Great commentary by Gabe Galonda on the Redskins issue. Moral Persuasion is needed, just as it is on matters of disenrollment
Bank of America is the “exclusive sponsor” of the Washington Redskins. Bank of America is also an exclusive lender–in fact, the leading lender–the $28 billion Indian gaming industry.
Indian Country now balks at Nike and FedEx‘s Redskins sponsorships. But the hundreds of tribes that bank with Bank of America, and that collectively tout billions of dollars in purchasing power, speak little of Bank of America’s own use of the Redskins mascot or unholy alliance with Dan Snyder.Bank of America has paid millions of dollars to Dan Snyder to serve as the “Official Bank of the Washington Redskins.” Bank of America has received many millions more from Indian Country in gaming deals. Bank of America is so very content to have it both ways, remaining on the sidelines of the Redskins mascot debate
Simply put, cash is king. Indeed, while Indian country scorns Snyder’s Original Americans Foundation and rejects his blood money, tribes accept donations from Nike’s N7 Fund and tribal casinos continue to do mega business with BofA. It’s all shades of grey, or green.
This status quo will prevail until the money fleets from Bank of America, Nike and FedEx, the NFL, and in turn Dan Snyder.
Maybe Indian gaming money will be the first to go. Maybe not. But only when the money goes, will the name change.
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Is The Redskins' "VIP" Indian Defender A Fake Indian?
By, Dave McKenna
Mark One Wolf was, for a time, a favored native in Dan Snyder's fight to save the "Redskins" nickname. "Native American backing team name is VIP at practice," read a Richmond Times-Dispatch headline. It was accompanied by an Associated Press photo of One Wolf in profile, as if to echo the team's logo. But that was July. Now folks on both sides of the squabble agree on one thing: One Wolf makes poor Liz Warren look like Pocahontas.
"He is the 21st-century version of William 'Lone Star' Dietz," says Toby Vanlandingham, an anti-name activist from the Yurok Reservation in California. Dietz was the former Redskins coach whose reputed Sioux heritage inspired the team's nickname, according to the save-the-name camp, even though most evidence available today suggests he was neither Indian nor the inspiration.
"Mark One Wolf is a fucking phony," says ReGina Zuni, an ardent pro-namer living on the Isleta Pueblo reservation in New Mexico. Zuni says she's so convinced that One Wolf's not really an Indian that she emailed the team to warn them to stay away from him, lest they get caught using another—yes, another—poseur.
http://deadspin.com/is-the-redskins-vip-indian-defender-a-fake-indian-1642991295
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