But they can't get rid of that Mayhem guy...

I have known Mia for many years.  I used to pick her up and stamp a price on her side and put her on a shelf in the dairy department, all without knowing her name!

Really! Did you know that the Native American woman on the Land O'Lakes packages even had a name? I didn't, until I read last week that the dairy company, which sold $14 Billion-With-a-B worth of butters, cheese and I don't know what-all else last year has decided that Mia's image will no longer be on their packages.

The Garvey "Supreme"
 price
stamper

Note to our younger readers: I worked at a grocery store. Back in the day, before bar code scanners, someone actually had to stamp prices on merchandise or people would have been all day in the checkout lines.


She had been there since the late 1920s, but now she is gone, joining the Geico Caveman, the Ty-D-Bowl man and the Noid pizza guy in commercial oblivion.

New L O' L (lol) packages will still show a lake and trees, that whole Garrison Keillor-Lake-Wobegon Minnesota image, but without the culturally inappropriate kneeling woman.

“We’ve recognized we need packaging that reflects the foundation and heart of our company culture — and nothing does that better than our farmer-owners whose milk is used to produce Land O’Lakes’ dairy products,” said Beth Ford, President and CEO of Land O’Lakes.

The first image of Mia came along in 1928, designed by illustrator Arthur C. Hanson for the advertising firm Brown and Bigelow. And it's interesting to note, as Vin Scully used to say, that the man who drew the updated image of her in the 50s was himself Native American. His name was Patrick DesJarlait, and he was of the Ojibwe tribe. He created the new look to foster “a sense of Indian pride,” according to the Minnesota Reformer news site.

Mr DesJarlait is not longer with us, but his son, Robert DesJarlait, told the Reformer that the "butter maiden" became a “paradox” for Native Americans over the years.

"Back in the ’50s, nobody even thought about stereotypical imagery. Today it’s a stereotype, but it’s also a source of cultural pride,” DesJarlait said.

Land O' Lakes is a cooperative, owned by the farmers whose herds produce the milk for the butter, etc. Beth Ford said their products needed packaging that reflects "the foundation and heart of the company's culture."

You can be sure that for every person cheering this as long overdue, there will be someone crying about how political correctness is ruining the country. But what some call political correctness is an effort to stop humiliating and hurting other people, so put me down on their side.

And pass the butter!