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Nashoba School Committee Anti-Racism Resolution  

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Nashoba School Committee Anti-Racism Resolution  

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On June 17, 2020, The NRSC adopted this resolution to demonstrate our commitment to anti-racism in our school.

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Is our Chieftain a Native American?

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The indigenous people who  occupied this land prior to being forcibly removed have published a statement on the need to retire Native American mascots.

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A letter from a neighbor and Nashoba resident.

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NRHS teacher, Tim Castner writes about how this land came to be called Lancaster and Nashoba.

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The National Congress of American Indians Speaks

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The National Congress of American Indians Speaks

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A Report on Ending the Legacy of Racism in Sports and the Harmful "Indian" Sports Mascots

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The American Psychological Association Resolution on American Indian Mascot Retirement

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The American Psychological Association Resolution on American Indian Mascot Retirement

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The APA has compiled all relevant research on the harmful effects born from the use of Indian Mascots to inform this resolution.

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Stanford Press article, “Of Warrior Chiefs and Indian Princesses: The Psychological Consequences of American Indian Mascots"

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Stanford Press article, “Of Warrior Chiefs and Indian Princesses: The Psychological Consequences of American Indian Mascots"

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This article shows that even positive stereotypes can harm.

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STATEMENT OF U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS ON THE USE OF NATIVE AMERICAN IMAGES AND NICKNAMES AS SPORTS SYMBOLS

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STATEMENT OF U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS ON THE USE OF NATIVE AMERICAN IMAGES AND NICKNAMES AS SPORTS SYMBOLS

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It is possible that the use of these mascots violates civil rights and anti-discrimination statutes making the district vulnerable to law suits.

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The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights calls for an end to the use of Native American images and team names by non-Native schools. The Commission deeply respects the rights of all Americans to freedom of expression under the First Amendment and in no way would attempt to prescribe how people can express themselves. However, the Commission believes that the use of Native American images and nicknames in school is insensitive and should be avoided. In addition, some Native American and civil rights advocates maintain that these mascots may violate anti-discrimination laws. These references, whether mascots and their performances, logos, or names, are disrespectful and offensive to American Indians and others who are offended by such stereotyping. They are particularly inappropriate and insensitive in light of the long history of forced assimilation that American Indian people have endured in this country.

Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s many overtly derogatory symbols and images offensive to African-Americans have been eliminated. However, many secondary schools, post-secondary institutions, and a number of professional sports teams continue to use Native American nicknames and imagery. Since the 1970s, American Indian leaders and organizations have vigorously voiced their opposition to these mascots and team names because they mock and trivialize Native American religion and culture.

It is particularly disturbing that Native American references are still to be found in educational institutions, whether elementary, secondary or post-secondary. Schools are places where diverse groups of people come together to learn not only the "Three Rs," but also how to interact respectfully with people from different cultures. The use of stereotypical images of Native Americans by educational institutions has the potential to create a racially hostile educational environment that may be intimidating to Indian students. American Indians have the lowest high school graduation rates in the nation and even lower college attendance and graduation rates. The perpetuation of harmful stereotypes may exacerbate these problems.

The stereotyping of any racial, ethnic, religious or other groups when promoted by our public educational institutions, teach all students that stereotyping of minority groups is acceptable, a dangerous lesson in a diverse society. Schools have a responsibility to educate their students; they should not use their influence to perpetuate misrepresentations of any culture or people. Children at the elementary and secondary level usually have no choice about which school they attend. Further, the assumption that a college student may freely choose another educational institution if she feels uncomfortable around Indian-based imagery is a false one. Many factors, from educational programs to financial aid to proximity to home, limit a college student's choices. It is particularly onerous if the student must also consider whether or not the institution is maintaining a racially hostile environment for Indian students.

Schools that continue to use Indian imagery and references claim that their use stimulates interest in Native American culture and honors Native Americans. These institutions have simply failed to listen to the Native groups, religious leaders, and civil rights organizations that oppose these symbols. These Indian-based symbols and team names are not accurate representations of Native Americans. Even those that purport to be positive are romantic stereotypes that give a distorted view of the past. These false portrayals prevent non-Native Americans from understanding the true historical and cultural experiences of American Indians. Sadly, they also encourage biases and prejudices that have a negative effect on contemporary Indian people. These references may encourage interest in mythical "Indians" created by the dominant culture, but they block genuine understanding of contemporary Native people as fellow Americans.

