Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images.

In a letter addressed to the Washington [football team] nation, team owner Dan Snyder announced that they’re forming a new organization whose mission is “to provide meaningful and measurable resources that provide genuine opportunities for Tribal communities.” The organization, called the Original Americans Foundation, will give money to Native American communities and help solve many of the issues facing them, like poverty, rampant diabetes, and drug and alcohol abuse. For once, Snyder is putting his money where his mouth is.

That’s good and all, but let’s get serious: this is pretty much a shameless publicity stunt to distract people from the mounting pressure to get him to change the name. The thing is, if giving lots of his own money to Native American communities is what it takes to try and distract people from the name-change issue, then let him do it. At least his money is going towards something constructive.

In the letter, Snyder says that he and his staff spent four months visiting Tribal reservations across many states to hear what they have to say about the team’s name. Snyder says that most Native Americans he came across support the team’s name. “Most—by overwhelming majorities—find our name to be rooted in pride for our shared heritage and values,” Snyder writes. Of course, it’s hard to know how true that statement is, but there are certainly a lot of Native American communities that will refute those claims—and that number keeps growing.

But Snyder highlights what else he learned about Native American communities and the more pressing issues they’re facing today. Issues like poverty, drug abuse and alcoholism, and lack of infrastructure. As much as I support Snyder changing the team’s name, I have to give him credit for recognizing the more important issues facing Native Americans today and pledging to do something about it.

Snyder’s letter boasts that he’s already started doing charitable work with Native American communities, but smugly points out that “because [he’s] so serious about the importance of this cause, [he] began [their] efforts quietly and respectfully, away from the spotlight, to learn and take direction from the Tribal leaders themselves.” So far, the Original Americans Foundation has already distributed over 3,000 winter coats to different tribes during the cold months and purchased a new backhoe for the Omaha Tribe in Nebraska. Additionally, Snyder writes that they “have over forty additional projects currently in process.”

Sure, the Original Americans Foundation is a publicity stunt, and his letter is a pretty groan-worthy, somewhat self-congratulating attempt to skirt mounting pressure about the team’s name, but at least it’s a constructive publicity stunt.

It’s only a matter of time until Snyder is forced to change the name, so why not get him to squeeze out as much money possible for a noble cause until then?

Update: Oneida Indian Nation representative Ray Halbritter—who’s been leading the recent campaign to get Snyder and the NFL to change the team’s name—released the following statement:

“We’re glad that after a decade of owning the Washington team, Mr. Snyder is finally interested in Native American heritage, and we are hopeful that when his team finally stands on the right side of history and changes its name, he will honor the commitments to Native Americans that he is making.

We are also hopeful that in his new initiative to honor Native Americans’ struggle, Mr. Snyder makes sure people do not forget that he and his predecessor George Preston Marshall, a famous segregationist, have made our people’s lives so much more difficult by using a racial slur as the Washington team’s name.”