Индеец краснокож как пишется

Толковый словарь русского языка. Поиск по слову, типу, синониму, антониму и описанию. Словарь ударений.

Найдено определений: 14

краснокожие

краснокожий

краснокожий индеец

Red Indian

Большой англо-русский и русско-английский словарь.
2001.

Смотреть что такое «краснокожий индеец» в других словарях:

• индеец — краснокожий; могавк, чероки, абнак, команчи, ацтек, дакота, ирокез, тольтек, апачи, москито, ют, гурон, хопи, хучину, чинук, черокез, могикан Словарь русских синонимов. индеец краснокожий Словарь синонимов русского языка. Практический справочник …   Словарь синонимов

• краснокожий — см. индеец Словарь синонимов русского языка. Практический справочник. М.: Русский язык. З. Е. Александрова. 2011. краснокожий прил., кол во синонимов: 1 • …   Словарь синонимов

• индеец —     ИНДЕЕЦ, краснокожий …   Словарь-тезаурус синонимов русской речи

• Краснокожий — Не следует путать с индийцами. Жители Америки до прихода европейцев Пояснения к схеме: принадлежность к племени …   Википедия

• Медиум — Медиум  чувствительное физическое лицо, которое, как считают последователи спиритуализма, служит связующим звеном между двумя мирами: материальным и духовным[1][2]. Практика медиумизма используется также в спиритизме, кандомбле, умбанда и… …   Википедия

• Медиум (мистика) — Медиум  чувствительное физическое лицо, которое, как считают последователи спиритуализма, служит связующим звеном между потусторонним миром и миром ныне здравствующих людей. [1] [2] Практика медиумизма используется также в эспиритизме, кандомбле …   Википедия

• Ченнелинг — Медиум  чувствительное физическое лицо, которое, как считают последователи спиритуализма, служит связующим звеном между потусторонним миром и миром ныне здравствующих людей. [1] [2] Практика медиумизма используется также в эспиритизме, кандомбле …   Википедия

• Беллона (роман) — Беллона  книга Бориса Акунина, написанная под псевдонимом «Анатолий Брусникин»[1][2]. Под одной обложкой объединены, по сути, два отдельных романа: «Фрегат „Беллона“» и «Чёрная»[3]. События обеих частей разворачиваются во время Крымской… …   Википедия

• Расы — или породы человечества. Существование между людьми физических различий или разделение человечества на отдельные породы сознается более или менее всеми народами, имеющими сношения с другими. Даже у полудиких бушменов Южн. Африки мы встречаем на… …   Энциклопедический словарь Ф.А. Брокгауза и И.А. Ефрона

• Индейский народ — Не следует путать с индийцами. Жители Америки до прихода европейцев Пояснения к схеме: принадлежность к племени …   Википедия

• Индейское племя — Не следует путать с индийцами. Жители Америки до прихода европейцев Пояснения к схеме: принадлежность к племени …   Википедия

- Indian |ˈɪndɪən|  — индиец, индеец, европеец, долго живший в Индии

краснокожий (индеец) — Red Indian
чистокровный индеец — full-blooded Indian
индеец в боевой раскраске и наряде из перьев — an Indian in panoply of paint and feathers
индеец племени, заключившего с правительством договор о жизни в резервации — treaty indian

- Injun |ˈɪndʒən|  — индеец
- Red Indian  — индеец, краснокожий, североамериканский индеец
- redskin |ˈredskɪn|  — краснокожий, индеец, североамериканский индеец
- pampean  — индеец, житель пампасов
- native American  — коренной американец, индеец

Родственные слова, либо редко употребляемые в данном значении

- red man  — красный человек, краснокожий человек, краснокожий
- the |ðiː|  — тот, такой, подходящий, тем, чем… тем

сын лесов (индеец) — child of the forest

- native |ˈneɪtɪv|  — уроженец, уроженка, туземец, туземка, дикарь

| 14.12.2012 | 4:04 |
В рубрике: Короткие факты | tags: индейцы, краснокожие, факты

