Help, I'm being oppressed!

The mascot of the Fighting Illini (University of Illinois) is a student dressed up in native American Chieftain's garb, with a big feather headdress. He won't be attending (in costume, anyway) the NCAA final four, where Illinois face Louisville on Saturday. The reason for this?

In January, the NCAA minority issues committee asked schools that use the American Indian as a nickname to conduct a six-month self-evaluation of their relationship with the American Indian. They are due May 1.

GROOOAAAAN. Do native Americans really care about this? Does having a student dress up like one for sporting events demean people of that noble blood? There have been surveys done by Sports Illustrated and other agencies (can't link to SI from the 2002 issue, but there's a reference to it here) indicating that while Native American activists oppose the monikers of sports teams, the vast majority of Native Americans do not. But that doesn't seem to matter, as our intelectual superiors know better.

"There are an infinite number of choices for the sports culture, but the Native Americans only have one culture," Illinois professor Carol Spindel, author of the book Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy over American Indian Mascots, said Wednesday.

What?!? If I were a native American, I would be patently offended by the statement that all the different native societies that existed (and still do exist) on the continent are really only "one culture."
This is another example of "perceived" offense by certain liberal groups claiming to represent a larger body of people that they, ironically, may not really represent.