The Washington National Football League team cannot get out of their own way regarding the debate over their nickname. Their latest blunder: The Washington team-backed Original Americans Foundation (OAF) attempted to assist the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe in Winterhaven, CA efforts to fund a skate park. The attempt did not go well.
Washington NFL team tries to bribe American Indian tribe with a skate park
Washington continues to make fools of themselves in defense of their team nickname.
Kevin C. Cox
“We respectfully listened to their presentation,” President of Kwatsan Media Inc., Kenrick Escalanti told Indian Country Today. “But when Gary Edwards referred to himself as a ‘redskin’ in front of our Nation’s officials, I knew that their visit had ulterior motives.”
Edwards, a Cherokee Indian, was appointed to be the head of the OAF foundation by Washington owner Daniel Snyder back in March. The foundation meets with American Indian tribes in the hopes of bribing them to agree that the team’s nickname is not offensive and the visit to the Quechan Tribe was no different.
The OAF (aka the Washington NFL team) essentially offered the Tribe a blank check to build their skate park, in the color scheme of the NFL franchise, burgundy and gold. Furthermore, Edwards told the Quechan Tribe that “You don’t even need to say we gave you anything.”
Escalanti told Indian Country Today they they immediately refused the offer, stating that they did want to become part of the battle for the team’s nickname and that “we know bribe money when we see it.”
It didn’t end with just a bribe to build the skatepark and provide the Quechan children with iPads, either. Escalanti told Indian Country Today that Edwards also offered a bizarre and offensive defense of Washington’s nickname.
Those opposed to the name, Edwards said, are "creating the old assimilation policy now being enacted today." Edwards added that "we [Native Americans] need to get stronger because if we don't they will annihilate us! That is my sincere heartfelt belief."
"we know bribe money when we see it."
Edwards told a tribe of Native Americans that being offended by the Washington football nickname is that if American Indians don’t “assimilate” and accept it, they’ll be “annihilated”.
What? Those two buzzwords, assimilate and annihilate, are heavy words in American Indian history and culture. They refer to a time when the aftereffects of American colonialism nearly caused the destruction of Native American and tribal culture.
“We don’t need hush money, we need the franchise to respect that the majority of Native America is against the racial slur they use as a team name,” Escalanti said.
Washington’s attempts to battle and defend their slur of a nickname have been a continuous comedy of errors. The latest attempt to pay off a tribe of American Indians with a blank check for their skatepark is just another absurd notch on their belt.
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