Daniel Snyder. Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images.
Earlier today, the Oneida Indian Nation met with the NFL to discuss the ongoing controversy surrounding the Washington football team’s name and mascot. And how did that go for the Oneida Indian Nation? Well, not so good.
“We believe it’s a historic day,” Oneida Indian Nation representative Ray Halbritter told members of the media at a press conference in New York. “The National Football League agreed to meet with us and recognized that it’s important enough to discuss this issue, and today’s meeting was certainly a first step.” But after today’s meeting, the NFL will continue to defend Washington’s team name and mascot, Halbritter said.
“This is not about Dan Snyder, this is a civil rights issue,” Halbritter said in his statement. During his meeting with NFL representatives, Halbritter said he “requested the opportunity for [his] nation to meet with the entire group of NFL owners during the week of the Super Bowl in February,” and also invited NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Snyder to visit their homeland to see firsthand the effects that the Washington football team’s name has on people in his community.
Halbritter also requested that Goodell change the NFL bylaws to ban naming a team a “dictionary defined slur.”
During their meeting, Halbritter cited that Native Americans have the lowest life expectancy, the lowest quality of living, and one of the highest rates of teen suicides in the nation. He said that the team’s name, which is a dictionary defined racial slur, has destructive effects on his people and Native American people everywhere, and introduced a psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Friedman, who conducted a report on the psychological effects of the Washington football team’s name on Native American people.
“The ongoing use of a dictionary-defined racial slur against the Native American people, above the objections of the Native American people,” Friedman said, “is a serious risk factor for damaging, negative mental health consequences for Native Americans.” Friedman laid out his findings, citing how the term is textbook discrimination against Native Americans.
Although today’s meeting wasn’t as successful as the Oneida Indian Nation hoped, Halbritter said that they’re “just going to have to double their efforts” in the Change The Name campaign. “Believe me,” Halbritter said, “we’re not going anywhere.”
You can read Dr. Friedman’s full psychological report from today’s meeting below:
