Sottile '64 / My Dartmouth / Mascot

Reindeer / Caribou -- The Only Decision

	How Has This Magnificent College Icon  Escaped Dartmouth's Mascot Selection?   In fact, how has it been overlooked by every other college's  selection, for there is no known U.S. college allied by reindeer / caribou.   Why Has This Picture Been So Difficult To Achieve?   The Reigning Dartmouth Deer THE BIG GREEN BOU     . . The Reigning Dartmouth Deer THE BIG GREEN BOU   Dartmouth College       The President, Officers, Trustees, Athletic & Academic Departments, Alums, and Students plus the people and merchants in the College Community   shoulds rally around these magnificent animals!   Reindeer as mascot for   Here's why....   Equality... Beauty... Science... Strength... Endurance... Vitality     THE POWERFUL IMAGE To represent Dartmouth in science, art, sport, and individuality.   Reindeer are the very representation of Dartmouth College and every student, academic, and administrator who ever passed through The College.   Reindeer are...   An embodiment of individual strength synergized through team effort... An actual representation of current Dartmouth academic study... An opportunity for The College to greatly expand this study... And a strong, direct link to Dartmouth's cultural past... A reflecton Dartmouth's rugged and hearty image!     Reindeer, perhaps 40 years in torturous "discovery," but actually, they were here, in spirit, all along...  since 1769 when Eleazor Wheelock received a Charter from England's King George III, the reigning monarch.   Were one to create the perfect mascot from objective criteria, one would create a reindeer... and with a little poetic license for historical, positional, and trademark reasons... rename it   The "Dartmouth Reigndeer" (tm)   Reindeer, or ReignDeer, this magnificent creature is Dartmouth's proud past, present and future.    "The Reigning Dartmouth Deer" (tm)   Even nay-sayers to change agree: "It sounds established... as if it has always been."   And, from today forward, there's no reason why it cannot always be! REINDEER / CARIBOU TRAITS REFLECT DARTMOUTH EQUALITY   Reindeer and Caribou, (2 names, considered to be same species)*, are the only animals where BOTH THE MALES AND FEMALES GROW and LOSE  ANTLERS... In fact, females hold onto to their antlers longer than males to protect their young.  How powerful a symbol is this? And how representative is it that The Dartmouth mascot represent BOTH GENDERS... not just one as the moose would.   BEAUTY   Beauty may be in the eyes of the beholders, but there is no comparison between the beauty and elegance of reindeer compared to moose.  Body and head conformation, color, refinement of antlers,   STRENGH Perhaps not the tallest of deer, reindeer are nonetheless strong and fast... like 32 mph fast.  And they are tough... being used to work and haul for the northern people who use them in their work.   ENDURING   Well what can be said... If one subscribe to the Bering Straight land bridge concept, one first sees that all cervidae -- that's moose, elk, reindeer, deer and others which made the trek along with people who became Native North Amercians ( Alaskans and Continental).   VITALITY   Reindeer have been critical ingredient to both physical and economic survival to northern herdspeople for centuries.  Without reindeer, there would be no northern people as hey are known today.