July 21 (Reuters)
Native Americans are split on Donald Trump’s proposal to bring back the Redskins name to Washington. The Commanders have become a team with an impressive roster and a coach who is unafraid of the spotlight. The United States has worked hard to rectify the mistakes of the past. The Washington Commanders were the subject of massive controversy when the pressure from the fans pushed the team to change the name from the Redskins to the Commanders. Now, Donald Trump has made some troubling statements that could roll back the progress the team and the state have made.
Native American organizations push back against Trump’s proposal
Two Native American groups on Monday condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to block a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., unless the local NFL team restores its old and controversial Redskins name. In Sunday posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump said there was “a big clamoring” for the team, which has been called the Commanders since 2022, to revert to its former name and that “our great Indian people” want it to happen.
Trump also urged Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, who changed their name from Indians in 2021, to follow suit. But some Native American groups slammed Trump for pushing for a return to what they called harmful names.
“These mascots and names do not honor Native Peoples — they reduce us to caricatures,” the Association on American Indian Affairs said in a statement. “Our diverse Peoples and cultures are not relics of the past or mascots for entertainment.” Native Nations are sovereign, contemporary cultures who deserve respect and self-determination, not misrepresentation.”
The Commanders have been doing their best to bring the fans together
After decades of criticism that the name was a racial slur, the Washington NFL team in July 2020 retired the Redskins name and logo — featuring the profile of a red-faced Native American with feathers in his hair — that had been in place since 1933. The National Congress of American Indians said it opposes any effort to revive what it called racist mascots that demean Indigenous communities, calling it “an affront to Tribal sovereignty.”
“For seventy-five years, NCAI has held an unbroken voice: Imagery and fan behaviors that mock, demean, and dehumanize Native people have no place in modern society,” NCAI President Mark Macarro said in a statement. Because Congress retains oversight of D.C. under its home-rule law, Trump could try to influence federal funding or approvals tied to the stadium, but he lacks direct authority to block it.
Congress, controlled by Trump’s Republicans, also has the power to override decisions by the Democratic-dominated Washington, D.C., City Council, though it rarely exercises this authority. The team, which has been in suburban Landover, Maryland, since 1997, reached an agreement with the District of Columbia government in April to return to the city with a new stadium expected to open in 2030.
The White House did not respond to a request for further comment on Trump’s post. The Commanders and NFL also did not respond to requests for comment. While some groups oppose the Commanders’ returning to the former name, the Native American Guardians Association said it supported Trump’s desire to bring back the Redskins name. The sporting world has its eye on the state of American politics as the US prepares to host the Olympics.
“The Native American Guardians Association stands with the President of the United States in the call to return common sense and sanity back to our nation,” the group said in a statement. “Virtually all Americans, to include American Indians, are fed up with cancel culture.”
Native Americans are looking to protect their culture
The Commanders have won three Super Bowls and are one of the NFL’s marquee franchises, ranked by Forbes last year as the league’s 10th most valuable franchise at $6.3 billion. Many American professional and collegiate sports teams have Native American-themed names. Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves, the National Hockey League’s Chicago Blackhawks, and the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs have said they have no plans to change their names. With the NFL planning an international expansion, the reports are a troubling sign of the volatile nature of American sports.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Additional reporting from Scott Malone and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