The Commission assumes that when Indian imagery was first adopted for sports mascots it was not to offend Native Americans. However, the use of the imagery and traditions, no matter how popular, should end when they are offensive. We applaud those who have been leading the fight to educate the public and the institutions that have voluntarily discontinued the use of insulting mascots. Dialogue and education are the roads to understanding. The use of American Indian mascots is not a trivial matter. The Commission has a firm understanding of the problems of poverty, education, housing, and health care that face many Native Americans. The fight to eliminate Indian nicknames and images in sports is only one front of the larger battle to eliminate obstacles that confront American Indians. The elimination of Native American nicknames and images as sports mascots will benefit not only Native Americans, but all Americans. The elimination of stereotypes will make room for education about real Indian people, current Native American issues, and the rich variety of American Indian cultures in our country.

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The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights calls for an end to the use of Native American images and team names by non-Native schools. The Commission deeply respects the rights of all Americans to freedom of expression under the First Amendment and in no way would attempt to prescribe how people can express themselves.

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This organization requests Nashoba remove the chieftain mascot.

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National Indian Education Association Calls for a Ban on Indian Mascots

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National Indian Education Association Calls for a Ban on Indian Mascots

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WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1970 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, NIEA, as the largest national Indian organization of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian educators, administrators, parents, and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Indian and Native people; and

WHEREAS, through its unique relationship with Indian nations and tribes, the federal government has established programs and resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, residing on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and

WHEREAS, self-representational use of logos, mascots and names remain a cherished tradition in many Native communities, and therefore, tribal and Native schools that so choose to retain traditional names and symbolism should be exempt from this resolution; and

WHEREAS, Native cultures have endured centuries despite attempts to destroy and assimilate them; and

WHEREAS, the continued use of stereotypes by major educational institutions and national sports franchises not only detracts from the proud history, cultures, and traditions of Native peoples, it is harmful to Native children; and

WHEREAS, the use of negative stereotypes is a testament to the continued practice of the outright commodification of Native peoples and their unique cultural identities; and

WHEREAS, it devalues Native people and culture and can destroy the self-esteem of Native students, which can strain their ability to achieve academically; and

WHEREAS, NIEA's advocacy on this issue has resulted in the elimination of Native logos, mascots, and names in hundreds of educational settings across the nation by providing workshops, presentation of professional papers, adopting resolutions, providing legal briefs, and holding forums on organizing networks of Native educators as advocates; and

WHEREAS, educational institutions and national sports franchises, unfortunately, continue the practice of using Native logos, mascots, and names despite great success and efforts by Native organizations, tribes, parents, and other stakeholders; and

WHEREAS, educational institutions and national sports franchises that choose to continue using race-based logos, mascots, and names harm children by exposing them to negative stereotypes and indoctrinating them and the American public with the idea that it is acceptable to typecast an entire race of people; and

WHEREAS, the limited and sparse representations of Native Americans in the media and popular culture comprise a significant portion of what children learn about Native people and thereby impact their identity formation by reinforcing stereotypes about Native cultures from the past and present; and

WHEREAS, the NIEA passed a prior resolution, The Elimination of Race-Based Indian Logos, Mascots, and Names (NIEA Res. 09-05), in 2009 during the NIEA Annual held in Milwaukee, which provided prior opposition to educational institutions utilizing disparaging logos, mascots, and names; and

WHEREAS, there is a growing base of support calling for the elimination of Native logos, mascots, and names as evidence by condemnation from national leaders, such as President Barack Obama and numerous congressional members; professional organizations, for example the American Psychological Association; education advocacy organizations, such as the National Education Association; human rights and tribal organizations, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Congress of American Indians; and sports regulatory commissions, like the National Collegiate Athletic Association; and

WHEREAS, educational institutions and national sports franchises, such as Washington, DC's National Football League organization, should not be vehicles of institutionalized racism; and

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the NIEA calls for the immediate elimination of racebased Native logos, mascots, and names from educational institutions and national sports franchises across the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NIEA does hereby call for educational institutions and national sports franchises to cease their use of such race-based Native logos, mascots, and names in the effort to remove these stereotypes and raise the self-esteem of Native students so they have the same opportunity as their non-Native peers to achieve academically without discrimination.