Почему индейцев называют “краснокожими“?  Ответ – за красноватый оттенок лица. Но это неправильный ответ – у индейцев лицо белое или смуглое. “Краснокожими” индейцев прозвали французы, которые столкнулись в Северной Америке с индейцами-беотуками обычаем которых было красить красной охрой лицо и одеваться в красную одежду. Кстати, этот обычай беотуков помог решить одну историческую загадку – до 1960-х годов экспедиции викингов в Америку считались недоказанным мифом. Одного из историков заинтересовал факт, что в летописях говорится о “краснокожих“, а значит следы викингов надо искать в местах жизни беотуков. И действительно – в 1960-х поселение викингов было обнаружено в Л’Анс-о-Медоуз.

Правильное написание слова индеец:

индеец

Крутая NFT игра. Играй и зарабатывай!

Количество букв в слове: 6

Слово состоит из букв:
И, Н, Д, Е, Е, Ц

Правильный транслит слова: indeec

Написание с не правильной раскладкой клавиатуры: bylttw

Тест на правописание

Синонимы слова Индеец

• Краснокожий
• Могавк
• Чероки
• Абнак
• Команчи
• Ацтек
• Дакота
• Ирокез
• Тольтек
• Апачи
• Москито
• Гурон
• Хопи
• Хучину
• Чинук
• Черокез
• Могикан

Аврора- [82.2K] 4 года назад Как не странно но это слово может писаться сразу в двух вариантах. В написании может употребляться и индийцы — выходцы из азиатской страны Индии, и индейцы — племена краснокожих людей, живущих в Северной Америке. автор вопроса выбрал этот ответ лучшим комментировать в избранное ссылка отблагодарить Shins­hill [12.5K] 4 года назад написание зависит от того, о ком Вы пишете. Если повествование о жителях доколумбовской Америки, то пишите индейцы. Если же повествование о жителях Индии, то — индийцы, хотя это неправильное их название. Правильно называть их индусы! комментировать в избранное ссылка отблагодарить Знаете ответ?

Не следует путать с индийцами.

Индейцы — общее название коренного населения Америки (за исключением эскимосов и алеутов). Название возникло от ошибочного представления первых европейских мореплавателей (Христофора Колумба и др.) конца XV века, считавших открытые ими заатлантические земли Индией. По антропологическому типу индейцы принадлежат к американоидной расе. Общая приблизительная численность индейцев в Америке — свыше 30 млн чел. (оценка на середину 1960-х гг.).

История

Согласно данным генетических исследований Мичиганского университета, предки современных индейцев и эскимосов переселились в Америку из Северо-Восточной Азии через так называемый «Берингийский мост» — древний широкий перешеек между Америкой и Азией на месте нынешнего Берингова пролива, исчезнувший более 12 тыс. лет назад.^[1][2] Миграция продолжалась в промежутке между 70 тыс. лет до н. э. и 12 тыс. лет до н.э и имела несколько независимых друг от друга волн. Уровень культуры первых переселенцев соответствовал позднепалеолитической и мезолитической культурам Старого Света. Расселение индейцев по обоим континентам и освоение ими новых земель тянулось многие тысячелетия.

До европейской колонизации (началась в XVI веке) большинство племен Северной и Южной Америки находилось на различных стадиях общиннородового строя: у одних господствовал материнский род (ирокезы, мускоги, хопи, многие племена бассейна р. Амазонка и др.), у других формировался отцовский род (племена северо-запада и юго-запада Северной Америки, многие племена Южной Америки). Часть народов стояла на различных стадиях перехода от родового к классовому обществу. Индейцы Центральной и Южной Америки (ацтеки, майя, инки) жили уже классовыми обществами.

«Краснокожие»

Термин «краснокожие», распространённый как обозначение индейцев в европейской массовой культуре, не имеет ничего общего с естественным цветом кожи индейцев (от белой до смуглой). Он происходит от обычая беотуков — племени о. Ньюфаундленд, первым вступившим в контакт с европейцами (в 11 в с викингами, затем в 16 в. с англичанами) — раскрашивать охрой как лицо, так и одежду. Беотуки полностью исчезли в 19 в.

