The group left behind the racist slur “redskins” as its identify and retired the emblem that was carefully tied to that identify: the profile of a Native man with lengthy hair and two feathers.
Now, a white Republican U.S. senator from Montana is reviving the controversy by blocking a invoice funding the revitalization of the decrepit RFK Stadium for the Commanders, who’ve been taking part in miles away in Maryland. Sen. Steve Daines says he’ll block the laws till the NFL and the Commanders honor the previous emblem in some type.
Daines declined Related Press requests to clarify his stance or reply to criticism from Indigenous individuals who say such efforts are rooted in racism.
Brand’s difficult historical past
The unique emblem was designed by a member of the Blackfeet Nation within the state of Montana. Some tribal members take delight in it and the legacy of the person who helped design it within the early ’70s — Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, a former Blackfeet Nation tribal chairman and former president of the Nationwide Congress of the American Indian, the nation’s oldest Native American and Alaska Native advocacy group.
Wetzel’s household says Daines and Wetzel’s son Don, who died final 12 months at 74, shaped a friendship that could be fueling the senator’s combat for the emblem.
Indian Nation is often a bipartisan subject in Congress.
Daines sits on the Senate Committee for Indian Affairs and has labored with Democratic colleagues on clean-water entry for tribal communities. He has supported the passage of a truth-and-healing fee to analyze the historical past of Indian boarding faculties, a invoice carried by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
Daines has additionally used the coverage space to take jabs on the Biden administration and was one of many fiercest opponents to the nomination of Deb Haaland, the primary Native American to run the Division of the Inside.
He accused her of being hostile to the power and natural-resource extraction industries and mentioned she would use the appointment to “negatively impact the Montana way of life.” In Could, he blocked the nomination of the lady who wished to be the primary Native American federal district court docket choose in Montana. Daines mentioned the Biden administration didn’t seek the advice of together with his workplace in regards to the nomination, a declare the White Home disputes.
Painful symbolism?
Daines mentioned in a ready assertion that he would maintain up the stadium laws till representatives of the Washington Commanders and the NFL present that they’re working with the Wetzel household and leaders of the Blackfeet Nation to discover a technique to “honor the history of the logo and heritage of our tribal nations and to rededicate the organization as an advocate for Indian Country.”
For a lot of Indigenous peoples, the workforce’s unique identify and emblem symbolize an unpleasant historical past of racial discrimination and violence, in addition to modern-day battles over moral illustration of Native People in standard tradition. The Nationwide Congress of the American Indian, the group that Walter Wetzel as soon as led, has fought since 1968 to take away mascots like that one. Quite a few psychological research have proven the dangerous impacts that Native American mascots have on youngsters.
A divided household
Based in Boston in 1932, the soccer workforce had a Native American man as its mascot, however after shifting to Washington D.C. in 1937, the emblem was modified to a spear, later an “R” adorned with two feathers.
Walter Wetzel had been working for the Division of Labor to deal with housing and employment disparities in Indian Nation and labored carefully with President John F. Kennedy, and was buddies with him and Robert Kennedy. Wetzel labored with the soccer workforce to revamp its emblem. He felt that, if the workforce was going to have a Native American-themed mascot, it ought to at the very least be a consultant picture, mentioned his grandson Ryan Wetzel.
Walter Wetzel instructed a profile of a former Blackfeet chief, John Two Weapons White Calf. A likeness of that picture could be used from the 1972 season till it was retired in 2020.
“I understand the controversy of the name, I get it,” Ryan Wetzel mentioned. “I come from a family that is divided with the name. But the logo, how can we still keep that and use that moving forward?”
Ryan Wetzel mentioned that in his ultimate years his father Don had an amputated leg however nonetheless confirmed up recurrently on Capitol Hill to search out help for preserving the emblem, and Daines took ahold of that trigger. Daines reached out to Ryan Wetzel after his father died final 12 months to see if he may assist revive the hassle to revive the emblem in a roundabout way.
A “dog-whistle”?
A spokesperson for Daines mentioned talks with the Washington Commanders on a technique to honor the Wetzel household are ongoing and productive. In his statements throughout a Could committee listening to on the RFK stadium invoice, Daines instructed that the emblem could possibly be revitalized to promote merchandise, and a portion of the earnings may go towards points just like the epidemic of lacking and murdered Indigenous girls.
However Native American advocates and researchers say use of the previous emblem is an inappropriate and dangerous path to reaching justice and fairness for Indigenous peoples. Regardless of how the picture was chosen, it can’t be separated from the racial slur it as soon as promoted, mentioned Crystal Echo Hawk, a member of the Pawnee Nation and the founder and CEO of IllumiNative, a nonprofit that works to extend the visibility of Native People. She known as the previous emblem a “dog-whistle” to the workforce’s former identify.
“The science underscores the detrimental impact these images have on Indigenous peoples,” mentioned Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, a professor of psychology on the College of Michigan and one of many nation’s main consultants on the subject.
Fryberg, who’s a member of the Tulalip Tribe in Washington State, mentioned the usage of these mascots results in heightened charges of melancholy, self-harm, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation, significantly amongst youngsters.
“The continued use of these racist images prevents Native Americans from existing and being honored within contemporary social contexts,” she mentioned.
What did the Blackfeet Nation get?
In Montana, some Blackfeet Nation council members surprise why so little of the tens of millions of {dollars} the soccer workforce generated off the picture of White Calf and designed by a former Blackfeet Nation chairman by no means made it again to the Blackfeet individuals.
A long time in the past, the soccer workforce donated a few vans to assist transport Blackfeet elders to a close-by VA facility, mentioned Blackfeet Nation Councilman Everett Armstrong, however he was unaware of another sources or revenues that had been shared with the tribe. A spokesperson for the Washington Commanders was unable to supply another examples however mentioned the workforce is in talks with the Wetzel household.
There are robust emotions in regards to the emblem and its legacy on the reservation, mentioned Armstrong. However one group feels neglected of the dialogue completely: the descendants of White Calf.
They weren’t consulted within the 1970’s about the usage of his picture and have by no means been requested about it since, mentioned Armstrong, a descendant of White Calf himself.
“They’d like a seat at the table,” he mentioned.
