The Native American Guardians Association is suing the professional football team Washington Commanders. They have been rallying for the Commanders to reinstate the Redskins name. The lawsuit states:
The logo on the Redskin’s helmet is an actual person, it’s Chief White Calf. Every time they go out on that field, they were honoring Chief White Calf and they were battling on the football field with the same honor and integrity and courage. They should continue to honor that.
Beginnings
The Washington Commanders were founded in 1932 as the “Boston Braves.” Five years later, the team moved to Washington, D.C., and has remained there since. In 1933, the team’s name was changed to the “Redskins” which remained with the team name until 2020. Then, management listened to the loudest voices, the ‘woke’ movements. The Washington Redskins deemed that being called redskins was derogatory. They fell to the loudest voices out there and changed their name.
Lawsuit
Chad LaVeglia is a representative for NAGA and said that the Commanders ignored NAGA’s demands to discuss the team name. LaVeglia said the name change
dishonored many years of Native American tradition and heritage [1].
The old Redskins logo wasn’t a generic Native American face. It was the face of Chief John two guns White Calf of the Blackfoot Indian tribe, on the side of the Washington Redskins helmet for 48 years. White Calf championed native issues in Washington, D.C., spending time with President Calvin Coolidge. Incidentally, he was the inspiration for the face that appeared on the U.S. Mint’s famous 1913 Indian head nickel. He was so famous in the United States that when he died in 1934, he received an obituary in the New York Times.
Current Times
Nowadays, there is a surge in the protection and restoration of the image of the White Calf and what he represents. High schools are keeping the redskins’ logos. They deem that the name redskins is not racist, as was told earlier in the woke movement. Billy Dieckman, one of the representatives of NAGA, summed it up,
The term Redskin is a very honorable term to me…I’m willing to fight these kinds of battles [2].
Notes:
- ^ {Commanders face lawsuit: Redskin identity in question} (go back ↩)
- ^ {Commanders face lawsuit: Redskin identity in question} (go back ↩)
