This story was originally published by the Associated Press and Montana Free Press.
President Donald Trump’s social media posts calling for the NFL’s Washington Commanders to revert to their old name have revived the conversation about Native American imagery in sports.
The team has indicated it has no plans to go back to a name that was abandoned years ago in the aftermath of a reckoning over racial injustice, iconography and racism in the U.S. following the death of George Floyd.
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A growing body of research shows that the use of Native American mascots can have widespread negative consequences, harming self-esteem in Native youth and perpetuating stereotypes among non-Natives.
Lance Wetzel and his father Walter “Blackie” Wetzel watch a Washington Redskins game in 2002 in Seattle. It was the first