The "Redskins" Distraction
Disclaimer: I am writing this article as a person of non-Native descent. If I have said something in ignorance, error, or miscalculated any statistic, please let me know via private message (I sometimes miss the comments). Thank you.
In attempt to distract us from his legal woes, Donald Trump took to his Truth Social this week in a not-so-unexpected diatribe that ellicits racism, ignorance, and otherwise a late Sunday morning at the White House.
Now, no one was actually asking to change the team’s name, namely Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris, who stated that the new name (as of 2022) was here to stay, but it's an important conversation to have. Why did the Redskins change their name, and what does it mean for Native communities in the United States?
Let's look at the history.
Obviously America has a pretty violent and sordid past when it comes to colonists' treatment of Indigenous tribes and communities. Nowhere in our history did we decide that "fair and equal treatment" was the better option.
In fact, since 1492, when white settlers first came to what is now the United States, we've pushed Native Americans onto reservations that take up approximately 2.3% of the total land area, or roughly 56 million acres (about the size of Idaho). And what started out as upwards of 18 million Indigenous inhabitants on “American” soil, 100 years later was closer to 1 million. Because when we landed here we brought smallpox with us, that killed at a rate of about 50%, but we also brought influenza, typhus, and the measles, for which the Native people had no immunities.
After several genocides of the Native people, including the Trail of Tears--where 4,000 Cherokee people (as well as an unknown number from 4 other tribes) died of starvation and exposure, forced to march from the Southeastern United States to the newly-designated "Indian Territory" as part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830--a mere 237,000 tribal members were left by the year 1900, about 1.5% of the population at first contact. 20,000 of these were children forced to enroll in Indian boarding schools, a number which would triple by 1925, though they would never be accounted for in government documentation.
A few of these schools are still in operation, though their overall intent has changed.
Today that number has grown to over 9 million people who identify as either American Indian or Alaskan Native, though over half of these identify as multiracial, and in totality still represent only 2.92% of the population.
This brings us back to the conversation of how we reference groups of people of which we ourselves do not identify. (Or maybe do.)
The term "redskin" has varying and debated histories, though most were documented only after first contact, and closer to the end of the 1600s. It is claimed at that time that "red" was used merely as an identifier, as with "black" or "white" and was associated more with the culture of a people than their actual skin color. However, there is documentation of certain tribes like the Beothuk of Newfoundland who practiced painting their bodies with red ochre, leading to the term "Red Indians" by the Europeans. But as with most American history, all documentation leaves us with a warm, cozy feeling.
"It came in the most respectful context and at the highest level. These are white people and Indians talking together, with the white people trying to ingratiate themselves." - Ives Goddard, National Museum of Natural History curator
And while many Native tribes picked up the term "red," it was likely coined by European settlers, and for dark reasons. There is evidence that the idea of "redskin" came from the red scalp or other body parts of Native Americans collected for bounty. L. Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of OZ, advocated for the annihilation of all remaining "redskins" as a young owner of a newspaper in South Dakota.
"Better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are." - L. Frank Baum
In the early 1900s with the onset of Hollywood, the term "redskin," along with other racial terms like "Oriental," took on a pejorative nature, associating characters with "contempt, derision, condescension, or even praise of the ‘noble savage.’” Today it is considered highly contentious, a racial stereotype, but often used in majority-Native schools like Red Mesa High School in Teec Nos Pos, AZ (where the student body is 99% Navajo), and Wellpinit, WA on the Spokane Indian Reservation. As with many words associated with cultures and racial communities that have become pejorative over time, "redskin" is recognized as a word appropriately used only by the people it represents. The principal of Red Mesa High School agreed, saying that "use of the word outside American Indian communities should be avoided because it could perpetuate 'the legacy of negativity that the term has created.'" [Wikipedia]
But like with other words that I'm sure we all know, but I won't mention here, whether or not a community chooses to use them is their own right and place. Many Indigenous people do not identify with the term "redskin" because of its etymology, the dark history of colonialism, and the many genocides that have left them a fraction of the populations that have lived on "American" soil for thousands of years.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. Not a Native American. Not an Alaskan Native. Not an Indigenous person. A white guy. When the Boston Redskins were given the name in 1933 to avoid any confusion with the Boston Braves, who shared their stadium (before the Redskins moved to D.C. in 1936), Native Americans had been considered U.S. citizens for only nine years, and would not fully be given the right to vote for another 15 years in 1948. The government still believed in Native assimilation, including the removal of languages and cultures, and bringing Native children "into the fold" of American society as white citizens, with white customs and religions. Much of this is still happening today in the Trump Administration, with the removal of languages and customs from federal property and websites, and the requirement to post the 10 Commandments in public school classrooms.
As with many cultures and customs, those who do not participate or are not a member of these mores do not have a say in how they are expressed, nor do they hold the right to take them away from those who celebrate their history--i.e. Donald Trump does not hold the right to assign potentially pejorative Native identifiers to a non-native, white-led system like the NFL. Nor is the NFL, after nearly 60 years of protest from Native communities, asking to revert back to the "Washington Redskins."
So in another attempt to distract us from a hair's breadth proximity to child sexual abuse, Donald Trump is pretending to be pro-Native. If you want to know how he really feels about Native American communities, I recommend reading the "Big Beautiful Bill" or Project 2025's sections on the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. As he pulls nearly $1 billion in funding from tribal communities, decimating schools, health, and environmental programs, I need to state for the record that Donald Trump is only pro-Donald Trump.
“I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations.” - Donald Trump, 1993
So the Washington Commanders will remain the Washington Commanders. The Cleveland Guardians will remain the Cleveland Guardians. And the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Chiefs will still be up for debate in the coming years.
What is not up for debate is the racist history of our current Commander-In-Chief, his distaste for Native American tribes who stood in the way of his casinos (calling them “cocaine-traffickers” and “career criminals), and his odyssey to take down non-white groups one Truth Social post at a time.
If you would like to read a summary of the Big Beautiful Bill’s impact on Native American tribes, you can do that here:
The Big Beautiful Bill
If you would like to see the planning that has gone into the health and education of Native Tribes by the Trump Administration, you can do that here:
Project 2025 - The Department of Education
and here:
Project 2025 - The Department of Health and Human Services (part 2)
If you would like to read more about Donald Trump’s history with the Tribes in New York State, you can do that here:
Donald Trump’s Long History of Clashes with Native Americans
Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.
So you know I agree. But, c'mon. What about the Lucky Charms Leprechaun? Do you know how many times JUST THIS WEEK I fielded snark about the Drunk Irish?. People are alarmingly ignorant, cowardly and afraid of anything not white bread and mayo. Goddess help us all.
Thank you for this.