By KEN IRVING
Guest Columnist
It is no secret that Native American heritage has been exploited and abused for centuries since the beginning of time.
From the moment European natives set foot at Plymouth Rock, the Native Americans have been treated unfairly. We’ve slaughtered millions and ended billions of bloodlines for our Native American counterparts.
Throughout our time in history, the relationship between Native American’s and the government has been unstable because of colonization and Manifest Destiny. These concepts doomed the natives.
While the growing population in America grew, they wanted to expand westward. Treaties were signed, but the government repeatedly went back on their word. They needed land and looked at the Native American’s as inferior beings, but you can’t completely blame the Europeans.
They lived during a different time than us. Heroes in their time are criminals in ours. It’s unfair to judge the generation of yesterday by today’s standards.
Okay, so how does this tie into sports? Well in 1933 the Boston Braves changed their name to the Redskins in an honor to their Indian coach at the time.
Their brand was already among a Native American theme, and they thought the name Redskins was fitting.
As I said earlier, it is unfair to judge decisions made yesterday with today’s standard. The term “Redskin” today may be racist and prejudice, however it wasn’t created in that light.
The term “Redskin” and “whites” were not what people labeled themselves until slave owners began to make distinctions between them and slaves.
Just because the term Redskin wasn’t racist at first, does that make it acceptable? Absolutely not. It is ignorant to ignore a term that degrades a kind just because of its origins.
With that being said, in 2020 the Washington Redskins changed their name due to economic pressure from sponsors. The Cleveland Indians also followed suit in changing their name and mascot from Chief Wahoo.
Within a few years, major sports clubs began renovating their names and traditions: but is renaming and rebranding really a good thing?
The Washington Redskins revenue was $545 million, and the Cleveland Indians revenue was $268 million. Millions of people tune in to watch those teams play. The Redskins even made it and won the Superbowl at one time.
What better way can you showcase the Native American tradition than at the pinnacle of sports?
The Native American tradition in those clubs was on display for the world to see. You would think this would be prideful for those Indians, however you would be wrong.
Every Sunday when the Redskins played, and every day when the Indians played, fans from all around would prance around and participate in Indian traditions while men wore Indian logos on their uniforms.
The only thing is, these traditions are fake and are a mockery of the actual Indian traditions. These clubs use the Indian name, image and likeness and don’t even have the decency to use the correct Indian traditions.
Native American groups and progressive parties made it their mission to rebrand these professional sports team identity’s– now what? Do they stop there? What about the hundreds of thousands of high schools that use the Native American brand?
Are they going to make them stop using the logos and traditions as well? Or was this whole thing just a sham for money and to attack the “big corporations”?
My problem is if they’re going to complain that Native American traditions are being devalued and are offensive than why stop fighting for their rights?
They’ve already brought down the big dogs so why not continue the mission? Is it that they “got the job done” or do they not really care about Native American problems at all.
Plenty of high schools around the country use the Indian logo and traditions in the same way the NFL and MLB did yet you don’t hear about them being sued or court cases on them.
Yes, it’s a fact the MLB and NFL make a vastly more amount than a high school, however it’s under the same principles. If you’re going to attack one, you must attack all.
I believe that some of these organizations are filled with fake progressives. I don’t believe that these organizations really care about the causes they fight for because if they did, they would see what the real solution is.
The real solution is to allow teams to use the Native American image and likeness, BUT they must abide by the real traditions and donate to the tribes.
Major sport leagues make too much money to not donate to reservations. We can learn so much from the Indians instead of distancing away from their culture.
If the Native American’s think it’s insulting that people mock their traditions like that than we should listen to them, but I think removing their image and likeness from sports all together is wrong and not beneficial at all.
If we kept their image and likeness but used their customs correctly and gave back to their reservations, then I think it could be a win win for both sides.
They could help us understand and learn more about the Native American heritage.
Think about the next generation. If there are no sports teams having the likeness of the Indians than won’t the Indian culture die out?
Why don’t we just come together and attempt to understand the Indians instead of getting rid. Has history not taught us anything?
Any school with an Indian mascot and logo should be taught about those Indians. Anytime we disagree or have a problem with something we just want to get rid of it.
As we fade the Indian name and likeness, future generations will never learn about why their school is named after the Indians or who the Indians are.
Don’t you think being progressive towards removing their image and likeness is doing more harm than good now? Why dismantle something when we can learn from it instead?
I say we leave it up to the Native Americans to decide if they want their name and likeness used.
We should allow them to teach their culture to us. After all, haven’t we buried and mocked the Indian tradition enough?
