America


Native Americans Like Sports Mascots


Leading Indian group wants to keep indigenous team names and logos.


N BROWN BY ALICE GIORDANO


ot only do most native Americans not mind sports teams being called Redskins or mascots fea-


turing war bonnets, but they’d also like liberals to stop trying to ban them. One of the largest American Indi-


an organizations in the U.S. spear- headed a recent discrimination lawsuit fi led by the Trump admin- istration against one of the wokest states in the country, New York, for barring pub- lic schools from using indigenous team names, mascots, and logos.


“They do not


speak for us,” said Chief Walt Red Hawk


Brown III, a longtime board member of the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA). Brown, who is also head of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Tribe in Virginia, said “bias and prejudice,” not misplaced passion, is driving the push to “negating native history.” The tipping point for his group,


he said, came when the New York Department of Education’s Board of Regents ordered a Long Island school district, drenched in imagery of American Indian chiefs, to stop calling its teams the Chiefs “because it off ends Native American culture.” The Massapequa School District,


along with three other Long Island school districts named after Native American tribes, challenged the order in federal court, arguing it vio- lated First Amendment rights.


18 NEWSMAX | AUGUST 2025 U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie,


an Obama appointee, rejected the First Amendment claim, ruling that districts had not proved a constitu- tional violation. She also ruled that the hefty cost


to erase every reference to American Indians “does not outweigh the pub- lic interest in furthering a discrimi- nation and harassment-free learning environment.” Brodie’s ruling is under appeal,


but meanwhile the Offi ce of Civil Rights (OCR), headed by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, says New York is in violation of Title VI. It gave the state an ultimatum —


end the Native American ban or face prosecution by the Department of Justice. It also ordered New York to apologize to indigenous tribes and acknowledge that they discriminated against them. McMahon said New York’s Board of Regents had “aban- doned all common sense.” “The Trump administration will


not stand idly by as state leaders attempt to eliminate the history and culture of Native American tribes,” she said.


McMahon said what made the


New York ban especially discrimina- tory is that New York had no issue with the use of other ethnic-inspired team names, such as the Dutch- men and the Huguenots, a group of French Protestants that faced severe persecution. In addition to its fi ght to preserve


the use of American Indians as team names and mascots, NAGA has also nationally endorsed professional sports teams including the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, the MLB’s Cleve-


land Indians, the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors — all of which faced pressure to change their name on claims they were “racist.” They continue to fi ght such move-


ments, including a recent one spear- headed at the opening of baseball season by two Atlanta Braves fans calling on the Georgia team to divest itself from its name and instead adopt one that honors fi refi ghters. Brown points to a recent national


poll by his group that shows at least 90% of Native Americans support teams with traditional tribal names. NAGA also recently released a


report, “Exposing the Scheme,” in which it blames “cancel culture” for creating a fake narrative that Native Americans are off ended by the use of tribal names. And not just in sports. The NAGA report also criticizes


cancel culture for its aggressive cam- paigning against American icons such as Land O’Lakes butter, call- ing on the company to remove the image of an Indian maiden from its packaging. Insurance agent Mutual of Omaha dropped its 70-year-old corporate logo of an American Indi- an chief, replacing the image with an African lion.


CHIEFS/PATRICK SMITH/GETTY IMAGES / REDSKINS/SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES


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