The news media are running reports that Robert Griffin III, aka RGIII, is urging fans to urge the Washington NFL franchise owners to reinstate the team’s former logo. This week he posted on X (formerly Twitter) the following message: “Dear Washington Commanders fans, this is a safe space. Would you be happy if the old logo was brought back?” The message was accompanied with his photo (above) in the old uniform. That post received 13 million views, 11 thousand replies, 2.9 thousand reposts, and 88 thousand likes.
He followed that up two days later with this question: “Would you rather Washington keep the current name or go back to the Football Team?”
The final results for the second question were 39.6% for Washington Commanders and 60.4% for the Washington Football Team. The generic name won by a 3 to 2 margin. That’s like saying a majority would rather have no name than Commanders.
The article on FanBuzz went on to include the results of a 2004 poll of 700 self-identified Native Americans of which less than 10 percent were offended by the name. Still, powerful activists were able to convince journalists and corporations that this term, which was originated by the Piankashaws in 1769 to differentiate themselves from white and Black men.
Perhaps lack of fan support will convince Commanders owners to consider a change.
Kerry Byrnes has written a most interesting article about how John Two Guns White Calf, whose image adorned Washington Redskins helmets and logos starting in 1972 before being canceled in 2020. The entire article can be found here:
One thing I learned was that NCAI, the organization that got the Redskins name canceled, is funded by George Soros. Soros is the person who funded numerous candidates for Attorney General and District Attorney offices. Those people are the ones who have created havoc in their cities and states by refusing to charge criminals with serious crimes and to release them without bail if they get arrested.
I enjoyed reading Byrnes’ article because, on the whole, it is accurate where most pieces on the Redskins or Carlisle Indian School are not. However, one sentence is incorrect: “The franchise changed its name to the Boston Redskins as a tribute to their hosts and to maintain their Tammany identity and uniforms.” This error regarding the uniforms was previously promulgated in a Boston newspaper (the Globe if I recall correctly) in an attempt to smear owner George Preston Marshall for being cheap.
The 1932 Boston Braves wore plain blue jerseys with gold numerals. The 1933 Boston Redskins sported maroon uniforms with an Indian head on the front with gold stripes on the collar and wrists. Because the new team colors were so similar to those of Carlisle Indian School (red and old gold) and that Head Coach Lone Star Dietz was also an artist, he may have designed the new uniforms. He borrowed the idea of putting an Indian head on the front of the jerseys from the Chicago Blackhawks ice hockey team. He probably used the same Tammany image as had been used on the Braves letterhead (but not on their uniforms). The Redskins were forced to wear the old Braves uniforms the first week of the season because their new ones hadn’t arrived yet.
Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) historian Andre Billeaudeaux has laid out the history of American Indian motifs being used in association with the Washington NFL franchise. The story, however, begins with the Boston National League baseball team. In 1912, James Gaffney, a member of New York’s Tammany Hall, purchased the Boston Rustlers and renamed them the Boston Braves in honor of Saint Tammany and used his image for the team’s logo. Tammany was Lenni Lenape chief Tamanend who was called the “Patron Saint of America” for promoting peace and harmony. His likeness appears on numerous monuments and societies were named in his honor.
In 1929, the Braves shifted to a four-color version.
This version of the image was still being used by the Boston National League baseball team in 1932, when George Preston Marshall and three partners bought a defunct NFL franchise and installed it in Boston’s Braves Field. As was the practice at that time, the NFL team “borrowed” the name of the better-known baseball team that played on the same field. It also appropriated the baseball team’s Tammany logo as shown on the letterhead below.
At the end of the season, Marshall shed his partners of their ownership of the financially unsuccessful franchise and moved the team to Fenway Park, where the rent was lower. A name change was in order to reduce confusion. Although opposed to integration, Marshall held American Indians in esteem. Critics have claimed that Marshall changed the name to Redskins to retain the Indian motif and to save money by reusing the 1932 uniforms. That is patently false. The 1932 uniforms were blue with gold numerals where the 1933 jerseys were red with gold and black stripes around the collar and cuffs. The design was likely created by the new head coach Lone Star Dietz, an artist of considerable talent who had illustrated Carlisle Indian School publications when he was at the school. The colors he chose were similar to those of Carlisle, where he had played alongside Jim Thorpe.
The concept of placing the logo on the front of the jersey was probably borrowed from the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team’s jersey That design was by Irene Castle, who was best known as a ballroom dancer and partner of Vernon Castle.
Marshall moved the team to Washington, DC. He died in 1969 but the new owners continued his legacy. In 1971, the team updated its logo to one designed by Walter “Blackie” Wetzel (Blackfeet) using Chief John Two Guns White Calf (Blackfeet) as his model. The changed uniforms were warmly received in 1972.
