Published by The Boston Globe
When a couple new to Needham attended the town’s annual Fourth of July parade for the first time last month, they were shocked to see Fred Muzi, retired owner of Muzi Motors, dressed in a feather headdress with his skin painted red, riding bareback on a horse.
“We enjoyed the parade a lot, but when our 4-year-old daughter turned to us and asked why that man had paint all over him, we felt really uncomfortable,’’ said Emily Rothman, who moved to Needham five months ago with her husband, Greg Banks.
Their concerns, expressed in a letter to a local newspaper and a phone call to a Native American tribal chief on Cape Cod, have renewed an on-and-off debate in town over whether the half-century parade staple should continue.
“We do know this is a tradition many people in Needham enjoy and find harmless, and it does seem like Mr. Muzi has the best intention,’’ said Rothman. “However, when people paint their skin to look like individuals of another race for entertainment purposes, it’s off base.’’
Muzi, 79, said he has been dressing up to ride in the parade every year since 1957. He said he admires Native American culture, and he bought his Indian-made costume at the Garden of the Gods National Park in Colorado Springs. “I try to be as authentic as possible,’’ Muzi said in an interview. “If the crowd didn’t like me, I certainly wouldn’t be there.’’
Muzi said he has heard complaints from townspeople in the form of letters to the local paper three times before, but he said each letter was followed by dozens defending him. The Needham Exchange Club asks him back to the parade every year, he added.
Selectman John Bulian, the board’s chairman this year, declined to comment, and said the parade is under the purview of the Exchange Club. The club’s president did not respond to phone calls requesting comment.
“Mr. Muzi has been in our parade for a long time,’’ said Cindy Chasten, an Exchange Club member who helped organize the event, but emphasized that she does not speak for the organization. “He has always been welcome in our parade and a popular guy with our crowd.’’
After this year’s parade, Rothman and Banks wrote a letter expressing their concerns to the Needham Times. The newspaper has since posted two letters on its website defending Muzi, along with a letter and an opinion column opposing his parade role.
Rothman also contacted Linda Morceau, chief of the Chappiquiddic tribe.
“There are no good reasons for someone that is not Native American to dress up as though they are Native American,’’ said Morceau, who is a substance-abuse and family counselor at Peaceful Gathering Place in Wareham. “The only group of people that are still open season for being made fun of that way are Native Americans. We need to step up and say this is offensive.’’
Morceau likened Muzi’s costume, which she says makes fun of her culture’s sacred dress, to putting on blackface.
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“If you want to honor the Native American, you bring in a Native American,’’ she said.
Muzi said he and other residents have brought up the issue with two Native Americans he knows, an Army buddy from New Mexico and a former chief of the Wampanoag tribe on Cape Cod.
Both approved of his role in the parade, and the Army buddy even offered to accompany him someday, he said.
“People just don’t understand,’’ said Carole Carroll, a resident who wrote a letter supporting Muzi. “I wouldn’t want Fred to change anything; this is what he has done for so many years.’’
Carroll, 77, said Muzi would not try to offend anyone. “Fred’s a wonderful person,’’ she said in an interview. “If these people are upset about it, they don’t have to come to the parade.’’
Before moving to Dover in the early 1990s, Muzi served on Needham’s Finance Committee and its Board of Public Welfare, and was a Town Meeting member for more than 15 years, he said.
Muzi Motors has been a fixture in Needham since the 1930s, when it was founded by his father, John. Fred took over the family business in 1956, and only recently passed the torch along to two nephews and niece, he said.
Michael Siegel, a Natick resident who worked to have his town’s school district drop Redmen as its sports mascot, said Muzi’s role represents a national problem of discrimination against Native Americans. Needham officials should put an end to it, he said in an interview.
“The fact that something is tradition doesn’t mean it’s something we want to continue,’’ said Siegel, who wrote the opinion piece on Muzi for the Needham Times. “One of the main arguments Southern states used to defend slavery was, ‘This is a tradition.’ ’’
In 2007, the Natick School Committee voted to dump the Redmen name, and the logo bearing the profile in silhouette of a Native American, and choose another town mascot. The next year, town voters approved, by a 2-1 ratio, a nonbinding ballot question asking the committee to reconsider, but its members reaffirmed their decision. However, the old name can still be seen on bumper stickers and unofficial sports gear around town.
Muzi said families look forward to his annual appearance in the parade. One year, a woman told him she remembered watching him in the celebration as a little girl and now brings her daughter.
“I’ve always admired the Indians just like I’ve been crazy about horses since I was 6 years old,’’ said Muzi. “They’ve been abused for so many years, and I think all of us are a little sad about what happened back in the 1800s."
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