CERTIFICATION

I do hereby certify that the following resolution was dully considered and passed by the National Indian Education Association on November 2, 2013 at which a quorum of the membership was present.

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SUPPORT FOR THE ELMINITATION OF RACE-BASED NATIVE LOGOS, MASCOTS, AND NAMES - National Indian Education Association

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WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1970 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and WHEREAS, NIEA, as the largest national Indian organization of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian

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In 2005, the NCAA ultimately banned the use of Native American mascots.

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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign no longer has a chief. Its decades-old symbol, Chief Illiniwek, last performed at halftime nearly nine years ago. Neither does the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where Chief Moccanooga was retired two decades ago, nor the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where Chief Brave Spirit once summoned fandom at a campus that called itself The Reservation. They've been banished to the annals of college sports, keeping company with other vanquished reminders of how several college sports programs once rallied their fans: the feathers on the College of William and Mary logo; the word "Scalping" in Alcorn State University's Scalping Braves nickname; the Runnin' Joe mascot at Arkansas State University.

Yet the chief and his comrades linger - not only at Illinois, in a single-word refrain revived each game night by a free-speaking crowd, but at schools throughout the country where the allegiance to a former nickname lives on in the hearts and minds of some alumni and fans. Dartmouth College, for instance, turned away from its Indians nickname more than 40 years ago, yet in 2015, the Dartmouth Indian resurfaced on an unofficial T-shirt denounced by the provost. The shirt was promoted on a flier that asked: "Hate political correctness? Love Dartmouth?"

February marks 10 years since the NCAA implemented its policy against "hostile and abusive" Native American mascots, nicknames or imagery at its championships - a decision decried at the time by critics as a political overcorrection. By the time the NCAA stepped into the matter, dozens of its members - inspired by a push from activists or the sensitivities of the schools' leadership - had already backed off from using images and names associated with Native Americans.

For the schools that hadn't, the NCAA decision ignited a uniquely American discussion, centered on three subjects that inspire intense feelings: ethnicity, personal identity and the allure of college sports.

"There comes a point in time where you've got to take a stand on what's right and what's not right," says Robert Vowels, now the athletics director at the University of Detroit Mercy, who chaired the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee during the NCAA discussions about Native American mascots. "I think this issue had a kind of magnitude - a sense that this was important, and we were trying to resolve the challenges of that day."

How colleges and universities came to adopt Native American icons as their own is a complex tale that spans the 20th century, and the story of how those schools untangled themselves from that marriage is even messier. Change, after all, is hard. And in the case of Native American-inspired college sports teams, stripping the symbols of an alma mater means coming between fans and a piece of how they define themselves - even if those symbols were misappropriated from another culture.

On the first day of September 2006, a Saturday morning when the air hung thick in the Black Bayou region of Louisiana, Chief Brave Spirit mounted his horse. Wearing moccasins, war paint and a two-piece garment designed to look like buckskin, he cantered toward the 50-yard line of the University of Louisiana at Monroe's Malone Stadium.

Waiting for him at midfield were some university dignitaries, including the university president. The chief dismounted. He removed his headdress and handed it over to the administrators. And then he stood aside and watched, resolute, as a bird named Ace led the football team onto the field for its home opener. With that, the Louisiana-Monroe Indians became the Warhawks.

The transition wasn't that simple for every school.

Altogether, 18 schools were on an NCAA list of schools where mascots, nicknames or imagery were deemed "hostile and abusive." Of those, 10 changed their nicknames and dropped Native American references in how they present themselves. Three more schools - the Bradley University Braves, the Alcorn State Braves and the Illinois Fighting Illini - kept their nicknames by agreeing they would not use them to represent Native Americans.

