Articles
New Redskins foundation is helping tribes, but it won’t quell name controversy
ByTheresa Vargas andMike JonesMarch 25
Boyd Gourneau doesn’t care about the name of Washington’s football team. What matters to him is that after the team’s owner, Daniel Snyder, visited his South Dakota tribe in November, the girls and boys high school basketball teams received new Nike sneakers. School-age children and elderly residents, many from homes on fixed incomes, now sport brand-name coats. And a small popcorn company run by the tribe was told that it could soon expect to see its product sold at FedEx Field.
“Dan didn’t come with a bribe,” said Gourneau, the vice chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. “He came and talked with us. Talked with us about our needs and offered services after.”
On Tuesday, Snyder told fellow NFL owners at the league’s annual meeting in Florida what he announced to fans in afour-page letter the night before: The team has created a foundation to benefit Native Americans and address the many needs that he and other Redskins officials witnessed during more than two dozentrips to reservations in 20 states. Snyder also introduced Gary L. Edwards, the chief executive of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation, to fellow NFL officials and solicited their support.
Snyder declined to comment about the meeting and the charitable organization. But Edwards and team general manager Bruce Allen said the announcement was met with support from other owners.They also dismissed criticism from some Native Americans that Snyder is trying to buy favor for keeping the controversial team name at a time when thepressure to change it is unprecedented.
“I find that to be insulting,” said Edwards, a Cherokee, who retired as deputy assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service and serves as the chief executive of the National Native American Law Enforcement Association. He cited the NFL’s diversity policy, “where it talks about respect, where it talks about inclusion, where it talks about opportunities for all people in America, to all races in America, and probably one of the ones that have been left out the most is Indian Country, and Dan . . . realized, ‘Hey, we can do more.’ ”
At Snyder’s request, Edwards said, he conducted a survey of 100 reservations, asking residents about their most pressing needs. Already the foundation has provided 3,000 coats to tribal members and purchased a backhoe for a tribe in Nebraska. Forty more projects are underway, he said.
Some of the efforts will include donating Kindles and iPads to students, digging new wells on reservations that lack running water and improving the living conditions of elderly Native Americans.
Neither Allen nor Edwards would say how much money will be invested in these projects. But Allen said the foundation will have nonprofit status, so all records will be public.
Allen said the foundation was created in response to the reaction Snyder received after he wrote an emotionalletter to fans in October, explaining why he didn’t intend to change the team’s name. What followed was an outpouring of more than 7,000 letters and e-mails, including more than 200 from people who identified themselves as Native Americans or relatives of Native Americans, team officials said. All but seven of those were in support of keeping the team’s name.
In recent months, the team has sent out a series of e-mails, titled “Community Voices,” containing quotes from some of the correspondents.
“As a family who is part Cherokee and Blackfoot, we wholly support the Washington Redskins,” reads one from Elizabeth and Adam Bradshaw in Hampton, Va. “It is the name and portrayal of the Native Americans who have been through so much over the decades, we not only feel it would be wrong to change the name of the team, but would also be doing a disservice as well.”
The letters reflect the results of a 2004 Annenberg Public Policy Center poll showing that 90 percent of Native Americans were not offended by the team’s name, Redskins officials said.
But the push for change from those who describe the name as an offensive slur has grown in the past year to includecivil rights groups,religious leaders, politicians and sports commentators. ANew York tribelaunched a national radio ad campaign challenging Snyder, and the United Church of Christ is considering a resolution asking its members to boycott the team.
On Tuesday, the National Congress of American Indians issued a statement saying it is glad that Snyder is dedicating time and resources to Native American issues.
“However, this Foundation will only contribute to the problems in Indian Country if it does not also address the very real issue of how Native people are consistently stereotyped, caricaturized, and denigrated by mascot imagery and the use of the R-word slur,” the statement read. “For Mr. Snyder and the Foundation to truly support and partner with Indian Country, they must first change the name of the D.C. team and prove that the creation of this organization isn’t just a publicity stunt.”
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus, echoed those sentiments.
“For almost eighty years the National Football League and its Washington franchise have exploited a racist Indian caricature, turning it into a billion dollar brand while completely ignoring the needs of real Native American children, families, and elders,” she said in a statement. “Now, team owner Dan Snyder wants to keep profiting from his team’s racist brand and use those profits to attempt to buy the silence of Native Americans with a foundation that is equal parts public relations scheme and tax deduction.”
