Steve Daines has held up the Washington Commanders stadium to pressure the team to revive the old logo that has been called racist

The organization dropped the racist slur “redskins” as its name and withdrew the logo that was most closely associated with that name: the profile of an Aboriginal man with long hair and two feathers.

Now, a white US senator from Montana is rekindling the debate by blocking a bill to renovate the dilapidated RFK Stadium for the Commanders, who used to play miles away in Maryland. Sen. Steve Daines says he will block the rule until the NFL and the Commanders respect the old logo in some way.

Daines declined requests from The Associated Press to explain his position or respond to criticism from Native Americans who say such efforts are rooted in racism.

The complicated history of the logo

The original logo was designed by a member of the Blackfeet Nation in the state of Montana. Some tribal members are proud of it and the legacy of the man who helped design it in the early 1970s – Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, former chairman of the Blackfeet Nation and former president of the National Congress of the American Indian, the oldest in the country. American and Alaska Native advocacy organization.

Wetzel’s family says Daines and Wetzel’s son Don, who died last year at the age of 74, formed a friendship that may have fueled the Senate’s fight for the symbol.

Indian Country is often a bipartisan topic in Congress.

Daines sits on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and has worked with his Democratic colleagues on access to clean water for tribal communities. He supported the passage of a truth and healing commission to investigate the history of Indian residential schools, a bill sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Daines also used the policy space to participate in the Biden administration and was one of the most vocal opponents of the appointment of Deb Haaland, the first Native American to head the Department of the Interior.

He accused him of being hostile to the energy and natural resource industries and said he would use his nomination to “harm the way of life in Montana.” In May, he blocked the nomination of a woman who wanted to be the first Native American district court judge in Montana. Daines said Biden’s administration did not contact his office about the nomination, a claim the White House disputes.

A painful symptom?

Daines, in a prepared statement, said he would hold the field rule until representatives of the Washington Commanders and the NFL show they are working with the Wetzel family and Blackfeet Nation leaders to find a way to “respect the team’s history.” the symbol and values ​​of our tribes and to rededicate the organization as an advocate for Indian Country. “

For many Native Americans, the group’s original name and logo represent a dark history of racism and violence, as well as today’s battles for authentic representation of Native Americans in popular culture. The National Congress of the American Indian, the organization that Walter Wetzel once led, has been fighting since 1968 to get rid of masks like these. Numerous psychological studies have shown the harmful effects Native American mascots have on children.

A divided family

Founded in Boston in 1932, the football team had a Native American as its mascot, but after moving to Washington DC in 1937, the logo was changed to a spear, later an “R” adorned with two feathers.

Walter Wetzel worked for the Department of Labor to address housing and employment inequality in Indian Country and worked closely with President John F. Kennedy, and was friends with Robert Kennedy. Wetzel worked with the football team to rebuild its brand. He felt that, if the team was going to have a Native American-themed mascot, it should at least be a representative image, said his grandson Ryan Wetzel.

Walter Wetzel raised the profile of the former chief of the Blackfeet, John Two Guns White Calf. A likeness of that image will be used from the 1972 season until its release in 2020.

“I understand the name controversy, I get it,” Ryan Wetzel said. “I come from a family divided between the two. But the logo, how can we continue to maintain that and use it going forward? “

Ryan Wetzel said that in his last years his father Don had a leg amputated but he still showed up regularly on Capitol Hill to get support for the seal, and Daines stuck to that. Daines reached out to Ryan Wetzel after his father’s death last year to see if he could help revive the effort to restore the brand in some way.

“Dog whistle”?

A Daines spokesperson said discussions with the Washington Commanders on how to honor the Wetzel family are ongoing and productive. In his statement during a May committee hearing on the RFK stadium bill, Daines suggested the sign could be revived to sell merchandise, and a portion of the proceeds could go toward issues like the epidemic of missing and murdered Native women.

But Native American advocates and researchers say the use of the old logo is an unfair and dangerous way to achieve justice and equality for Native people. No matter how the image is chosen, it cannot be separated from the racial slurs it once promoted, said Crystal Echo Hawk, a member of the Pawnee Nation and the founder and CEO of IllumiNative, a non-profit organization that works to increase the visibility of Native Americans. . He called the previous logo a “dog whistle” after the band’s previous name.

“Science emphasizes the negative impact these images have on Aboriginal people,” said Dr. Stephanie Fryberg, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and one of the country’s leading experts on this topic.

Fryberg, a member of the Tulalip Tribe in Washington State, said the use of these mascots leads to high rates of depression, self-harm, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts, especially among children.

“The continued use of these racist images prevents Native Americans from being present and respected within the current social context,” she said.

What did the Blackfeet tribe get?

In Montana, some council members of the Blackfeet Nation are wondering why so little of the multi-million dollar football team that produced the White Calf image and was designed by the former chairman of the Blackfeet Nation has not returned to the Blackfeet people.

Decades ago, the football team donated several vans to help transport Blackfeet elders to a nearby VA facility, Blackfeet Tribal Councilor Everett Armstrong said, but he was unaware of other resources or revenue shared with the tribe. A spokesman for the Washington Commanders could not provide other examples but said the team is in discussions with the Wetzel family.

There are strong feelings about the logo and its legacy in booking, Armstrong said. But one group feels completely left out of the conversation: the descendants of the White Calf.

They were not contacted in the 1970s about the use of his image and have not been asked about it since, said Armstrong, who is a descendant of White Calf himself.

“They would like a seat at the table,” he said.