Many of those 18 schools appealed the decision to the NCAA and lost those appeals before moving on. Among those, some, in Franklin's words, "leveraged the policy to make change." The NCAA provided an impetus to put in place new nicknames or mascots, while diverting finger-pointing away from university leaders. "Confidentially, they would call me and say, 'Bernard, I'm going to submit this appeal,'" Franklin recalls, "'but I hope it gets denied.'"

For five others - the Catawba College Indians, Central Michigan University Chippewas, Florida State Seminoles, Mississippi College Choctaws and University of Utah Utes - the story ended differently. They demonstrated to the NCAA approval from the tribes that inspired their names, and embarked on formal agreements with the tribes.

"Although the Executive Committee continues to believe that stereotyping Native Americans through nicknames and imagery is wrong," Franklin wrote in a letter to Florida State, "it recognizes that a Native American tribe is a distinct political community and, therefore, respects the authority of the tribe to permit universities and colleges to use its name and imagery."

Other schools, too, tried to engage with a distinct political community that could sign off on their depictions. In Illinois, the definition for "Illini" was elusive; the state was named by French explorers, and "Illini" was used to describe a loose confederation of tribes that made up the region. Today, their closest relatives are the Peoria, who are based in Oklahoma. Back in 2001, the year Saigo first approached the NCAA about Native American mascots, the Peoria had asked Illinois to drop Chief Illiniwek.

Six years later, faced with NCAA sanctions, some Illinois alumni reached out to the Peoria, hoping to reach an agreement that assured the school could keep its traditions. But the Illinois board of trustees went a different direction and retired the chief, who danced at halftime for the last time in February 2007.

Nowhere was the transition away from Native American imagery more difficult than at the University of North Dakota. The NCAA push to drop its use of "Fighting Sioux" sparked lawsuits, tribal resolutions and a state law connecting the nickname to the school. (That law, too, prompted a lawsuit, filed by a group of Native American students.)

The question was at last settled by public referendum in 2012. And once voters had a chance to speak, they left little room for debate: By a ratio of 2-to-1, they were in favor of abandoning the fight to remain the Fighting Sioux.

Just this fall, the university announced that a nickname had been chosen. Two days later, the North Dakota men's ice hockey team was scheduled to play again in St. Cloud, Minnesota, a matchup that years earlier had inspired the St. Cloud State president to speak up for change. But this time, North Dakota took the ice as the Fighting Hawks.

These days, Bernard Franklin is the chief inclusion officer of the NCAA. Every year, he is invited to speak to a University of Central Florida sports management class that dissects the NCAA's implementation of its Native American mascot policy. Students are assigned various roles to play as they work together to weigh the facts of each case and come to a fair conclusion. Each year, one student portrays Franklin.

One slide in his presentation notes the most popular American sports team mascots: Eagles. Tigers. Bulldogs. Panthers. Cougars. Lions. Bears. Wildcats. Indians. One of these things, he tells the students, is not like the other - and using Native Americans as mascots equates them with animals.

Franklin sometimes wonders whether the words "hostile and abusive" in the NCAA policy helped set the stage for the firestorm that erupted. "Perhaps using different language might have created more opportunity for dialogue," he notes. "When a person gets defensive, they're not listening. And in so many of the situations I encountered, people were defensive because of those three words in the policy."

The national trends that precipitated the NCAA policy have only gained steam in the decade that followed. Shortly after it was announced, the American Psychological Association called for retiring Native American team mascots, pointing to research that demonstrates how the portrayals can damage self-esteem and social identity development of young Native Americans. A U.S. president spoke out against Native American team names for the first time in 2013. The following year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office canceled six Washington Redskins trademarks.

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Where Pride Meets Prejudice | An NCAA Champion Feature | NCAA.org

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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign no longer has a chief. Its decades-old symbol, Chief Illiniwek, last performed at halftime nearly nine years ago. Neither does the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where Chief Moccanooga was retired two decades ago, nor the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where Chief Brave Spirit once summoned fandom at a campus that called itself The Reservation.

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The Massachusetts state legislature is currently considering a bill to ban all Native American mascots state-wide

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We are one of over 40 high schools facing this issue.

