It was more than a sports logo, it was a symbol.
On Monday, the Washington NFL team announced that it would change its nickname and logo, which has been denounced as racist and dehumanizing by Native American advocates. Owner Dan Snyder had previously promised he would “never” change the name, but that was before protesters across the United States and beyond took to the streets after George Floyd died to protest systemic racism.
Amid the momentum of the Black Lives Matters movement, sponsors, including FedEx, which owns the field’s naming rights in Maryland, where the team plays and officially called for the name change this month, increased pressure on the franchise.
Change has been the operative word in tribal communities of late: The Supreme Court ruled on July 9 that a large swath of eastern Oklahoma remains a Native American reservation based on a treaty signed with the Creek Nation in the XIX century. This month, there have also been legal victories for native environmental activists in their attempts to block two major pipelines. The statues of Christopher Columbus, whose arrival in the New World announced the conquest and mass murder in the eyes of many Native Americans, have collapsed in several states.
In short, 2020 is shaping up to be a different chapter from most other American history books for Native Americans.
“I see this moment in history as a day of reckoning that Native Americans have known we have ahead of us because of what we have suffered over 20 generations of intergenerational trauma as a result of the genocide,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress. . American Indian, the oldest and largest Native American defense organization in the country.
“Right now we believe that we are finally seeing the principles on which this country is based: equality, racial and social justice,” added Sharp, who is also president of the Quinault Indian Nation in Taholah, Washington.
Of all the recent wins, dropping the name of the Washington team could be the most prominent. The name, changed from the Braves in 1933 when the team was still in Boston, had an ancient legacy by professional sports standards.
However, many Native American elders have called the nickname an insult as offensive as the N word. There is some debate over the origin of the word, which may have been used by Native Americans to describe their own people to French merchants, but newspapers showed more sinister usage in the 1860s, when the word was used in rewards offered for scalp and fur of murdered Indians. There was a market for them very similar to that of animal skins.
Unconscious or unmoved by that story, supporters of the nickname have cited a 2016 Washington Post poll that found that 9 out of 10 Native American respondents were not “bothered” by the term. Even now, many are expressing outrage on social media over the team’s decision.
But one of the most celebrated players in franchise history is not among them.
“It is a day to celebrate,” Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green told NBC News on Monday. “It is a word we would not want if the shoe were on the other foot. It is part of this tapestry of pain and action events that took place in this country for many years.”
“This is a mistake that is (being fixed) as part of America’s reconciliation, and I’m glad to be alive to see it,” said Green, who played for the team from 1983 to 2002.
During his 20-season career, Green said he was unaware of the controversy over the name. But he added that several former players had told him they could never be fans of the team because one of the original owners, George Preston Marshall, was considered a notorious racist. Under Marshall’s direction, the team had the dubious distinction of being the last NFL team to integrate a black player, which was not until 1962. Marshall was also the owner who changed the team’s name in 1933.
“We welcome the opportunity to move forward,” said Green, who currently works with Centene Corp., a healthcare company, to assess the impact of COVID-19 on racial minorities and underserved communities across the United States.
Why all this progress now? Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, historian and author of “A History of the Indigenous Peoples of the United States,” attributes the Black Lives Matter protesters to the inclusion of Native American causes.
“Right now, gratitude goes from the natives to Black Lives Matter because, from the beginning of their founding, they have also been integrated throughout their process to defend other minorities,” said Dunbar-Ortiz, a veteran activist in the Movement. American Indian from the 1970s.
“There was an uprising once Floyd’s murder allowed people’s minds to be opened. Because it really is difficult for just 2 percent of the entire population to seem to matter, let alone summon some kind of energy behind this.” .
Dunbar-Ortiz said he hoped the unprecedented momentum would continue, including serious reflection on cultural appropriation in other Native American-derived nicknames in professional and college sports, such as the Atlanta Braves of the MLB and the Cleveland Indians, the Chiefs. Kansas City NFL and NHL NHL. Chicago Blackhawks.
“None of those names are native terms. They are made up of colonial terms,” he said. “They are not honoring the natives.”
For the first time in memory, the pace of change does not fall on deaf ears.
“For us, Washington’s name change marks the beginning, the first domino to fall that will lead to the fall of many more dominoes,” said Sharp, “until we come to a country with the meaning and harm that this activity has done. inflicted in our communities for generations. “
