{"id":116337,"date":"2014-11-24T21:49:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T04:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nfl-team-mascot-or-a-racial-slur\/"},"modified":"2014-11-24T21:49:42","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T04:49:42","slug":"nfl-team-mascot-or-a-racial-slur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nfl-team-mascot-or-a-racial-slur\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL team mascot or a racial slur?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"At
At Buckley Park in Durango, Adrianne Chalepah, left, and Ellinda McKinney joined protesters in gatherings around the nation on Sunday, holding signs and speaking out against the use of \u201cRedskins\u201d as a mascot by the NFL team in Washington, D.C.<\/span>BRANDON MATHIS\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

While Washington\u2019s NFL team went up against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, it faces a different kind of challenge off the gridiron.<\/p>\n

In protests across the nation, groups gathered to denounce the use of the mascot name \u201cRedskins,\u201d which many are calling a racial slur, an offensive name and a harmful term.<\/p>\n

In Durango, a group of about ten people gathered near Buckley Park, held signs and chanted \u201cNo more Redskins; no more Mascot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adrianne Chalepah, of Cortez, said she has her own voice and wanted to use it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m tired of hearing people speak for me,\u201d she said. \u201cAmerica should know that there are a lot of Native Americans who are extremely bothered and hurt by the name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellinda McKinney said the issues goes beyond a name.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt runs deep,\u201d she said. \u201cIt can be a very emotional issue for a variety of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Oneida Indian Nation, which founded the movement for the National Football League team to change its name, support is growing from politicians and other professional athletes.<\/p>\n

According to websites like www. ChangeTheMascot.org and www. NativeAppropriations.com, 67 percent of natives are offended by use of the name and do consider it a form of discrimination.<\/p>\n

The Oneida Indian Nation also released information claiming that the Washington team has omitted facts from its website, such as the team\u2019s original owner being a segregationist who once pioneered efforts to ban African-American players from the NFL.<\/p>\n

The tribe also claims that \u2013 from members of Congress all the way to the president \u2013 politicians have demanded the franchise stop use of the name.<\/p>\n

Most modern dictionaries denote the term as derogatory and\/or offensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that motivated me to come out here and stand with these signs is that I was tired of seeing news reports that most natives are OK with it,\u201d Chalepah said. \u201cThat\u2019s not true at all. The team went out and found a bunch of natives who were in support of the name, and good for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalepah wants to use her voice to make a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all boils down to my voice as a Native American woman,\u201d she said. \u201cMy main focus is for people to see: Look, I\u2019m here, and my voice matters. Please, at least listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

bmathis@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

natives still offended by Washington\u2019s choice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[1544,13,561],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-us-national-football-league-nfl-north-american","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-native-american"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116337"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}