nothing’s ever happened between schools — those are rivalries.”

The description of fans of an Indian high school basketball team as “unruly” was also used earlier this month by an official with an Arizona school, American Leadership Academy. Native American fans from visiting Globe, a high school located near the San Carlos Apache and Fort Apache reservations, had complained that they were told to move from their seats, in an incident that involved the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

The Globe fans said “they were hearing racist comments from ALA’s fans,” Academy’s executive director, Tommy Roberts, told the Arizona Republic. “Our athletic director asked who was making the racist comments so he could have them removed, but the Globe fans were unable to point out who it was. As tensions continued to rise, our athletic director made the decision to call the police before things got out of hand.”

“As it turns out, those fans were Native American, but they were singled out for their behavior, not for their race,” Roberts added.

The academy “said there were unruly fans — there was nobody unruly. It makes them look good and there was nowhere near that,” Chasity Fall, the mother of a Globe player told the Republic. She said she heard people at the gym hurling racial comments toward a black player, as well as saying, “Go back to the reservation and use your stamps.”

“It seems that the majority of the problems occur when Native Americans play,” Mushaben told the Gazette. The newspaper reported that he compared the situation to gang violence in cities such as Chicago, which he said “comes basically from the African American community.”

“At what point should we get fired? Due to how some people construed Paul’s blog from yesterday, we had people saying he (or we) should be fired,” Mark Wilson, Mushaben’s co-host on KCTR’s “Breakfast Flakes,” wrote in a post Wednesday at the station’s website. “Are broadcasters held to a different standard just because we’re easily accessible? And do you realize what you are doing if you are trying to get somebody fired?! You’re taking away their ability to put a roof over their families head. To put food on their table.

“That’s a pretty severe punishment over what is essentially a difference of opinion.”

A link to Wilson’s post on KCTR’s Facebook page sparked a lively discussion. “When ‘difference of opinion’ basically calls for segregation of high school sports, then yes, he should no longer be allowed to speak on a radio station where he can spread his ignorance further,” one user wrote.

“No, he should not be fired. Especially because what he said is true. And I’m native,” another user wrote. “I remember growing up and watching basketball games and how certain teams would be very aggressive and trash the place. Should they have their own tournaments? No. But they should be kicked out of the tournaments if they can’t behave like respectful humans.”

“I think having a segregated tournament — I don’t think that’s the right route,” Sam Bruner, a schools superintendent on the Crow Indian Reservation in Pryor, Mont., told the Gazette. “I don’t know what it would accomplish other than it would cause more division.”