The Kansas City football team will once again mock Native American culture at the Super Bowl. Despite the team leadership stating they have changed the policy on disrespectful behavior for over five years, fans continue to perform the “tomahawk chop” and wear costume headdresses and Native-themed face paint. This behavior is encouraged by the beating of a large imitation “ceremonial drum” and the playing of the mock chant that accompanies the “tomahawk chop” at every home game. This does not honor us, this is bastardizing our culture and diminishing the genocide of Native people.
Not in Our Honor (www.notinourhonor.com) asks the team, fans, and rivals alike to consider the following questions:
- Do the fans and players know what stereotypes they are reinforcing?
- Are you aware that sports mascots contribute to the erasure of Native people by only offering so-called “honoring” in a one-dimensional and violent context?
- Why does Kansas City continue to tolerate being represented on the global stage by a football team using stereotypes of a race of human beings, their sacred objects, and imagery?
- Would someone mock a catholic service, dancing in a pope hat, singing verses of the bible?
Fans often excuse the name of the team by stating it was named after a former KC Mayor and it has nothing to do with Natives. This legacy is used to justify the team’s longstanding cultural appropriation.
- The team is named after H.Roe Bartle, the KC mayor who brought the team from Texas in 1962. He was not Native American or a “chief.”
- Bartle founded a group of Boy Scouts called the Mic-O-Say, who continue to appropriate ceremony and culture from Native nations across the continent. They encourage youth to make costumes, mock Indigenous dances, and give them made-up “Indian” names and “ranks” such as brave, shaman, and chief at campgrounds they have named “reservations.” Vast sums of money are donated to be “honored” as a guardian of this society, including the “Lone Bear Guardian,” named after Mayor Bartle’s “Indian name.”
The Mic-O-Say website states, “they encourage deep reflection on the values and responsibilities that come with being a member of a tribe.” Reflect on this:
Tribal citizenship cannot be purchased, worn as a costume, or acted out on game day. Those who participate in this appropriation do not know the racism, oppression and hostility that continues to exist for tribal citizens. If they took the time for deep reflection, they would no longer appropriate our culture and would instead advocate for empowerment of Native people.
The irony of “End Racism” painted in the endzone in Kansas City was not lost on us. Now that we are “Choosing Love,” we hope you remember that racism and love do not co-exist.
Rhonda LeValdo, Founder, Not In Our Honor Coalition
Gaylene Crouser, Executive Director, Kansas City Indian Center, Not In Our Honor Coalition
Not In Our Honor 