The Indian Center didn't become officially involved with the anti-mascot group until a few years ago, she said. "But they weren't interested in talking to us because they knew what we would have to say." "The team has worked hard to put out the illusion that they work with tribes because they do work with a few tribal members," Crouser said. Gaylene Crouser, executive director of the Kansas City Indian Center and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and LeValdo said the most vocal anti-mascot activists were not invited to any talks with the team, nor do they anticipate ever being at the table. In 1963, one ad promoting a matchup between the Chiefs and the New England Patriots featured a Revolutionary War soldier with his rifle hidden offering an Indian chief some shiny beads. Other teams took full advantage of the Chiefs' logo in their own marketing. The team even brought out its very own mascot: Warpaint the horse. The "chief" was cradling a football.Īlong with that came even more appropriation: the "arrowhead chop," a big powwow-style drum that reverberated at the start of home games, a chant straight out of a Hollywood Western and lots of fans wearing fake headdresses and war paint. He wielded a tomahawk instead of a revolver and was depicted in front of the six-state area surrounding Kansas City. Chiefs' logo, mascot and other cultural appropriationĪlong with the new name came a new logo, also created by Taylor: a shirtless Native man sporting washboard abs, a large feather headdress, buckskin leggings, moccasins and a loincloth. Rhonda LeValdo, a member of the Acoma Pueblo, said she was appalled to learn that the "tribe" was performing its own version of the sacred Eagle Dance. They had "reservations," "bands," and "societies," each with its own regalia and dances. The "tribe" appropriated Native culture on a wholesale scale. Nation: US changes names of nearly 650 places with racist Native American women term The Chiefs have, over the years, dumped what activists say were the worst of its motifs – as they banned fake headdresses and Native-themed warpaint from fan faces and initiated a working group of local Native people to advise them. PHOENIX – When the Kansas City Chiefs take the field against the Philadelphia Eagles on Super Bowl Sunday, they will sport white uniforms with a distinctive logo: an arrowhead with the initials KC emblazoned on the surface.Īnd greeting them among thousands of football fans: Native activists who have been urging the team to retire the name "Chiefs," the arrowhead and the rest of an accumulated 60-plus years of cultural appropriation and stereotyping. Activists plan to travel to Glendale, Arizona, for Super Bowl Sunday with signs and messages to make their voices heard.But some Indigenous people want the franchise to go further. The Chiefs have, over the years, dumped what activists say were the worst of its motifs.For years, Native activists have been urging the Kansas City Chiefs to retire the team's name, the arrowhead and other signs of cultural appropriation.
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