Photo courtesy Change the Mascot.

Ray Halbritter, a representative from the Oneida Indian Nation, had a simple message for the Washington football team today: “This is not going away this time.”

Halbritter was referring to the push to get the Washington team to change their racist name and mascot, a movement that has been happening at varying degrees of intensity for decades. Speaking at a symposium timed to coincide with the start of the NFL’s fall league meeting, Halbritter said “Washington’s team name is a painful epithet that was used against my people when we were held at gunpoint and thrown off our lands.” No NFL representatives were in attendance, despite being invited, he later said. But Halbritter said he hopes to have a conversation with Snyder. Update: Sources tell the Post that NFL representatives will meet with Oneida Indian Nation representatives on November 22.

Also in attendance at Monday’s symposium at the Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown was Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and Kevin Gover from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. A man in the audience wore a shirt that read “I am a Cherokee, not a redskin.”

The Oneida Indian Nation launched radio ads and the Change the Mascot campaign in September to raise awareness about the movement. It got an even bigger boost over the weekend when President Obama said in an interview with the Associated Press that the team should think about changing its name.

Norton said she doesn’t think the team’s name will last much longer, despite the fact that team owner Dan Snyder has vowed “NEVER” to change the name. Norton said that FedEx and other team sponsors should put pressure on Snyder to change the name.

When later asked why Norton believes Snyder won’t change the name, she said it was because “of his own distorted ego.” She also said that polls showing support for the team name are “irrelevant.”

Halbritter said that Snyder should change the name, regardless of cost. He brought up the Washington Wizards’ name change from the Bullets at the behest of then owner Abe Pollin. “Did it cost him money? … Yes it did,” Halbritter said. “If we’re talking about doing the right thing, then what’s there to talk about?”