May 18, 2024 8:55:47 AM

Appropriation in Sports and Taylor Swift's Complicity [Part E]

Kit10Phish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports_team_names_and_mascots_derived_from_indigenous_peoples

At all ages and levels of sport, teams have appropriated Native American imagery (a smattering, not 100%):

Pop Warner Little Scholars[edit]

Albemarle Redskins, Albemarle County, Virginia ^[34]
Antioch Redskins, Plant City, Florida ^[35]
Bennetts Creek Warriors, Suffolk, Virginia ^[36]
Derby Red Raiders, Derby, Connecticut ^[37]
East Bay Warriors, Oakland, California ^[38]
Fort Braden Chiefs, Fort Braden, Florida ^[39]
FW Redskins, Goodyear, Arizona ^[40]
Immokalee Seminoles, Immokalee, Florida ^[41]
Lower Sussex Indians, Sussex County, Delaware ^[42]
Nonnewaug Chiefs, Woodbury, Connecticut ^[43]
Oak Cliff Redskins, Dallas, Texas ^[44]
Pomperaug Warriors, Southbury, Connecticut ^[45]
Reynolds Corner Redskins, Toledo, Ohio ^[46]
Southeast Apaches, San Antonio, Texas ^[47]
Southland Comanches, Colorado ^[48]
Stratford Redskin, Stratford, Connecticut ^[49]
Water Oak Indians, Watertown, Connecticut ^[50]
Western Albemarle Chiefs, Crozet, Virginia ^[51]
Willamette Redskins, Eugene, Oregon ^[52]

Youth/Junior football[edit]

Antioch Redskins, Plant City, Florida ^[53]
CLCF Football, Cranston, Rhode Island (Chiefs)^[54]
Catawissa Redskins, Catawissa, Pennsylvania
Donaldsonville Redskins, Donaldsonville, Louisiana ^[55]
Fauquier Youth Football, Fauquier County, Virginia ^[56]
Grayling Redskins Youth Football, Grayling, Michigan ^[57]
Kanawha Youth Football Redskins, Richmond, Virginia ^[58]
Lancaster Junior Redskins, Lancaster, New York
Loudon Redskins Youth Football, Loudon, Tennessee ^[59]
Patterson Redskins Youth Football & Cheer, Patterson, California ^[60]
Rochester Redskins Youth Football & Cheer, Rochester, Michigan ^[61]
Sarasota Ringling Redskins, Sarasota, Florida ^[62]
South Cherokee Football and Cheer "Redskins", Woodstock, Georgia ^[63]
Southwest Redskins, Houston, Texas ^[64]
Sterling Heights Redskins, Sterling Heights, Michigan ^[65]
Vienna Youth Inc. Football Chiefs, Vienna, Virginia ^[66]
Washington Redskins Midget Football, Washington, New Jersey ^[67]
Whittier Redskins, Whittier, California
Woonsocket Redskins Youth Football and Cheerleading, Woonsocket, Rhode Island ^[68]

College

Florida State Seminoles (American College Football) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
Utah Utes (American College Football) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the South Division of the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12)

Professional Sports

Chicago Blackhawks (NHL)
Atlanta Braves (Atlanta, Georgia) - originally Boston Braves, then Milwaukee Braves. The mascot Chief Noc-A-Homa existed until the 1983 season. Princess Win-A-Lotta was introduced in the late 1970s, dropped at same time as Noc-A-Homa. In 1991, the Braves adopted the Tomahawk Chop from Florida State University when Deion Sanders joined the team.^[15]
Kansas City Chiefs (NFL) - While adopting Native American imagery, the team was named in honor of Kansas City mayor Harold Roe Bartle who was instrumental in bringing the AFL Dallas Texans to Kansas City in 1963 (becoming the last professional team to adopt an Indigenous-derived name). Bartle earned his nickname as founder of the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, a regional Boy Scouts honor camping society in which he was "Chief" Lone Bear. In 1989, the Chiefs switched from Warpaint, a Pinto horse ridden by a man in a feathered headdress, to their current mascot K. C. Wolf. Warpaint returned in 2009, but is ridden by a cheerleader.^[13]

By dating football player Travis Kelce and showing up to many Chiefs games, Taylor Swift, knowingly or not, became a representative for the NFL, football, and the Kansas City Chiefs. Someone of her status has incredible brand-recognition, so anything she supports has her implicit stamp of approval.

The Kansas City Chiefs are still appropriating tribal names and symbols to make money. But in looking up some issues, I see they have made some efforts to “end racism.” Whether these were prompted by loss of sponsorship money like the Washington Redskins name change, I don’t know.

In 2014, the Chiefs launched the American Indian Community Working Group, which has Native Americans serving as advisers, to educate the team on issues facing the Indigenous population. As a result, Native American representatives have been featured at games, sometimes offering ceremonial blessings. “The members of that working group weren’t people that were involved in any of the organizations that actually serve Natives in Kansas City,” said Crouser (15).

Ahead of the 2020 season, the Chiefs barred fans from wearing headdresses or face paint referencing or appropriating Native American culture in Arrowhead Stadium, though some still have. In 2021, the Chiefs retired their mascot, a horse named Warpaint that a cheerleader would ride onto the field every time the team scored a touchdown.

The team’s name and arrowhead logo remain, as does the “tomahawk chop,” in which fans chant and swing a forearm up and down in a ritual that is not unique to the Chiefs (15).

But she did not speak out against it either.

During Chiefs home games, …Indigenous activists stand outside Arrowhead with signs saying, “Stop the Chop” and “This Does Not Honor Us.” The sounds of a large drum and thousands of fans imitating a “war chant” as they swing their arms thunder from the stadium (15).

“There’s no other group in this country subjected to this kind of cultural degradation,” said Phil Gover, who founded a school dedicated to Native youth in Oklahoma City. “It’s demeaning. It tells Native kids that the rest of society, the only thing they ever care to know about you and your culture are these mocking minstrel shows,” he said, adding that what non-Native children learn are stereotypes. Research has shown the use of Native American imagery and stereotypes in sports have negative psychological effects on Native youth and encourage non-Native children to discriminate against them (15).

Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver sees the label “Chief” as a term of endearment. “There’s no honor in you painting your face and putting on a costume and cosplaying our culture,” said Gaylene Crouser, executive director of the Kansas City Indian Center, which provides health, welfare and cultural services to the Indigenous community. She added, “The sheer entitlement of people outside our community telling us they’re honoring us is so incredibly frustrating” (15)

For LeValdo, the pain fueling her anger and activism is rooted in the oppression, killing and displacement of her ancestors and the lingering effects those injustices have on her community. “We weren’t even allowed to be Native American. We weren’t allowed to practice our culture. We weren’t allowed to wear our clothes,” she said. “But it is OK for Kansas City fans to bang a drum, to wear a headdress and then to act like they’re honoring us? That doesn’t make sense.”

Sources:

1] https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Boys

2] https://muse.jhu.edu/article/758591

3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231904832_Peter_Pan_and_the_White_Imperial_Imaginary

4] https://thefifth.medium.com/the-peter-pan-syndrome-epidemic-why-modern-men-are-lost-in-never-never-land-f0f052e1ec9e

5] https://aahabershaw.com/2016/02/22/boyhood-manhood-and-peter-pan/

6] http://komunikata.id/index.php/komunikata/article/view/236

7] https://animatedmeta.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/peter-pan-and-gender-roles/

8] https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/4462

9] https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/9569/1/fulltext.pdf

10] https://www.123helpme.com/essay/Gender-Roles-in-Peter-Pan-by-J-273202

11] https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Boys