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maine governor signs bill banning native american mascots in public schools - cnn

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Maine Governor signs bill making state the first to ban Native American mascots in public schools

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Maine's governor has signed a bill making the state the first to prohibit public schools, colleges and universities from using Native American symbols as mascots.

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This article and its hyperlinks provide a quick synopsis of American history as it pertains to Native American oppression then and now.

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A Minneapolis community seeks to counteract centuries of federal policies that have put its people at a disadvantage.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.-Native American poverty doesn't fit the image many may have of life on secluded, depleted reservations. Most Native Americans now live in cities, where many are still trying to adjust to urban life; as a group, Native Americans face a 27 percent poverty rate and are still trying to reverse some of the lasting effects of federal policies that have put them at a disadvantage for hundreds of years.

The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 was the impetus for the relocation of the large number of Native Americans now living in urban areas. Though the act didn't force people to leave their reservations, it made it hard for families to stay by dissolving federal recognition of most tribes, and ending federal funding for reservations' schools, hospitals, and basic services-along with the jobs they created. Though the federal government paid for relocation expenses to the cities, and provided some vocational training, urban Native Americans faced high levels of job discrimination, and few opportunities for job advancement.

Minneapolis was one of the first cities chosen for the federal relocation program. Here, the Native American community has taken some bold steps to aid integration, such as opening public schools tailored to Native American students' needs and maintaining the country's only federally subsidized housing project for Native Americans. In the 1970s, Minneapolis became the headquarters of the national American Indian Movement, a civil-rights group. Among other achievements, it pressured the federal government to restore tribal recognition and sovereignty.

The group was working to undo hundreds of years of federal policy that has played a role in producing modern-day Native American poverty. Two early such policies were the forced relocation of Native Americans to reservations and the creation, in 1824, of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Later that century, there was a movement to "civilize," or assimilate, Native Americans, and the Bureau created federal boarding schools, where Native American children were separated from their parents and only allowed to speak English and play sports that had European origins. According to Carolyn J. Marr, an anthropologist and a librarian at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry, the schools sought to " eradicate all vestiges of their tribal cultures."

In the 1930s, these boarding schools began closing after an independent evaluation revealed that students were malnourished and living in poor, overcrowded conditions. Eventually, Congress decided that assimilation would work better, and encouraged Native Americans to leave reservations and move to cities-hence the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, which ended federal recognition of most tribes. Though civil-rights movements in the 1960s would eventually pressure the government to restore the recognition of dozens of tribes, the impact of earlier policies remained; the Bureau of Indian Affairs remains the legal steward of most tribal lands, making it extremely difficult for Native Americans to own property and build wealth in the way other Americans can.

As a result of the Indian Relocation Act, Minneapolis also became home to a tight-knit Native American community, with a majority from Minnesota's large Ojibwe and Lakota tribes. Native Americans now make up 7 percent of residents in the Phillips neighborhood in the southern part of Minneapolis, which is also the city's poorest neighborhood -about 48 percent of people there live in poverty. It's home to the Minneapolis American Indian Center, the Native American Community Clinic, the Native American Community Development Institute, and the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center. At the edge of the neighborhood is Little Earth of the United Tribes, the country's only HUD-subsidized housing project that gives preference to Native Americans. More than a thousand people live in the sprawling complex, which was founded in 1973 with the help of the American Indian Movement. The purpose was to create a sense of community, and affordable housing, for Native Americans who were migrating to the city.

When I visited the Phillips neighborhood, I understood why Little Earth was the heart of city's Native American community. Spray-painted murals of tribal chiefs brightened walkways and a pedestrian bridge. I met with Frank Downwind, the director of youth services at Little Earth. Downwind is a Red Lake Chippewa, and though he was born in South Minneapolis, he spent part of his childhood on the reservation, about a five-hour drive away. "There is not a lot of opportunity on the reservation if you're not into hunting or fishing," he said. "It's easy to fall into unhealthy lifestyles."

While Little Earth has become a magnet for crime and drugs, Downwind says it also provides residents with strong support through a myriad of social services. Little Earth recently renovated several houses in the neighborhood for families who wanted to become homeowners but didn't want to leave the area. Downwind recently bought himself a house in the suburbs, but says he feels a bit isolated and out of place. "Sometimes I regret leaving," he told me. "For all the bad stuff that goes on here, to live in a community where people know you and kids run up to you, that's something hard to find."

