In Arizona, a Navajo high school emerges as a defender of the Washington Redskins

Washington Post ^ | 10/27/14 | Ian Shapira

[SoFloFreeper]

....Inside the Red Mesa High School locker room, Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” blared on the stereo as players hurried to strap on their helmets and gather for a pregame prayer and pep talk.....

....Most of the people in Red Mesa not only reject claims that their team’s nickname is a slur, they have emerged as a potent symbol in the heated debate over the name of the more widely known Redskins — Washington’s NFL team. More than half the school’s 220 students eagerly accepted free tickets from the team for an Oct. 12 game near Phoenix, where they confronted Native American protesters who were there to condemn Washington’s moniker.....

.... Mckenzie Lameman, 17, a junior who is Red Mesa’s student government president. “It’s not a racist slur if it originates from a Native American tribe. . . . It’s always used in the context of sports.”

There were 62 high schools in 22 states using the Redskins moniker last year, according to a project published by the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service. In addition to Red Mesa, two others are majority Native American

[SoFloFreeper]

Shove it PC punks.

REDSKINS REDSKINS REDSKINS

[Caipirabob]

We have our share of tribes here ion Arizona. In my interactions, I’ve really come to enjoy being around the Navajos. They have been gracious and welcoming whenever we’ve been in their terroritory. Not like some of the stories I’ve heard from some of our old timers crossing into or doing business in other tribal territories. Then again, those have not been my direct experience either so I’m not able to confirm or deny the claims of problems or poor experiences.

[showme_the_Glory]

Cowboys hate the name Redskins

[rrrod]

REDSKIN SALUTE!

[BigEdLB]

[Envisioning]

Why wasn’t this an issue 2 years ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago? Oh.....never mind.

[cport]

From the article... We want to let our children know who are being used today,” she said, “that we are here for them. We are not going to disparage them . . . because they don’t know any better. The adults in that school should know better, and they are not informed of this issue — and shame on them for that

And there, in a nutshell, is part of what got American Indians massacred, their culture diluted, and stuck on the res,"poor savages don't know any better, the ones who don't conform we 'll get rid of, and the ones that are left, we'll gather up and reeducate". Coming soon to a pc gulag near you.

[chajin]

The Redskins don’t need defenders. A stronger offensive line might help.

The Buccaneers, however, desperately need defenders. As well as a quarterback, an offensive line, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, safeties, defensive backs, guards, and tackles. The punter is pretty good, though.

[kosciusko51]

In this PC era, I think that they should be renamed the “Washington Thinskins”, and their motto could be “That’s not funny”.

[vortec94]

That’s because the punter gets so much game time. I moved here from Texas for a job, not football (or hockey, or soccer).

[married21]

LOL!!

[golf lover]

Sure to piss off the PC moonbat liberals!

[5thGenTexan]

Liberals will contend that these Indians are obviously too stupid to know they should be offended.

Before last night's Cowboys / Redskins game (don't get me started on Romo...) they went to some Oklahoma communities and did some man on the street interviews about the team name. My favorite quote was "I am offended by a bunch of old, white guys telling me what should offend me!". An elderly women saw it ass a complement to the Warriors of old. Another younger man said he "now" finds it "mildly offensive" but when asked about the Redskin Theatre he was standing in front of while being interviewed, that was OK since it had "community history".

All said, the older people weren't offended and most saw it as a compliment; the younger people were "offended" or "now offended".

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It is a really good idea to put the Arizona tribes in context, as warrior tribes.

Tales of the Apache wars are almost legendary, and Kit Carson understood the Navajo as a very dangerous standing army, that unless pacified would eventually have a bloodbath of a war with the US Army. He put it bluntly: either we kill every Navajo horse, or we will have to kill every adult male Navajo.

These warrior customs still exist today. For example, entire high school graduating classes of young Navajo men would enlist in the USMC, on condition they could share the same basic training class.

Ironically though, about the Redskins name. Navajo is one of the most complex languages on Earth, and they likely have dozens of warrior oriented words that would make fine school mascot names. Many would probably be unpronounceable by white people, however.