Background
Philip John Yenyo was born on 1965 October 26 to parents Adeline Ramirez and John Yenyo in Cleveland, Ohio.).
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Philip Yenyo
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He is perhaps best known for being one of several prominent American Indians to spearhead the movement against the use of Native American imagery as sports mascots. Yenyo currently serves as the executive director of the state of Ohio"s chapter of the American Indian Movement. He is also co-chair for The Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance.
The latter organization serves as an indigenous-supportive, multicultural organization dedicated to bolstering the cultural human heritage rights of indigenous people who live in the northeast Ohio region.
Yenyo has dedicated a significant portion of resources to protesting the use of Chief Wahoo mascot by the Cleveland Indians. "I would like to see the name and logo changed.
Both have to go." Of the logo, Yenyo has stated, "But I think our people and others have come to realize that this caricature of our people as a red-face, smiling savage does great harm to us and our culture and has done so for many years." “This imagery, most sports teams are named after animals and they put us in that same category. We’re human beings. We’re still a living culture and we still exist.” He has also explicated on the exploitation of other items of sacred significance to American Indian.
“When we tell people that the feather is sacred to us, it’s a sacred as a Christian cross, some of them start to come around and start understanding,” he said.
“When you start to explain to people how it affects us as a people and it puts us in a category with animals, they begin to see our side."
Robert Roche, another Native American has been the subject of criticism from some members within the Cleveland Native American community. Yenyo has repeatedly launched accusations against Roche"s credibility. Yenyo has claimed that Roche has constructed a false identity, claiming to have a birth certificate which reveals that Robert Roche was really Jose Roche.
However, when asked to validate the nature of the injurious claims, Yenyo was unable to substantiate his accusations with material evidence.
Yenyo has also posted letters which attack Roche"s character. In a letter published on 27 August 1997, Yenyo, among other things, alleged that Roche "fathered a child with a 12-year-old minor and broke his commitment to care for the child." On 24 September 2014, The Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance (in which Yenyo represents in the position of a co-chair) and The Lake Erie Native American Council published a press release in which both organizations stated they did not recognize Roche as a representative of the Native American community.
Yenyo has also accused Roche of being a "convicted embezzler," a claim originating from an investigation launched by The Ohio Attorney General" General’ s Office following a 2013 anonymous complaint that alleged the American Indian Education Center mishandled the grant money it had been appropriated, and the fact Roche paid $153,00.00 in salary and benefits to himself that year, according to the tax filing.
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Quotations: “When we tell people that the feather is sacred to us, it’s a sacred as a Christian cross, some of them start to come around and start understanding,”.