One of the teenagers who goes to Little Earth's youth center after school is Chavanna Rodriguez, who is 17 years old and half Lakota. She says a lot of kids go to the center to find a haven from the neighborhood's endemic drug culture. She thinks a lot of the pain-pill addictions she sees are directly related to poverty. "A lot of people are struggling and hurt, and it lets them escape," she told me. Rodriguez wants to go to college, but doesn't know anyone who has ever done that. "It may take me five years to graduate [high school], but I will."

Low high-school graduation rates among Native American teens are a key factor in keeping them trapped in poverty, says Anna Ross, the director of the Indian Education Department for the Minneapolis Public School District. I met Ross at the Anishinabe Academy, just a few blocks from Little Earth. It's one of half a dozen public schools focused on teaching students with Native American backgrounds. There are no posters with blonde, blue-eyed children at this elementary school. Instead, most of the children depicted in teaching materials have dark skin and long, black hair. In one of the halls, Ross points to laminated banners on the wall with seven words: humility, bravery, love, truth, respect, honesty, wisdom. These are the seven "grandfather teachings" that the Ojibwe, or Chippewa, live by, she explained, and they are reflected in the curriculum.

Ross leads me to one of the preschool classes for 4-year-old children. One is an immersion class taught in Ojibwe, which is spoken by tribes from Minnesota to Canada. Another class is taught in the Lakota language. In the Ojibwe classroom, children sit in a circle around their teacher, who holds up different-colored cards. "How do you say 'brown' in Ojibwe?" she asks. They answer, tentatively. Part of the point of teaching youth from a Native American perspective is to give them confidence in themselves and pride in their history and culture. "For science class, we might talk about wild ricing and the impact on the environment," Ross says, referring to a common farming practice in the Native American prairie tribes.

For Native Americans to break the cycle of poverty, Ross says, they need to see the value of education, and to see themselves positively portrayed in their school curriculum. Her department provides two-day trainings for teachers who want to learn more about how to incorporate a Native American view into their classes and field trips.

On-time graduation rates for Native American students have gone up from 24 percent in 2011 to 36 percent in 2015, but that's still quite low. In the Twin Cities, they are the racial group least likely to graduate on time. Ross says Native Americans associate public education with a degree of trauma, since to many of them, decades-long efforts to force them to enroll in federally-arranged boarding schools seemed intent on erasing their culture. Ross, who is a Turtle Mountain Ojibwe, says her grandmother was taken to one of those boarding schools as a child. "There's a lot of anxiety still, so it's no wonder why some Natives might not be so engaged in their children's education," says Ross. "People say, 'It's history' and 'get over it,' but it wasn't that long ago."

While Minneapolis has made great strides in addressing the needs of America's poorest race, it seems that the country, as a whole, has forgotten about the first Americans. So many people in the Phillips neighborhood spoke to me about feeling invisible, as they're so often left out of conversations related to blacks, Latinos, Asians and other minority groups. Even so, they dismiss the depictions of Native Americans as a " vanishing race "-after all, decades of federal policies aimed at assimilating Native Americans have failed to make them disappear.

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How America's Past Shapes Native Americans' Present

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A Minneapolis community seeks to counteract centuries of federal policies that have put its people at a disadvantage.

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This focuses on the Lakota Nation but is a fascinating timeline of treaties made and broken by the US Federal Government.

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Transcript of "America's native prisoners of war"

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: Aaron Huey's effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people -- appalling, and largely ignored -- compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later, his haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson.

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This focuses on the Washington Redskins but is relevant across the board.

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Change the Mascot is a national campaign to end the use of the racial slur "r*dskins" as the mascot and name of the NFL team in Washington, D.C. Launched by the Oneida Indian Nation, 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.