Культура

В Северной Америке проживало около 400 племён индейцев. Все они говорили на разных языках и не имели письменности. Однако в 1826 вождь племени чероки — Секвойя (Джордж Гесс) создал слоговую азбуку чероки, а в 1828 начал издавать газету «Чероки Феникс» на языке чероки. Степные индейцы пользовались пиктографическим письмом. Также существовали межплеменные жаргоны, к которым относят общий торговый язык чикасавов — «мобиле». Некоторые племена широко пользовались «языком сигналов» или «языком жестов». Основными инструментами языка сигналов являлись условные передвижения пешком или верхом, зеркала. Для общения использовались и вампумы, которые служили им при необходимости как деньги.

Хозяйство индейцев диктовалось условиями климата и местности, где они проживали, а также уровнем их развития. Индейцы занимались охотой, собирательством, а осёдлые племена к тому же занимались земледелием. В северных районах индейцы охотились на морского зверя. С появлением европейцев на континенте у индейцев появились лошади и огнестрельное оружие, которые сделали охоту на бизонов более лёгкой и быстрой. Весьма распространенным продуктом питания являлся пеммикан, приготовлением которого занимались исключительно женщины.

Индейцы выращивали селькохозяйственные культуры и разводили домашних животных (в первую очередь это характерно для цивилизаций Мексики и Южной Америки).

Религиозные верования индейцев в прошлом — различные родоплеменные культы (шаманизм, культ личных духов-покровителей, пережитки тотемизма и др.). У современных индейцев эти культы сохранились лишь у племён, живущих в отдаленных и малодоступных районах Америки (бассейн р. Амазонка и др.), большинство же индейцев восприняло христианство: в Южной Америке главным образом католицизм, а в Северной Америке преимущественно различные направления протестантизма.

Языки

Индейские языки чрезвычайно раздроблены, количество известных языковых семей достигает 200. Из предлагавшихся лингвистами в различные годы макросемей индейских языков лишь немногие получили надёжную фактологическую поддержку (например, пенутийская гипотеза). Языки на-дене стоят особняком от других индейских языков по своей грамматике и фонетике, и в то же время обнаруживают сходство с енисейскими языками.

Искусство

В Центральной Америке и в области Анд ко времени европейской колонизации существовала высокоразвитая художественная культура, уничтоженная завоевателями (см. Мексика, Гватемала, Гондурас, Панама, Колумбия, Перу, Боливия, Ацтеки, Инки, Майя, Миштеки, Ольмекская культура, Сапотеки, Тольтеки).

Искусство многочисленных племён, находившихся на стадии первобытно-общинного строя, было тесно связано с бытом и материальным производством; оно отразило наблюдения охотников, рыболовов и земледельцев, воплотило их мифологические представления и богатство орнаментальной фантазии.

Многообразны типы индейских жилищ: навесы, заслоны, куполообразные шалаши (вигвамы лесных охотников Канады), конические палатки (типи индейцев прерий Канады и США) из жердей, крытых ветками, листьями, циновками, шкурами и т. д.; глиняные или каменные хижины в горных районах Южной Америки; общинные жилища — дощатые дома на северо-западе Северной Америки; крытые корой каркасные «длинные дома» в районе Великих озер; каменные или сырцовые дома-селения (пуэбло) на юго-западе Северной Америки.

Резьба по дереву, особенно богатая на северо-западном побережье Северной Америки (полихромные тотемные и намогильные столбы с переплетением реальных и фантастических изображений), встречается и у ряда южноамериканских племён. Широко были распространены плетение, ткачество, вышивка, изготовление украшений из перьев, керамической и деревянной утвари и фигурок. В росписях известны и фантастические изображения, и богатый геометрический орнамент, и военные и охотничьи сцены (рисунки индейцев прерий на типи, бубнах, щитах, шкурах бизонов). Самобытное искусство индейцев в ряде стран (США, Канада, Уругвай, Аргентина и др.) практически угасло; в других странах (Мексика, Боливия, Гватемала, Перу, Эквадор и др.) оно стало основой народного искусства колониального периода и нового времени.

