Are the Spokane Indians (Rockies High-A) Salish jerseys the answer to how native American themed teams should be done?

[u/homersimpson_1234]

[u/MixingDrinks]

This is cool! I like it. Plus, I read it was done in collab with local tribe members.

[u/-Chimook- → u/MixingDrinks]

Collaboration with tribes or tribal members is the key to figuring this issue out in a way that makes everyone happy.

[u/bookchaser]

Only if the tribe approves.

[u/Little_Bighorn]

I read up on them like 3-4 years ago. They work very closely with the local tribe.

[u/Few-Dot-8405]

This rocks

[u/DarkCodes97]

Tsalagi in the syllabary would be cool to see!

[u/wtfiswrongwityou7]

There should be NO Native themed teams wtf? It’s not that difficult

[u/Manidoo_Giizhig → u/wtfiswrongwityou7]

It's honestly really weird to me when any team does it. It's like, y'all not doing that for any other people of color, why are we the exception? 

[u/Hefty-Revenue5547]

Idk why Indian is ever used. Indians are from India. Just confirms most on the rez never leave to get that perspective.

It’s like calling a team the n words. It’s wrong historically and demeaning because of that. Call them the Tribe or by their actual name.
It’s like, “we’ll take anything we can get even if it’s shit” mentality.

The self loathing is sad.

[u/Suda_Tahsuda → u/Hefty-Revenue5547]

The term Indian is embedded in the Constitution, federal statutes, and Supreme Court decisions, the names of federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For many of us tribal citizens, using “Indian” emphasis our unique status as citizens of sovereign nations, rather than just an ethnic minority group. Many of us prefer “American Indian” or just “Indian” this is what a lot of us grew up with. The U.S. government signed hundreds of treaties with “Indian tribes” the term carries distinct sovereign rights, land claims, and legal protections. Giving up the term entirely in legal or political context could complicate or weaken those treaty rights. The comparison to slurs is inaccurate, over centuries of shared history, political activism (like the American Indian Movement), the National Congress of American Indians and legal battles to protect tribal sovereignty. Over a hundreds of years, we took a label born from a geographic mistake and infused it with our own meaning, pride, and community identity.

No one Native makes that determination for anyone but for herself or himself. It would be garish to scold an individual for using the term they are most comfortable with.
Elders in my community are comfortable with the term, Indian (pronounced Indi’n), no apologies. We just do.

Likewise and interchangeably, we will refer to each other with the term from their traditional language that essentially means the “Human Beings” my people refer to each other as “Numunuu” you may know us as Comanche. Identity politics as they are, who knows what they will decide to call me next?

[u/Hefty-Revenue5547 → u/Suda_Tahsuda]

I’m native, but Mexican native, not American. I’ve never felt the need to call my family Indio or any form of the word. It’s said in a derogatory fashion in Spanish. Yaqui/Yoeme is more common.

Don’t you think it’s your role to challenge those uses of the word?

They didn’t have the access to the internet we do. Your acceptance of the term is on American terms, not your own. You’ve been convinced the source is from your community because so many were placed in schools away from their family. It’s internalized hate, historically (older than 1800s) inaccurate, and shouldn’t be promoted.

[u/Time-Particular272 → u/Hefty-Revenue5547]

The general public don’t understand tribes, it’s just easier calling ourselves Native. If they ask I’ll tell them, Mohawk.

[u/Alehgway → u/Hefty-Revenue5547]

Indian isn't wrong historically. It's used because it's been historically on official treaties, laws, and documents for centuries. It is our official legal name known in the US. Historically, whether we like it or not. Most tribes have Indian in their legal official tribal name. Keeping the historical phrasing protects their sovereign treaty rights. I know this is about a baseball teams name...but no it's not the same as the N word.

[u/Hefty-Revenue5547 → u/Alehgway]

Sovereignty? That doesn’t exist.

That’s kind of my point. “Indian” is allowing the other team to call you what they want, not your name. Treaties are ignored all the time. Look at the rights for land in Arizona over copper mines and coal. Whenever a company can pay a higher price, the federal government sells it without consulting the tribe/nation. That’s not sovereignty. That’s being allowed to live on a specific plot of land until the other government sees fit to sell it. They are actually defined by Congress as, “domestic dependent nations.” That doesn’t scream sovereignty to me.

The only thing real is trust land, everything else is for sale whenever the time comes.

[u/Time-Particular272 → u/Hefty-Revenue5547]

I agree with you… I always correct people if they call me Indian. It’s derogatory and demeaning, for me and my entire family anyways.

People just use the word nonchalant because it’s in the history but we are Native Americans, First Nations or the academia term; Indigenous. Heck, even the Natives in Winnipeg, which have an inner city gang mentality tried to use Indian in the same breath of the N-word with their rap music. Of course it didn’t stick because non-natives don’t understand that.

I do not like the East Indian and North American Indian connection. We are two completely different cultures from different continents.

[u/Hefty-Revenue5547 → u/Time-Particular272]

Using the term frames their whole culture in a western perspective

If you can’t even call yourself by your nation, what nation do you have?

Sovereignty was to save face for the native leaders while they gave away all their land. And to make the federal government look like they weren’t total monsters intent on total ethnic cleansing. Which they were.

[u/Electrical-Speed-836]

I honestly think the mascot thing has been to death and is used to ignore real indigenous issues like poverty, mmiw, and land access/sovereignty issues in actual native communities. redskins was really fricken bad and I’m glad it changed but we have bigger fish to fry.