Billeaudeaux supports a return to the historic name. “The name Redskins is a national treasure.”
A month ago, I posted an article to Facebook that was nearly identical to the last one I posted here. By lunch I was canceled. No explanation. No appeal. No nothing. I am now banned from Facebook for life.
It isn’t all bad because I’ll save money. Promoting my books on Facebook didn’t increase sales. I will save the time I spent reading useless things but I will miss reading what friends, acquaintances, and schoolmates are up to these days.
Why exactly did they ban me? I can only guess. At the end of the article, I included a quote from a former Carlisle Indian School student who wrote in positive terms about his experience at the school. It is against wokester ideology to mention the good Carlisle did. That is not allowed. Earlier postings about the Native American Guardians Association’s (NAGA) attempts to have the Washington NFL team revert to calling themselves Redskins surely didn’t endear me to the activists and guilty white liberals who demanded the team to drop that name in the first place.
In respond to a 1912 letter requesting information about his life after leaving the school, George responded in part:
The likely offending passage follows.
“ I feel as that my learning while at Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the foundation of my success in life so far. Does it pay to educate the Indians? Certainly it does. Today there are white people that don’t live far from me that can’t write their own names. Does it pay to educate white children?”
Blackfoot Chief John Two Guns White Calf served as the inspiration for the Redskins logo used from 1972 to 2020.
One of the Native American Guardian’s Association (NAGA) chief aims is to keep American Indians from being a vanishing race as they were often referred to over a hundred years ago. They consider banishing team names, specifically Redskins, as part of the effort to disappear American Indians. On Monday of last week, NAGA filed a lawsuit for $1M+ in North Dakota, the organization’s home state, against the Washington Commanders for defamation and conspiracy. Named specially in the suit are owner Josh Harris, employee Matthew Laux, and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).
The defamation charge resulted from an interchange between Mr. Laux and Christina King that was previously mentioned on this blog. After Ms. King informed Laux that she and her sister would not come back as luxury suite owners until the team changes it name back to Redskins. Laux responded, “You understand the people [NAGA] that started this petition is a fake group, right?”
When confronted with the defamation suit, the team responded that Laux, a premium-seat sales manager, did not represent the team. One might conclude that it would have been necessary for him to represent the team during negotiations with customers when he was selling their highest-priced boxes and suites.
Also named in the suit is the NCAI, an organization funded by taxpayers and George Soros.[1] The NCAI issued a report in 2013 that claimed Native American images, such as the Redskins Chief White Calf logo, fueled low self-esteem, suicides, and racial violence in Native American communities without mentioning Tammany and White Calf, who inspired the Redskins imagery.
NAGA claims NCAI contributes to a legacy of cultural oppression suffered by indigenous peoples:
“NCAI is on a mission to eradicate Native American history. The more teams that ignorantly bend, the more power NCAI retains,” the complaint states.
“The powerful few, do not get to have a monopoly on the narrative. They cannot eradicate Native American history from the hearts and minds of Americans.”
Naga states, “The Redskins (were) the only team in the National Football League (NFL) to honor an actual Native American.”
To be continued
[1] George Soros is a far left wing billionaire known most recently for funding the political campaigns of district attorneys around the country who choose not to prosecute criminals or to not require cash bail for defendents.
Andre Billeaudeaux, historian and co-founder of Native American Guardians Association (NAGA), thinks opponents of the Redskins name don’t know what they’re talking about. “These people are just ignorant. It’s toxic ignorance. It’s group think. It’s the psychology of a group that has no idea what they’re doing, but they won’t listen to us [NAGA], either.”
The origin of the Redskins name and logos go back to 1912 when James Gaffney, of New York’s Tammany Hall, purchased the Boston Rustlers National League baseball team. He renamed the team as the Braves and used an image inspired by Saint Tammany for the team’s logo. That image is prominent on the left sleeve of Babe Ruth in a photo taken in 1935.
When a group including Washington laundry magnate George Preston Marshall purchased an idle NFL franchise and established a team in Boston, they named the team the Braves. It was common for upstart NFL teams to name themselves after established baseball teams, particularly when they shared the same field. The new Braves’ uniforms didn’t include an Indian motif. Instead they wore jerseys of a simple design in Marshall’s company’s colors: blue and gold.
