Washington NFL franchise celebrating Native American Heritage Month?
Vincent Schilling
Over the weekend, the Washington NFL franchise hosted the Houston Texans. At the game, Washington celebrated with a large graphic of their Indian head logo and the phrase ‘Native American Heritage Month’ that showed on the stadium’s indoor electronic billboard.
Twitter user @_TheSalesman / Future Doctor posted a few images of his attendance at the Washington game against the Texans. Notably, he tweeted “The f***ing irony.”
On October 26th, the National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution at their 75th annual convention publicly opposing the Washinton NFL team’s return to the District of Columbia “until the franchise end’s its use of the derogatory R-word as its name and mascot.”
In an email blast to all of the members of NCAI, NCAI President Jefferson Keel wrote, “Public dollars should be spent empowering communities, not dehumanizing them … The social and psychological harms this derogatory name causes Native people – in particular, our youth – are well-documented, and they are severe.”
At the game, Native drummers also played in recognition of the month.
The Texans beat Washington to clinch a seven-game winning streak, 23-21.
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