Вклад индейцев в мировую цивилизацию

Народы мира восприняли от индейцев возделывание кукурузы (маиса), картофеля, томата, подсолнечника, маниока, какао, хлопчатника (также был известен в Индии, но индийские виды сейчас намного менее распространены), табака, перца, фасоли, арахиса, агавы, бобовых, кабачков, и других культур.

Распространение картофеля в Евразии значительно сократило голод (включая регионы, где погодные условия нестабильны или земледелие затруднено, в том числе Камчатка и Гималаи), в дальнейшем кукуруза помогла создать стабильную кормовую базу для скота.

Индейцы разводили домашних животных, из которых ныне широко распространены домашняя индейка и морская свинка. Среди птиц, одомашненных индейцами — мускусная утка. Они приручали попугаев ара, использовали в качестве вьючных животных и для шерсти лам и альпак (ныне разводятся в первую очередь ради шерсти), а также разводили нескольких пород собак, некоторые из которых прекратили существование, тогда как другие продолжают культивироваться в разных странах.

Некоторые традиционные индейские культуры были вытеснены культурами Старого света, например, ангурия — огурцом.

Культурно-исторические области

К началу европейской колонизации в Америке сложилось несколько культурно-исторических областей:

1. Арктическая область морской охоты (эскимосы и алеуты).
2. Северо-западное побережье Северной Америки — область специализированного рыболовства и морской охоты (хайда, тлинкиты, вакаши, салиши и др.).
3. В Калифорнии — область собирателей желудей, охотников и рыболовов.
4. Север Канады и внутренняя часть Аляски — область расселения алгонкинских и атапаскских племен, основной источник существования которых — охота на оленя-карибу и рыболовство.
5. В восточной части нынешней территории США жили племена оседлых земледельцев (восточные алгонкины, ирокезы, мускоги).
6. После открытия Америки в степной зоне сложилась культура конных охотников на бизонов (сиу-лакота, оседжи, манданы, арапахо, шайенны, пауни, каддо, вичита).
7. Юго-запад Северной Америки (современные штаты Нью-Мексико, Аризона, Юта, Колорадо) — область развитого земледельческого хозяйства с применением искусственного орошения (пуэбло, пима); здесь же после колонизации возникла скотоводческая культура навахо, заимствовавших многое у соседних земледельческих племён.
8. Наиболее значительного развития в доколумбовой Америке достигли индейцы Центральной Америки и Анд. В этих районах преобладало земледельческое хозяйство с различными системами земледелия от подсечно-огневой (майя) и до сложной оросительной (ацтеки) и террасовой (Древнее Перу); издревле выращивались маис, бобовые, тыква, подсолнечник, какао, агава, табак, хлопчатник, в Андах — картофель. Здесь начали развиваться скотоводство (лама и альпака в Андах) и металлургия. Сложились очаги высокой культуры, возникли крупные рабовладельческие города-государства.
9. В тропических частях Южной Америки (бассейны Амазонки и Ориноко и Бразильское плоскогорье) обитали племена, занимавшиеся мотыжным земледелием (культивировали преимущественно маниок и маис), а также индейцы, жившие охотой и собирательством (араваки, карибы, тупи-гуарани, же).
10. Много общего с культурой индейцев североамериканских степей имели охотничьи племена аргентинской Пампы и Патагонского плоскогорья, ставшие в XVII-XVIII веках конными охотниками на гуанако (с помощью лассо и бола).
11. На крайнем юге Южной Америки и на островах Огненной Земли местные индейцы (она, ямана, алакалуфы) вели полукочевую жизнь примитивных рыболовов, охотников, собирателей морских моллюсков.

