'Redskins' Term's Bloody History At Heart Of Minnesota Rally
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - One side says it's a term of strength and pride. Others consider it a racial slur.
Organizers expect the largest-ever protest of the Washington Redskins' name in Minneapolis this weekend.
The team is here to play the Vikings Sunday afternoon.
Before kickoff, rally planners say 5,000 demonstrators will march down University Avenue to TCF Bank Stadium.
Washington's owner has called the team's name a badge of honor.
Many who have studied American Indian culture say the term "redskin" is not only racist, but it is specifically tied to eliminating Indians from the land and exterminating them like animals.
The word "redskin" has been used since the U.S.-Dakota Indian War, and its painful past has roots right here in Minnesota.
The logo, the mascot and the word attached to them are painful reminders of the past.
"When we hear the word 'redskins,' it refers to a time when you could make money off of killing Indian people," said Dr. Charlene Teeters.
Teeters is the dean at the Institute of American Indian Arts and a Spokane Tribal Member.
She says the term "redskins" is the most derogatory term you can use.
'It is equivalent to the N-word, " Teeters said.
Teeters and American Indian Movement's co-founder Clyde Bellecourt feel many Americans don't know their history and why the term "redskin" is so offensive.
Following the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, Gov. Alexander Ramsey, in a special session of the Minnesota Legislature, proclaimed:
"Our course then is plain. The Dakota Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of Minnesota."
It wasn't long after that we saw the term used in print.
In September 1863, The Winona Daily Republican ran an ad that said: "The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory."
"To prove you killed an Indian," Clyde Bellecourt said, "the governor said all you had to do was bring in a lock of their hair and the skin to prove that. In a very short period of time, there were over 60 tribes that were totally erased from the face of the earth."
University of Minnesota professor David Chang says the word "skin" especially is a reminder of the mutilation of Indian corpses.
Chang says paying bounty for the scalp of Native Americans was the official policy in the state of Minnesota from 1863 until 1868.
He says the term "redskins" brings back the history of massacres, genocide and the elimination of Indian people.
The first known mention of the word "redskins" was in 1699, referring to the Delaware Indians who used to paint their bodies and faces red.
