From the advent of its athletic program in 1938 until its
dissolution in 1994, the Indian was the mascot at the various
incarnations of Colorado State University-Pueblo.
The mascot obviously arose from a time in American history when
athletic mascots deriving from Native American tribes and monikers
were common. At the time of Pueblo College's origination as
an athletic program, such professional teams as the Boston Braves
(baseball), Washington Redskins (football) and the Cleveland
Indians (baseball) were in the public eye and such mascot names
weren't seen at all as controversial.
Pueblo College followed suit, not only referring to itself as
the Indians, but according to yearbooks, referring to junior
varsity teams as "the papooses", a term meaning Native American
babies, and other such terms which are seen as offensive in today's
society.
It wasn't until the American civil rights movements of the 1950s
and 1960s that athletic teams and colleges began to feel pressure
for having Native American mascots. Even the Rocky Mountain
Athletic Conference wasn't exempt, as both CSU-Pueblo and Adams
State College were known as "The Indians" until the 1990s.
By the time the NCAA began to mount pressure on schools to
change names unless there was proof of an institution's historical
connection and approval from a particular tribe (for example, the
Florida State University Seminoles), and CSU-Pueblo, with its
general "Indian" moniker, was proactive and changed its name in
1994 to the "ThunderWolves."