Колонизация

Европейская колонизация прервала естественный ход развития индейцев. Большое число индейцев Северной Америки было истреблено колонизаторами, многие племена переселены из традиционных мест обитания в резервации США и Канады. Так, в 1830 году, согласно Закону о переселении индейцев, принятому Конгрессом США, индейцы Атлантического побережья были депортированы в Оклахому, где основная их масса погибла от голода и эпидемий. По официальным подсчётам Бюро переписи населения США в Индейских войнах в период между 1775 и 1890 годами погибло 45000 индейцев. Численность индейцев, населявших нынешнюю территорию США и Канады, сократилось с 2 — 4 миллионов в период до начала масштабной европейской колонизации до 200 тысяч к началу XX в. Только на крайнем севере материка местные индейцы продолжают вести традиционную полукочевую жизнь: они занимаются звероловством и сильно зависят от скупщиков пушнины. Значительная часть индейцев США была ассимилирована американцами. В Латинской Америке многие племена индейцев также были уничтожены (индейцы Вест-Индии, Уругвая, Аргентины). Лишь незначительная часть индейцев сохранила свой культурно-бытовой уклад (в глухих районах бассейна р. Амазонка). В целом ряде латиноамериканских стран индейцы явились важным компонентом сложения современных наций (мексиканцы, гватемальцы, парагвайцы, перуанцы и др.). В некоторых странах языки индейцев бытуют наряду с испанским (кечуа — в Перу, Боливии, Эквадоре, гуарани — в Парагвае, где он является вторым официальным языком).

Племена

Северная Америка	Племена
Субарктическая зона	алгонкины, кри, оджибва, оттава
Северо-восточные леса	гуроны, ирокезы, миами, могикане, шони (текумсе)
Юго-восточные леса	чероки, чоктау, лемент, ноупвел, натчез, семинолы
Великие равнины	черноногие, чейенны, команчи, пауни, сиу, лакота
Северо-западное побережье	чинуки, тлинкиты, цимшианы
Пустыни юго-запада	апачи, навахо, пуэбло (хопи, зуни и др.) мохавэ, шошоны
Центральная Америка	майя, сапотеки, пурепеча, ацтеки, тотонаки, миштеки
Северная Литва (г. Плунге)	Зяба-зяба (кеча, жузоле)
Южная Америка	инки (кечуа, аймара), гуарани, мапуче, шипибо, конибо, теуэльче, варао, ботокудо

Знаменитые индейцы

• Джозеф Брант — вождь племени мохаук, офицер английской армии.
• Уго Чавес — президент Венесуэлы.
• Эво Моралес — президент Боливии.
• Сидящий Бык — вождь индейских племён хункпапа-сиу.
• Секвойя — вождь племени чероки, изобретатель слоговой азбуки чероки (1826), основатель газеты «Чероки Феникс» на языке чероки (1828).
• Джеронимо — военный «лидер» апачей.
• Капитан Джек — вождь индейского племени модок.
• Неистовый Конь — предводитель индейцев лакота.
• Мэри Смит-Джонс — специалист по лингвистике и активный политический деятель, представитель американских индейцев южной Аляски.
• Джим Торп
• Шифровальщики навахо — группа индейцев навахо, работавшие в годы Второй мировой войны в армии США радистами-шифровальщиками.
• Монтесума
• Куаутемок
• Куана Паркер — вождь команчей
• Текумсе
• Понтиак (вождь) — вождь индейского племени оттава из группы алгонкинов в Северной Америке.
• Кочизе
• Оцеола
• Пушматаха
• Химматон-Йалаткит
• Смоала
• Водзивоб
• Вовока
• Булах Зяба Вождь кочевников из Казахстана
• Красное Облако
• Вашаки

Фотогалерея

Красная птица — вождь племени Сиу. 1908 год.	Девушка племени Виннебаго в традиционном костюме.	Индейцы Амазонии.	Индейцы Бразилии.
Секвойя — вождь племени чероки.	Сидящий Бык.	Индеец племени Лакота (ок. 1899).	Капитан Джек — вождь индейского племени модок.
Охота индейцев на бизонов. Художник Ч.Расселл.