Gourneau said the tribe’s chairman made clear at the beginning of Snyder’s visit to the South Dakota reservation that not everyone there supported the team’s name or, like Gourneau, felt neutral about it.
“He said: ‘As for your name, we feel it’s derogatory, and I feel we can agree to disagree on that. But if we can get something going to help better the quality of life for our people here, we’re all for that,’ ” Gourneau recalled.
Gourneau said he sees the foundation as offering a needed “hand up,” not a handout. On the reservation, where about 2,500 tribal members live, families double up in homes because of scarce resources. The popcorn plant currently has seven employees, but during better times it has had as many as 24.
“The tribes that are not self-sufficient,” he said, “are the tribes that aren’t going to be around in the future.”
Granddaughter of former Redskins owner George P. Marshall condemns team’s name
Jordan Wright is the granddaughter of George Preston Marshall, who brought the professional football team to Washington in 1937 and gave the team its name.
ByTheresa VargasJuly 23
The current fight to change the name of the Washington Redskins was fueled, in part, by a symposium last year on Native American sports mascots that featured a panel of experts and drew an audience of 300. At one point, a young man who had shown up in Redskins gear tossed it to the ground in an emotional show of newfound solidarity.
All the while, listening quietly and anonymously from the crowd was the granddaughter of George Preston Marshall, who brought the professional football team to Washington in 1937 and gave the team its now controversial name.
Jordan Wright, 65, has tried to stay in the shadows as the debate around the NFL team’s name has intensified. She has quietly expressed her opinion to friends and acquaintances when asked, but she has hesitated to speak publicly on the issue.
She knows what people expect her to say: The team’s history matters. She also knows what she believes: The name needs to change.
“It’s about respect,” Wright said this week from her Alexandria home. “If even one person tells you that name, that word you used, offends them, then that’s enough. That should be enough.”
She said as much when she was asked about the name at a party several months ago by former Washington Post sports reporter Leonard Shapiro. He quoted her last week in anop-ed article about the name that ran in Leesburg Today.
Since the2013 symposium, hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, one influential entity after another has come out against the team name: President Obama, sports broadcasters, civil rights groups, Native American leaders, religious organizations, former players anda federal judge.
In May, 50 U.S. senators sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell calling for a name change, and last month,the U.S. Patent and Trademark Officecanceled six of the team’s registered trademarks, declaring the word “redskin” disparaging.
But team officials have shown no indication of budging from their embrace of the name, and on Tuesday, a team spokesman was dismissive of Wright’s comments. Team owner Daniel Snyder and those who work for him have consistently defended the name, relying mostly on two arguments. Not all, or even most, Native Americans are offended by it, they have said, pointing to a decade-old poll and supportive letters from fans with indigenous roots. They have also spoken repeatedly about the team’s history.
“Our past isn’t just where we came from — it’s who we are,”Snyder wrotein a letter to fans in October, citing the team’s name change from “Braves” to “Redskins” under Marshall. “After 81 years, the team name ‘Redskins’ continues to hold the memories and meaning of where we came from, who we are, and who we want to be in the years to come. We are Redskins Nation and we owe it to our fans and coaches and players, past and present, to preserve that heritage.”
Wright said she understands Snyder’s deep feelings for the team and the memories he has of attending games with his father as a boy. She, too, sat in the stands as a child, cheering for the burgundy and gold. She still attends games with her grandson, despite her antipathy toward the name.
“People act very surprised when they hear me talk about this,” Wright said. “They say, ‘You really feel that way? But it’s history?’ Well the team is not going away. All of their stats and all of their games are still there.”
Phil Simms, Tony Dungy unlikely to use 'Redskins' during broadcasts
ByFrank Schwab August 18, 2014 10:17 PMShutdown Corner
Two notable NFL analysts and former Super Bowl champions say they're planning to a stand against theWashington Redskins' nickname by refusing to say it on the air.
The controversy surrounding the nickname has taken on all forms, and for CBS lead analyst Phil Simms and NBC studio analyst Tony Dungy, their protest will be to avoid saying it. Simms and CBS will broadcast the Giants-Redskins game on Sept. 25.
"My very first thought is it will be Washington the whole game,'' Simmstold the Associated Press' Barry Wilner.
Dungy told the AP in an email that's his plan this season as well.
''I will personally try not to use Redskins and refer to them as Washington,'' Dungy said. ''Personal opinion for me, not the network.''
