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Proud to Be: A Native American Ad That Wasn’t Aired During the 2014 Super Bowl

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Weekend Contributor

Here is one ad that never aired during this year’s Super Bowl:

The Proud to Be video was made by Change the Mascot, a national campaign that was launched by the Oneida Nation. The video was released by the National Congress of American Indians a couple of days before this year’s Super Bowl. Change the Mascot’s aim is to end the use of the term “redskins” as the mascot for Washington, D. C.’s NFL team. The campaign “calls upon the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell to do the right thing and bring an end the use of the racial epithet.”

Not being a wealthy organization, the National Congress of American Indians couldn’t afford to “buy a television slot during the Super Bowl to run its ad.”

Writing for ThinkProgress on January 31, 2014, Alyssa Rosenberg said the following:

It’s a gorgeous ad, and it’s a strikingly effective illustration of why the word “Redskin” is so troublesome. It’s not just that the term has evolved from its origins as a basic explanation of physical difference, to a slur that was used to reduce Native Americans to the value of their skins, for which literal bounties were offered. In a less violent but no less significant sense, “Redskin” collapses the remarkable particularity of Native American experiences into a single identity and set of attributes.

The NCAI ad is a forceful and often beautiful reminder that Native Americans aren’t a monolithic community. That’s a term that subsumes hundreds of specific identities, a huge range of cultural and artistic practices–and yes, as the ad doesn’t neglect to leave out–specific sets of social and political issues.

“Native American” may be a blanket identity category, but it’s one that invites curiosity, asking hearers to consider what came before the political and territorial consolidation of the United States, and the fact that American identity is rich and multifaceted, rather than a single way of being. “Redskins” is both a slur, and a term that invites the listener to skip over the work of thinking about what it means. “Redskin” reduces Native Americans to simply the color of their skin, and to the attributes we associate with football (a practice that’s also a product of a very specific marketing history, as my colleague Travis Waldron reported in his epic look at the fight against the Washington football team’s name): physical strength, maybe speed, and not much else. Not only is that kind of thinking profoundly lazy and racially reductive, it’s a tragedy both for the people who are subjected to it, and the people who deny themselves the experience of more of the world by practicing it.

The NCAI ad is a reminder of precisely what they’re missing out on, making all of these points without having to spell them out the way I do here. That’s great advertising, in service of a critically important message.

Last May, Daniel Snyder, owner of Washington, D. C.’s NFL team was quoted as saying, “We will never change the name of the team.” He then repeated himself when a reporter followed-up on his comment, “We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”

Then last June, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the Washington Redskins‘ nickname was a “unifying force that stands for strength, courage, pride and respect.”

Clem Ironwing (Sioux) doesn’t think the word “redskin” is a term of respect. In 1996, he spoke at a public hearing in Wichita, Kansas, on the subject of Wichita North High School’s sports mascot. He talked to those present at the hearing about having been removed from his family by the government when he was a young child and forced to live in a Catholic boarding school. Matthew Richter posted the comments that Ironwing made at the hearing. Here is an excerpt of what Clem Ironwing said:

“When my hair was cut short by the priests, I was called a “redskin” and a savage. When I spoke my native tongue, I was beaten and called “redskin”. When I tried to follow the spiritual path of my people, I was again beaten and called a “redskin”. I was told by them to turn my back on the ways of my people, or I would forever be nothing but a dirty “redskin”.

           “The only way “redskin” was ever used towards my people and myself was in a derogatory manner. It was never, ever, used in a show of respect or kindness. It was only used to let you know that you were dirty and no good, and to this day still is.

Is it time to change the mascot? What do you think?

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro

The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers.  As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Change the Mascot Website

Wichita North Redskins “Remarks by Clem Ironwing, Sioux, during a public Mascot/Identity Committee hearing.” (The People’s Path)

House Dem: ‘Redskins’ as offensive to Indians as ‘N’ word is to blacks (The Hill)

An open letter to Dan Snyder (Grantland)

The Harmful Psychological Effects of the Washington Football Mascot (Change the Mascot)

American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many (NPR)

Why ‘NEVER’ Abandoning ‘Redskins’ As His Team’s Name Might Soon Cost Dan Snyder A Lot Of Money (ThinkProgress)

Redskins, NFL Take Heat From Congress Over Team Name (Only a Game)

Members of Congress urge Redskins to change name (Big Story)

Read Roger Goodell’s Letter To Congress Defending The Redskins Name (DeadSpin)

NFL is ‘listening’ to those who oppose Redskins’ name, Roger Goodell says (Washington Post)

A slur or term of ‘honor’? Controversy heightens about Washington Redskins (CNN)

Native Americans Tackle Redskins at Press Conference: On the heels of an NFL conference, the Oneida Indian Nation confronts the organization for its use of what the deem a racial slur as a mascot (Time)

Bob Lutz: North High, it’s time to change the nickname (The Wichita Eagle)

The Other Redskins (Capital News Service)