Индейские памятники

• Мемориал Бешеного Коня

См. также

• Геноцид индейцев
• Чанки (игра)
• Выход индейцев Лакота из состава США
• Пау-вау

Литература

1. ↑ Washington ProFile — International News & Information Agency «Сибирские индейцы» Прочитано 2007-11-27
2. ↑ Новости NEWSru.com Ученые из США подтвердили гипотезу: индейцы переселились в Америку из Сибири Прочитано 2007-11-27

Библиография

Берёзкин, Юрий Евгеньевич. 2002. Мифология аборигенов Америки: Результаты статистической обработки ареального распределения мотивов // История и семиотика индейских культур Америки. М. С. 259—346.

Браун, Джозеф, «Священная трубка»

Нейхард Джон, «Говорит Чёрный Лось» // История шамана из племени Лакота

Андрей Ветер. 2001. Тропа // История шамана по имени Безумный Медведь.

Ссылки

• Стукалин, Юрий Викторович — писатель, автор ряда книг по истории и культуре индейцев.
• www.mesoamerica.ru — сайт об индейцах.
• Шипибо-конибо — сайт об индейцах Амазонии.
• Первые американцы.
• Веревочные игры индейцев Навахо и Квакиутль.

Расовые, этнические, религиозные, региональные и социальные прозвища
Связанные с Россией	славяне Бульбаш • Западенец • Заробитчанин • Кацап • Кержак • Кулугур • Лапоть • Лях • Москаль • Пшек • Рагуль • Раски • Рюсся • Свидомый • Тибла • Хохол • Чалдон прибалты Калапай • Чухонец кавказцы Абрек • Лицо кавказской национальности • ХачХачик азиаты Басмач • Душман • Мамбет • Сахаляр • ЧуркаЧурбан прочие Дети фестиваля • Жид • Кадровый • Лимитчик • Муль • Пархатый • Пиндос • Совок • Фашист • Шурави
Остальной мир	Белый • Бош • Бумипутра • ВАСП • Весси • Гринго • Гук • Квартерон • Киви • Кокни • Краснокожий • Креол • Кули • Латинос • Мавр • Макаронник • Негр • Осси • Пифке • Польский сантехник • Реднек • Рейнландский бастард • Самбо • Сарацин • Унтерменш • Цветной • Янки
Именные	Джон Булль • Дядя Сэм • Марианна • Мумбо-Юмбо • Рабинович • Фриц
Для чужаков	Вандал • Варвар • Гаджо • Гайдзин • Гой • Гяур • Кафир • Манкурт • Нерусь • Нехристь • Перегрин • Фаранг
Связанные статьи	Биэтноры • Комплиментарность • Межэтнический конфликт • Менталитет • Национальные прозвища • Пейоратив • Правило одной капли крови • Расовая гигиена • Религиозная нетерпимость • Сегрегация • Социальный дарвинизм • Шовинизм • Этнический контакт
Категория:Уничижительные обозначения людей • Категория:Национализм • Категория:Предрассудки

Redskin is a slang term for Native Americans in the United States and First Nations in Canada. The term redskin underwent pejoration through the 19th to early 20th centuries^[1] and in contemporary dictionaries of American English it is labeled as offensive, disparaging, or insulting.

Although the term has almost disappeared from contemporary use, it remains as the name of many sports teams. The most prominent was the Washington NFL team. After decades of resistance to change by the owners, management and fans; major sponsors responded to calls to end systemic racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by advocating a name change. The new name Washington Commanders was announced on February 2, 2022. While the usage by other teams has been declining steadily, 37 high schools in the United States continue to be Redskins. School administrators and alumni assert that their use of the name is honoring their local tradition and not insulting to Native Americans.

The origin of the choice of red to describe Native Americans in English is debated. While related terms were used in anthropological literature as early as the 17th century, labels based on skin color entered everyday speech around the middle of the 18th century. «At the start of the eighteenth century, Indians and Europeans rarely mentioned the color of each other’s skins. By midcentury, remarks about skin color and the categorization of peoples by simple color-coded labels (red, white, black) had become commonplace.»^[2]

Red as a racial identifier[edit]

Documents from the colonial period indicate that the use of red as an identifier by Native Americans for themselves emerged in the context of Indian-European diplomacy in the southeastern region of North America, becoming common usage in the 1720s. Subsequently, variations of «red men» were adopted by Europeans, becoming a generic label for all Native Americans.^{[3][4]: 627–28}

