Two Native American groups on Monday condemned US President Donald Trump’s threat to block a new football stadium in Washington unless the local NFL team restores its previous, 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 the MLB’s Cleveland Guardians, who changed their name from the Indians in 2021, to follow suit.
Photo: AFP
However, 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.”
Photo: EPA
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 (NCAI) 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,” congress president Mark Macarro said in a statement.
Because The US Congress retains oversight of Washington 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.
The Congress, controlled by Trump’s Republicans, also has the power to override decisions by the Democratic-dominated Washington City Council, although it rarely exercises that authority.
The team, which has been in suburban Landover, Maryland, since 1997, reached an agreement with Washington in April to return to the city with a new stadium expected to open in 2030.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president’s comments were not a joke.
“The president was serious,” Leavitt told reporters on Monday while answering questions on the White House driveway. “Sports is one of the many passions of this president and he wants to see the name of that team changed.”
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 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.”
Additional reporting by AP
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