Not in Our Honor - Press Conference

The Red Nation Podcast

The Red Nation

History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On February 10, 2024 at Nuwu Art Gallery on unceded Paiute territory (Las Vegas, NV), a group of Indigenous women organized a call to action to change the Kansas City NFL team's name. This press conference occurred the night before the Super Bowl and was moderated by Fawn Douglas from Nuwu Art Gallery. The main speakers--Amanda Blackhorse (nomorenativemascots.org), Gaylene Crouser from the Kansas City Indian Center, and Rhonda LeValdo (notinourhonor.com)--are all longtime activists of the movement to change racist teams names across the US, resulting in many victories.

In July 2020, the Washington NFL team changed their name from the anti-Indigenous R-word slur to the Washington Football Team, and then the Washington Commanders in 2022. The success of this change can be attributed to the women on this panel and their movements. It was expected that the Kansas City team would follow suit, but it has yet to change its racist team name.

On February 7, 2024, Amanda Blackhorse posted this call to action:

The Kansas City "Chiefs" once again make it to the super bowl with their mockery of a name, logo, and complete misappropriation and disrespect for real and actual Native people, who have protested their franchise for years. Despite psychological research stating Native mascots and stereotypes of Native people (fryberg, markus, oyserman, & stone 2008) harm native youth, the KC team continues to stonewall Native people and stand on the wrong side of history.

We know native cultural appropriation is a billion-dollar industry and the franchise has been living well off of the backs of Native people. With their growing popularity and the "swifting" of the NFL, we want to remind the public that not all franchises last forever. The Washington team and the Cleveland team had their success and downfall. What's been consistent is Native people standing against the theft of their identities and culture. We call on all Indigenous people, tribes, tribal leaders, Native organizations, Native artists, singers, drummers, and allies to stand with us on February 11, 2024 outside Super Bowl LVIII to protest the KC franchise. We ask these organizations and tribes make public statements standing in solidarity with Native organizers, Not in Our Honor, Kansas City Indian Center, Nuwu Art, and AZ rally. Protest will be held at Allegiant Stadium.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And So, All right, so are we all connected?
0:23.2	Is everything live? All right, thank you. And anybody who wants to take pictures, take video, please, You're certainly open and welcome to.
0:45.6	Just a couple of housekeeping things.
0:47.0	So first off, my name is Fawn, Fawn Douglas.
0:49.2	I'm one of the leaders here at the NUW Art Gallery
0:51.8	and Community center.
0:53.4	The restrooms are in the back, just right there towards that of Renda.
0:57.3	And afterwards, if you didn't get something to eat or drink,
1:00.4	the community actually brought a bunch of food and stuff. so please, you know, help yourselves after this press conference to some things.
1:07.0	And yeah, so we're here in the new new art gallery and community center.
1:11.0	This space has been open since well last year but we got the space
1:15.9	going in 2020 this place actually used to be a synagogue and we still use this in a
1:22.2	communal way and currently up is this really beautiful exhibition for the weaving our cultures
1:28.7	Which includes many different women from the community and so please take some time to check that out as well.
1:35.7	I'm really honored to introduce the speakers
1:38.7	that are here today.
1:40.1	And I'm going to just kind of stand on the side. It's really these amazing women who've been doing this work
1:45.2	for decades, truly decades.
1:48.4	And they've been standing up for Native American rights
1:51.3	and against mascots and cultural appropriation and other
1:56.6	disrespectful things not only in sports but within communities and things that
2:01.5	are happening around the nation. I'd like to introduce
	...

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