EMPIRICAL STUDIES
Laurel R. Davis-Delano, Joseph P. Gone & Stephanie A. Fryberg The psycho-social effects of Native American mascots: a comprehensive review of empirical research findings, Race Ethnicity and Education LATEST PRESS RELEASE
New Washington NFL Team Name Signifies Hard-Won Victory for Native Americans
The name change represents important first step; NFL must still acknowledge and apologize for the harm caused through its continued use of a dictionary defined slur.
February 2, 2022

IN THE NEWS

Ray Halbritter Op-Ed, CNN: The terrible R-word that football needed to lose
July 13, 2020

Oneida Nation leader Ray Halbritter on Washington NFL team change: 'It's about respect'
July 13, 2020

Wall Street Journal: Washington's NFL Team Officially Drops the R*dskins Name
July 13, 2020

Oneida Nation leader to R*dskins: 'Stand on the right side of history'
July 4, 2020

R*dskins to undergo 'thorough review' of nickname
July 3, 2020

Report: Investors send letters asking Nike, FedEx, PepsiCo to terminate relationships with R*dskins
July 1, 2020

Jeva Lange, The Week: We're missing the most glaringly racist brands.
June 18, 2020

Barry Svrluga, The Washington Post: The R*dskins' name is the shameful statue of the NFL. Tear it down.
June 16, 2020

Michigan schools scraps R*dskins mascot, citing division
March 9, 2020

Illinois lawmakers have introduced a bill to ban Native American mascots
Feb. 27, 2020

Washington R*dskins' name, Native mascots offend more than previously reported
By Yasmin Anwar, Berkeley News, Feb. 4, 2020

Native American leaders say fight to change Washington R*dskins mascot continues
By Payne Horning, WRVO, May 31, 2016

We must stop the NFL from exporting racism
By Rep. Betty McCollum and Michael Dugher, MP, Feb. 29, 2016

Dolphins owner's anti-racism group should address team name
By Ray Halbritter and Jacqueline Pata, Dec. 25, 2015

Monument to Segregationist Should be Removed from RFK Stadium
By Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler and Ray Halbritter

The destructive dynamic of dehumanizing Native Americans
By Ray Halbritter and Jacqueline Pata

Change the Mascot leader Ray Halbritter talked with The Hollywood Reporter regarding the use of racist American Indian imagery in professional sports.

Watch: The Daily Show's recent interview with Native American author Sherman Alexie. The segment extensively discusses the Washington NFL team's use of the R-word slur, and how Native Americans are often left out of discussions about the name and its offensive nature.

"I know that R*dskins is a racial slur because it's never been said in a positive way to me," Alexie said in the interview. "For all of these fans of the R*dskins and the sports teams, I would challenge them to go into a tribal setting, you know, go to a tribal council meeting, and walk in and yell out to the assembled Natives 'Hello R*dskins' and see how that goes.'"
Read: British Members of Parliament urge NFL to change Washington name or send different team to U.K.

Leading national British newspaper The Independent recently published a column centered around the Washington NFL team's trip to London scheduled for next season . The piece urges Wembley Stadium, which will host the team in October, to be consistent in its strong anti-racism stands when the D.C. franchise visits with a mascot the paper describes as "racist and derogatory." The article also calls upon the BBC, which will broadcast the game, to honor its responsibilities by standing against the offensive name.

MEDIA SPOTLIGHT

Change the Mascot Praises Adidas for Momentous Offer to Help End Offensive Native American Mascots -

VIDEO - President Barack Obama Pushes Adidas to Work with Washington's NFL on changing the name.

VIDEO - California Senate Education Committee Hearing on AB30 "California Racial Mascots Act" Press Conference.
Watch: An episode of 'Native Report' featuring coverage of the Change the Mascot Campaign rally that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota during the NFL season
Read: Citing Civil Rights History, Groups Ask NFL Players to Oppose Washington NFL Team Name and Join the Change the Mascot Campaign
Watch: Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter appeared on MSNBCs "Jansing & Co." to discuss the latest developments
Oneida Indian Nation Praises New York Lawmakers for Resolution Calling on Pro Sports Leagues to Stop Using Racial Slurs -

VIDEO: Remarks by Oneida Nation Representative Ray Halbritter

VIDEO: Remarks by members of the New York State Assembly and Senate supporting the Resolution

Ray Halbritter appears on ESPN's Outside the Lines
Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter appeared live on ESPN's Outside the Lines on Thursday, April 25, reacting to the latest comments by Washington NFL team owner Dan Snyder.