Linguistic evidence indicates that, while some tribes may have used red to refer to themselves during the pre-Columbian era based upon their origin stories,^[4]: 634 the general use of the term was in response to meeting people who called themselves white and their slaves black.^[4]: 629 The choice of red rather than other colors may have been due to cultural associations, rather than skin color.^[4]: 632 Red and white were a dichotomy that had pervasive symbolic meanings in southeastern Native cultures which was less prevalent among northern tribes.^[4]: 632 While there was occasional use of red in Indian-European diplomacy in the northeast, it was still rare there even after it had become common in the southeast. Instead, Indian was translated into the native languages there as «men», «real people», or «original people».^{[4]: 629–30} Usage in the northeast region by Europeans may have been largely limited to descriptions of tribes such as the Beothuk of Newfoundland, whose practice of painting their bodies and possessions with red ochre led Europeans to refer to them as «Red Indians».^[5]

Early ethnographic writers used a variety of terms; olivastre (olive) by François Bernier (1684),^[6] rufus (reddish, ruddy) by Linnaeus (1758),^[7] kupferroth («copper-red») by Blumenbach (1779),^[8] and eventually simply «red» by René Lesson (1847).^[9] Early explorers and later Anglo-Americans termed Native Americans «light-skinned», «brown», «tawny», or «russet», but not «red» prior to the 19th century. Many did not view Natives as distinctly different in color from themselves, and thus could be assimilated into colonial society, beginning with conversion to Christianity.^[10]

In the modern debate over sports teams with the name, it is sometimes asserted that Oklahoma translates from Choctaw as ‘red people’ (okla ‘people’ + humma ‘red’).^[11] However, humma has a number of possible meanings in Choctaw, one of which is «humma, an addition to a man’s name which gives him some distinction, calling on him for courage and honor.»^[12] The alternative meaning of Oklahoma becomes ‘honorable/courageous nation’ or ‘a brave people’.^[13]

Origins of redskin in English[edit]

The first combination of red with skin, to form the term redskin, is dated to 1769 by Ives Goddard, linguist and curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Goddard begins by pointed out that what had previously been considered the earliest English use of the term, a letter purported to have been written to an Englishman living in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1699, was spurious.^[14]

Goddard’s alternative etymology is that the term emerged from the speech of Native Americans themselves, and that the origin and use of the term in the late 18th and early 19th century was benign. When it first appeared «it came in the most respectful context and at the highest level. … These are white people and Indians talking together, with the white people trying to ingratiate themselves».^[15] The word later underwent a process of pejoration, by which it gained a negative connotation.^[16] Goddard suggests that redskin emerged from French translations of Native American speech in Illinois and Missouri territories in the 18th century. He cites as the earliest example a 1769 set of «talks», or letters, from chiefs of the Piankeshaw to Col. John Wilkins an English officer at Fort de Chartres. One letter included «si quelques peaux Rouges«, which was translated as ‘if any redskins’, and the second included «tout les peaux rouges«, which was translated as ‘all the redskins’.^[17]: 4 The term here refers to warriors specifically. The term redskin enters wider English usage only in the first half of the 19th century.^{[17]: 4–5} However, in an interview, Goddard admitted that it is impossible to verify whether the French translations of the Miami-Illinois language were accurate.^[15]

The term was used in an August 22, 1812, meeting between President James Madison and a delegation of chiefs from western tribes. There, the response of Osage chief «No Ears» (Osage: Tetobasi) to Madison’s speech included the statement, «I know the manners of the whites and the red skins,» while French Crow, principal chief of the Wahpekute band of Santee Sioux, was recorded as having said, «I am a red-skin, but what I say is the truth, and notwithstanding I came a long way I am content, but wish to return from here.» However, while these usages may have been earliest, they may not have been disseminated widely. While the 1812 meeting with President Madison was contemporaneously recorded, the records were not published until 2004.^[17]: 6