As a .500 first season, Marshall’s cohorts left, leaving him as sole owner of the team. He fired the coach, Lud Wray, and hired Lone Star Dietz, a Carlisle Indian School alum who had had success coaching at the college level. Dietz brought four of his Haskell Institute (today’s Haskell Indian Nations University) Fighting Indians star with him. The figure on the Braves’ letterhead and pin is different than the one used by the baseball team. On the baseball team logo, the man wore a headdress where the football logo image only had three feathers. I’m not qualified to determine if the football team used Saint Tammany’s profile or not. Having red on the letterhead suggests that the team’s colors changed shortly after Dietz became their head coach. The existence of the pin argues against Dietz changing the logo because he was only with the team a short amount of time before the team name was changed and it was during the off season. So, the logo on the button was probably created for the 1932 season.
One question never asked is: Why did Marshall change the team’s colors? A 1933 jersey shown below has red as the primary color and is trimmed with gold and black bands. These colors are similar to Carlisle’s colors and the stripes on the cuffs are reminiscent of the below-the-elbow stripes on the Indians’ jerseys. Some have attributed the design of the Redskins’ logo to Lone Star Dietz. The image may have preceded him; it’s not clear when the team adopted it. Dietz likely borrowed the concept from the NHL Blackhawks’ design and placed the logo on the front of the jersey.
Probably to save money, Marshall moved the team from Braves Field to Fenway Park. To eliminate confusion with the baseball team, he felt he had to change the name. Some think red was chosen because they were then based on the Red Sox home field. A Boston newspaper writer claimed that Marshall chose the name to save money by not having to buy new uniforms. As shown in this piece, both colors and design of the team’s uniforms changed when the team’s name changed. However, the team had to wear the old uniforms in the first game of the 1933 season because the new ones hadn’t arrived yet.
Billeaudeaux thinks otherwise. “Redskins is not about race. It’s a warrior who’s gone through the bloodroot ceremony. “They shave their heads and surrender their souls to their Creator. They paint themselves red as if they were born new into the world.”
“The Redskins were the only minority representation in the entire NFL and it was a real person, not a mascot,” said Billeaudeaux. “The name Redskins is a national treasure and for that reason it should be protected. It’s a cultural treasure and deserves to be protected and understood. It’s not just about the football team. It’s about the DNA of the nation.”
NAGA members aren’t the only people who prefer Redskins for the team name. As of this writing, 130,790 people had signed NAGA’s petition demanding the team name be changed back to Redskins. “Redskins Fans Forever,” a Facebook group with 61,600 members, refers to the team only by its historic name.
Ninety percent of Native Americans around the country supported the Redskins name in a Washington Post poll in 2016, as the woke assault on the traditional name grew stronger.
Red Mesa High School on a Navajo reservation in Arizona recently installed a new football field with the Washington Redskins logo on the 50-yard line.
Christina King & Carolyn Steppe in their Redskins regalia
More has happened regarding the Redskins naming controversy. Former luxury-box owner—can you imagine how much the team lost when she dropped it?—Christina King texted “We just signed the petition from NAGA…We [she and her sister Carolyn Steppe] will come back as suite owners when the name reverts back to the Washington Redskins.“ to Matthew Laux, a premium-seat sales manager. She gave up her suite when previous owner Dan Snyder capitulated by dropping the “Redskins” name in 2020. King stated, “We’re Redskins fans, not Commanders fans. We’re not coming back until the name comes back. They’ve taken these images from sports. They bowed to the woke and they’re trying to erase Native American history.”
Laux responded, “You understand the people that started this petition is a fake group, right?”
That statement did not sit well with NAGA—Native American Guardians Association. Fullblood Dakota Sioux NAGA President Eunice Davidson responded, “We’re not a fake group. We’re tribal-enrolled members from tribes across the United States.” NAGA had posted an on-line petition to have the team’s name changed back on June 21. It stated, in part:
“The name “Redskins” carries deep cultural, historical, and emotional significance, honoring the bravery, resilience, and warrior spirit associated with Native American culture.
“It was never intended as a derogatory or offensive term but as a symbol of respect and admiration. Changing the name abruptly disregards the positive legacy that the Redskins name has built over the years and disorients the passionate fans who have invested their emotions, time, and unwavering support in the team.”
As of last Monday, August 29, the petition had garnered 128,000 signatures.
The NFL team’s spokesperson stated that Laux does not represent the team.
NAGA co-founder, historian Andre Billeaudeux, author of How the Redskins Got Their Name, stated, “We’re in it to win it….’Toxic ignorance’ has fueled the effort by woke professors and academics to erase Native American history from the nation’s sports and pop-culture lexicon .
Team President Jason Wright responded to a question about the name change, “”It is not being considered. Period.”