Below are the video clips of Ray Halbritter's comments on the ESPN program:

Ray Halbritter - ESPN clip #1
Ray Halbritter - ESPN clip #2
Ray Halbritter - ESPN clip #3

MILESTONES
Oneida Indian Nation Praises U.S. Patent & Trademark Office's Rejection of Washington Redskins Product Due to the Derogatory Nature of the R-Word Oneida Nation Issues Statement Regarding a Bipartisan Congressional Letter to the NFL Calling for the League to Support Changing the Name of Washington's Team The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Inc. - a coalition of the nation's leading civil rights organizations - passed a Resolution Dec. 12 calling on the NFL's Washington team to change its name Oneida Indian Nation Releases Poll Data Showing That a Name Change by Washington's NFL Team Would Lead to Continued or Strengthened Support for the Team Noted Psychologist Dr. Michael Friedman reports on the harmful effects of the use of a racial slur
Read: The Fascination and Frustration with Native American Mascots
By Jennifer Guiliano, assistant director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities

Read: Oneida Indian Nation Responds to President Obama's Historic Comments About Washington's NFL Team Name.
*The President's comments come just two days before the Indian Nation's "Change the Mascot" symposium at the NFL Fall Meeting.

Watch a short video with highlights from the Symposium - click here

Watch the Symposium remarks by The Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton - click here

Watch the Symposium remarks by The Hon. Betty McCollum - click here

Watch the Symposium remarks by Dr. Michael Friedman, Psychologist - click here

Watch the Symposium remarks by Kevin Gover, Director of the National Museum of the American Indian - click here

Watch the Symposium remarks by Cooperstown (NY) School Board President Dr. David Borgstrom and High School Students Emily Greenberg and Catherine Borgstrom - click here

Watch the interview with the President on NBC - click here

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Change The Mascot - Launched By The Oneida Indian Nation

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Change the Mascot is a national campaign to end the use of the racial slur "r*dskins" as the mascot and name of the NFL team in Washington, D.C. Launched by the Oneida Indian Nation, 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.

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The Washington Redskins Agree to Re-evaluate Their Brand

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The Washington Redskins Agree to Re-evaluate Their Brand

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The headline sponsor of the Washington Redskins, Fedex, has called on the American football team to change its controversial name.

The Washington DC-based team has faced repeated calls to change its name, which is considered offensive to Native Americans.

After pressure from investors, FedEx on Thursday added its voice to the calls.

"We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name," it said in a statement.

At the turn of the millennium, FedEx paid $205m (£165m) for the naming rights to the Redskins' 82,000-seat stadium in Maryland. The deal expires in 2025.

But that is not the delivery giant's only tie to the team. The boss and founder of FedEx, Frederick Smith also owns a minority stake in the Redskins.

The team has come under sustained pressure to change its name for decades.

Six years ago FedEx shareholders voted to allow the Redskins to keep its name after the shipping giant received a complaint from the Wisconsin-based Oneida Indian tribe.

But as firms assess their stance on issues around race, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, FedEx has now called for the team to rebrand.

Last week, 87 investment firms and shareholders wrote to FedEx, along with fellow Redskins' sponsors Nike and PepsiCo, calling on the firms to sever ties with the Redskins, according to AdWeek.

"'Redskins' remains a de-humanising word characterizing people by skincolour and a racial slur with hateful connotations," the letter written to PepsiCo said.

As of Thursday, Nike's website did not display any Redskins merchandise. The Washington-based team was the only one of the 32 NFL teams no longer listed in the site's index. Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the past, the team's owner Dan Snyder has remained steadfast on keeping the name, calling it a "badge of honour".

The team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Redskins sponsor, FedEx, urges team to rebrand

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The headline sponsor of the Washington Redskins, Fedex, has called on the American football team to change its controversial name. The Washington DC-based team has faced repeated calls to change its name, which is considered offensive to Native Americans. After pressure from investors, FedEx on Thursday added its voice to the calls.