Others told the AP they wouldn't get involved in the controversy. Jim Nantz, Simms' partner on CBS' top broadcasting team, said it's ''not my job to take a stance.'' Troy Aikman, Fox's top analyst and former Cowboys quarterback, and CBS studio commentator Boomer Esiason were among those who told the AP that as long as the team's name is the Redskins they'll continue to use it.
Simms told AP he's not taking a side in the debate about whether the nickname is offensive, but he's just sensitive to the complaints. But the controversy has now forced NFL broadcasters to pick sides, simply by questioning whether they'll use the name on air or not.
Redskins launch new ‘Redskins Facts’ campaign as former players travel to reservation
ByDan SteinbergJuly 29
Amid continuing criticism of their team name, the Washington Redskins have launched a new campaign to defend the moniker, headed by popular former players who traveled to Indian country this week.
Ads for a new site,RedskinsFacts.com, have begun appearing on the web sites of Sports Illustrated, the Washington Times and The Washington Post in recent days. The group’s Web site lists a five-man steering committee of former players — Gary Clark, Chris Cooley, Mark Moseley, Ray Schoenke and Roy Jefferson.
Clark, Cooley and Moseley traveled to the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Montana on Monday and Tuesday, meeting with Chippewa-Cree tribal leaders and visiting a football practice and a rodeo session, which was sponsored by the team’s Original Americans Foundation.
Cooley — a former tight end and fan favorite who now hosts a radio show for ESPN 980, a station owned by Redskins owner Daniel Snyder — said he and other players voiced frustration with the debate over the team’s name during Moseley’s golf tournament last month. At the time, Cooley had just returned from a trip with team officials to the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana.
“It was about people wanting to [get involved] because they believe in the team they played for and are proud of the name, Cooley said by phone from Montana. “As alumni we want to be able to say we went [to reservations], we talked to people, and we understand now how to talk about it.”
Cooley said he brought the idea to team president Bruce Allen, and they put together this week’s trip, which came a few days after construction began on a reservation playground, also funded by the team’s foundation.
Dustin White, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa Indians, said the tribe filled out a survey that was sent to reservations across the country last year. At the time, he said, leaders didn’t know the Redskins were behind the survey, but he said he welcomes the partnership.
The team’s foundation has provided 150 iPads for the schools on the reservation, White said. It also sponsors a 33-member rodeo team that travels the country to compete. And the playground, White said, will serve families far removed from an urban setting. He said construction of it is expected to be completed Thursday.
“When you see these kids running up to this playground with big grins on their faces, you know it’s worth it,” White said. He called the playground not only a “huge morale boost, but a point of community pride. And it’s all thanks to the foundation.”
The playground build kicked off a week of events, according to the tribe’s Facebook page, including calf roping, steer wrestling, a “Team Redskins” basketball jamboree and a youth pow wow.
“I volunteered when all this was taking place to try to put a stop to this foolishness that’s going on around the name,” Moseley said. “There are so few people that have ever been on a reservation to see how [Native Americans] live. We should be ashamed of ourselves that we don’t try to do more to help them. I’m here for myself, and I’m here for my alumni.”
In response to the new effort, the Oneida Indian Nation and National Congress of American Indians — which have been at the forefront of the protests against the name — put out a press release on the“Top 10 Facts Omitted From D.C. Team’s New PR Website.”
Cooley said the team is funding the RedskinsFacts.com ad campaign; the former players traveled on a chartered plane to Montana.
“The alumni and the Redskins have a long history of supporting each other, and this education effort is no different,” a Redskins spokesman said in a statement. “So where it is appropriate for the alumni to pay for expenses then they will and when it is appropriate for the Redskins then the organization will. ”
White said he is aware of the controversy surrounding the name, but that it’s not an issue for him or many Native Americans.
“Whenever I’ve heard the name Redskins, I’ve never associated it with a derogatory, racist name,” he said. “It’s always been the football team. And I’m a Packers fan.”
Cooley said he has talked to more than 1,000 Native Americans on his trips without meeting a single critic of the name; Moseley and Clark also said they didn’t encounter a single dissenter this week. The RedskinsFacts.com site has publishedseveral video interviews with Native Americans who say they like the team and its name. The interviews were conducted by Cooley; more are on the way.
“I wanted to find out myself if Native Americans thought the name was racist,” Clark said.”This name that I took so much pride in, that I played for, all the sudden they were calling me, a black man, racist for saying this name….
“What the Redskins name means now is awareness for the plight some Native Americans are going through,” Clark said. “All the people saying the name is racist, I see them doing nothing to support the Native Americans whatsoever.”