I had not heard of the Native American Guardian’s Association (NAGA) prior to Google informing me that they were fighting to have the Washington NFL team reinstate the Redskins name. Perusing their website, https://www.nagaeducation.org/, I found their motto, “Educate Not Eradicate,” and their mission statement:
“The Native American Guardian’s Association (NAGA) is a 501c3 non-profit organization advocating for increased education about Native Americans, especially in public educational institutions, and greater recognition of Native American Heritage through the high profile venues of sports and other public platforms.”
Also on the front page was a large photo of the Red Mesa Redskins’ new football field. Red Mesa is a high school on the Navajo reservation.
The History tab states, “NAGA celebrates and promotes the rich history, legacies, and many national contributions of First Nation’s people which have historically been woven into the fabric of American identity.” It is a statement of inclusion and being part of what has been called “The American Experiment.” It is accompanied by a photo of men wearing red garrison caps reminiscent of the ones one often sees American Legion members wear. There’s a good chance many of these men are veterans because American Indians serve in the armed forces at a higher rate than the population at large, particularly during wartime.
This website is information rich, containing a lot more information than I can mention in a blog message. I urge you to peruse the site to see for yourself. Of particular interest is the Top Misconceptions tab. It has links to ten pages, starting with “Redskins is Racist.” Another link discusses polls that show vast numbers of American Indians do not consider Redskins or Redmen to be racist. One link shows that leaders who oppose the name speak only for themselves. The link on the 90% polls explains that the polls were conducted using normal polling methods and have, at least, a 95% confidence level. Some are as high as 98%.
Check out this site to learn more about how people in Indian Country think about things.
Look forward to seeing Lone Star Dietz’s name in the news soon as the origin of the Washington Redskins name will surely be discussed again. Native American Guardians Association is circulating a petition that had over 67,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning. The group’s president, Eunice Davidson (Sisseton Dakota), sent a letter to the Washington NFL team requesting that the team’s name be changed back to Redskins, citing a poll of Native Americans, 90% of whom did not find the name offensive. She referenced as examples, the Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Blackhawks, recognizing the names carry “an obligation of honor and respect.” She requested “that the team revitalize its relationship with the American Indian community by (i) changing the name back to ‘The Redskins’ which recognizes America’s original inhabitants and (ii) using the team’s historic name and legacy to encourage Americans to learn about, not cancel, the history of America’s tribes and our role in the founding of this Great Nation.”
She also suggested a boycott similar to the national boycott that lost Anheuser Busch about $27 billion without a single brick being thrown. This may not be successful as many fans have already abandoned the team for it poor play as well as its wretched new name.
Daniel Snyder was long despised as the team’s owner but fans supported him on his pledge to keep the team name. After he caved on that promise, his future as owner was doomed. He is now being pressured to sell the team for something like $4 billion. This brought mind the time the NBA force a racist coot into selling a team for twice its value.
My opinion at the time the name was changed was that Commanders as a name for a pro football team was lame. It hasn’t improved. Perhaps the new owners plan on changing their colors to olive drab and black and attaching visors with scrambled eggs on them to the helmets. Even before this latest news conjectures arose that the new ownership would bring with them a new name. One hopes they do a better job this time. If they must select a Washington-relevant name, they should consider the following: beltway bandits, swamp creatures, budget busters, influence peddlers, and child molesters. Redskins is a far more noble name than those more appropriate ones. More noble than that city deserves.
Will the new owners bring the team back to Carlisle for summer camp in an attempt to win Super Bowls again?
….
One commenter has suggested a return to the team’s original name when it first played in Boston.
It’s happened. The Redskins are no more. The NFL version that is, not the teams that play under that name on reservations. Management of the team formerly known as the Redskins announced today that it has caved under tremendous financial pressure to change the team’s name but didn’t announce what the new name would be. Whatever it is, it should not refer to Indians. Washington, DC doesn’t deserve that the way it has treated over the years—unless it is an honest name, that is. Here are few candidate names DC has earned:
Treaty Breakers
Beltway Bandits
Swamp Creatures
Pedophiles
Hair Sniffers
Pencil Necks
Turncoats
Log Rollers
Impeachers
Dementeds
Harrassers
Exposers
Lilylivers
Transgenders
One reason team owner Daniel Snyder hasn’t selected a new name is because Alexandria, Virginia real estate agent Philip Martin McCaulay has already trademarked a large number of those Snyder might consider. Coleman Bentley of Golf Digest pointed out some McCaulay missed:
Filibusters
Earmarks
Washingtons
8th Grade School Field Trips
Gun Lobbyists
Fortunate Sons
Perhaps a reader will think up a better choice. Snyder will need one that appeals to more new fans than the number of long-time ones he loses over his and the NFL’s recent capitulations.
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