Hundreds rally in Minn. against Redskins’ name (Yahoo/AP)

The Super Bowl Ad You Never Saw (Huffington Post)

ICTMN Exclusive: NCAI Releases R-word Video Ahead of Super Bowl (Indian Country Today Media Network)

Monk, Green: Mull name change (ESPN)

ENDING THE LEGACY OF RACISM IN SPORTS & THE ERA OF HARMFUL “INDIAN” SPORTS MASCOTS (National Congress of American Indians)

National Congress Of American Indians Releases Anti-Redskins Ad (Deadspin)

Here’s an ad about R–skins that its makers don’t have the money to show during Sunday’s Superbowl (Daily Kos)

The Best Ad You’ll See This Super Bowl Weekend (ThinkProgress)

The Epic Battle To Save The Most Offensive Team Name In Professional Sports (ThinkProgress)

Roger Goodell defends Washington Redskins’ nickname (NFL)

248 thoughts on “Proud to Be: A Native American Ad That Wasn’t Aired During the 2014 Super Bowl”

  1. I think Sonny Sixkiller was gay. He was my favorite QB for several years. The kid could fling it!

  2. Are you PCers talking about gay Indians, Native American, indigenous people or gay black, colored, Negro, Afro-American, African American, people of color?

  4. lottakatz,

    I seen your name mentioned here, thought of you & the video below.

    I know many of us are observing the sickness in many people’s minds that render then blind to the consequences of their action & of their harm to other people of the planet.

    I hope we are all ok & start put a check on their lunacy.

  5. I got an email from LK a few weeks ago. She was complaining about her computer. She may be without a computer in addition to any other problems.

  6. Oro Lee,

    The last we heard from lottakatz was over at Flowers for Socrates. I think she was quite ill or had some some kind of injury. I miss reading her comments.

  7. Off topic —

    I don’t read every article posted — is there anything out there about lottakatz?

  10. Oro Lee wrote:

    Off topic, but there is no other recent article in whichto post.

    Can you believe this is a Texas sportscaster?

    http://www.wfaa.com/sports/dale-hansen/Dale-Hansen-Unplugged–244822291.html

    ——

    Swarthmore mom, Oro Lee,

    I posted it to the soccer posting, after getting an e-mail about it early this morning. You picked the better thread, OL.

    SM,

    About: “We could have been attacked for being pc again. 🙂 ” It’s early out in CA. (-;

  11. “Chris Kluwe: Calling Michael Sam A ‘Distraction’ Is Like Saying Richard Sherman Is A ‘Thug’ “Huffington Post. I guess you could have posted it on the Richard Sherman thread, Oro. We could have been attacked for being pc again. 🙂

  12. Oro, Dale Hansen is a midwesterner that resides in Texas like I once was. Maybe he did not drink the Texas kool aid like many who move there do.

  15. I agree, Cindy, that there are many greater problems facing indigenous people than the name of the professional football team in our nation’s capitol, but for the most part they all have the same origin — the mindset of the dominant society. It makes no sense to fight to correct its bad acts and ignore its bad attitude.

    This past summer, the Supreme Court of the United States — the highest Court of the Conquerors — sanctioned state sponsored human trafficking of native American children. This is the first sentence of the majority’s opinion: “This case is about a little girl (Baby Girl) who is classified as an Indian because she is 1.2% (3/256) Cherokee.”

    It was a gratuitous slap in the face of the Cherokee Nation — the sentence had absolutely nothing to do with the opinion’s holding or underlying arguments, and it gLosses over the most important fact of the case: the child is 100% a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

    It also ignores the genocidal role of blood quantum requirements initially imposed on indian nations by the federal government: to ease the administration of federal programs; to limit the expenditure of money and resources of those programs; and to eliminate less populous tribes as the biological necessity of genetic diversity decreases the individuals’ quantum of “Indian” blood.

  16. I am an official Native American member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, meaning I have my Bureau of Indian Affairs “Degree of Indian Blood” card from the federal government showing that I have “proved” my lineage. I also note that on Senator Maria Cantwell’s website she that she is a member of the Indian Affairs Committee. My point is the hypocrisy of this non event. We are NATIVE AMERICANS. Indians are from India. So before all the outrage at a football team, all that are offended should target the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and demand a name change. I also believe this is a made up controversy – all of the Native Americans I know are worried about much more than the name of a football team.

  17. Oro Lee,

    Thanks for going the extra mile. My husband is part American Indian. We have a small collection of modern American Indian art–including pottery, carvings, sand paintings, and a few pieces of silver jewelry that I got when we went to New Mexico several years ago.

  18. Pat,

    I have ancestors who were living in Texas before it was part of the Union — one served at the Battle of San Jacinto and another in Sam Houston’s Army of the Republic. Does that make me a native American?

    Nope. Why?

    Because I don’t have the mind of the new World indigenous so aptly described in your post at 12:45 p.m. today.

    Well played.

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