The earliest known appearance of the term in print occurred in 1813, in an article in the Weekly Register quoting a letter dated August 27, 1813. It concerned an expedition during the War of 1812 led by General Benjamin Howard against Indians in the Illinois and Mississippi territories: «The expedition will be 40 days out, and there is no doubt but we shall have to contend with powerful hordes of red skins …»^[18]

Goddard suggests that a key usage was in a 20 July 1815 speech by Meskwaki Chief Black Thunder at the treaty council at Portage des Sioux, in which he is recorded as stating, «My Father – Restrain your feelings, and hear ca[l]mly what I shall say. I shall tell it to you plainly, I shall not speak with fear and trembling. I feel no fear. I have no cause to fear. I have never injured you, and innocence can feel no fear. I turn to all, red skins and white skins, and challenge an accusation against me.» This speech was published widely, and Goddard speculates that it reached James Fenimore Cooper. In Cooper’s novels The Pioneers (published in 1823) and The Last of the Mohicans (1826), both Native American and white characters use the term. These novels were widely distributed, and can be credited with bringing the term to «universal notice». The first time the term appears in Bartlett’s «Dictionary of Americanisms» (in 1858), Goddard notes, the illustrative reference is to Last of the Mohicans.^{[17]: 15–16}

Johnathan Buffalo, historic preservation director of the Meskwaki, said that in the 1800s redskins was used by the tribe for self-identification. Similarly, they identified others as «whiteskins» or «blackskins».^[19] Goddard’s evidence for indigenous usage includes a 1914 phonetic transcription of the Meskwaki language in which both eesaawinameshkaata ‘one with brown skin’ and meeshkwinameshkaata ‘one with red skin’ were used to refer to Indians, while waapeshkinameshkaanichini ‘one with white skin, white person’ was used to refer to Europeans.^[20] However, the pre-contact Meskwaki use of red in identifying themselves did not refer to skin color, but to their origin stories as the «red-earth» people.^[21]: 239

Historian Darren Reid of Coventry University states it is difficult for historians to document anything with certainty since Native Americans, as a non-literate society, did not produce the written sources upon which historians rely. Instead, what is cited as Native American usage was generally attributed to them by European writers. Any use of red in its various forms, including redskin, by Native Americans to refer to themselves reflected their need to use the language of the times in order to be understood by Europeans.^[22]

Sociologist James V. Fenelon makes a more explicit statement that Goddard’s article is poor scholarship, given that the conclusion of the origin and usage by Natives as «entirely benign» is divorced from the socio-historical realities of hostility and racism from which it emerged.^[23]

Pejoration[edit]

The pejoration of the term redskin arguably begins as soon as its introduction in the early 19th century. A linguistic analysis of 42 books published between 1875 and 1930 found that negative contexts for the use of redskin were significantly more frequent than positive ones. However, the use of the word «Indian» in a similarly selected set of books was nearly the same, with more frequent negative than positive contexts, indicating that it was not the term «redskin» that was loaded pejoratively, but that its usage represents a generally negative attitude towards its referent.^[24] The word was first listed in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in 1898 as «often contemptuous.»^[25]

Sociologist Irving Lewis Allen suggests that slang identifiers for ethnic groups based upon physical characteristics, including redskin, are by nature derogatory, emphasizing the difference between the speaker and the target.^[26] However, Luvell Anderson of the University of Memphis, in his paper «Slurring Words», argues that for a word to be a slur, the word must communicate ideas beyond identifying a target group, and that slurs are offensive because the additional data contained in those words differentiates those individuals from otherwise accepted groups.^[27]

Some Native American activists in the 21st century, in contradiction of the etymological evidence discussed above, assert that redskin refers directly to the bloody, red scalp or other body part collected for bounty.^[28][29] While this claim is associated in the media with litigants in the Washington Redskins trademark dispute; Amanda Blackhorse^[30] and Suzan Shown Harjo,^[31] the National Congress of American Indians’ support indicates that the belief is widespread. Goddard denies any direct connection to scalping, and says there is a lack of evidence for the claim.^{[17]: 1 [32]} C. Richard King argues that the lack of direct evidence for the assertion does not mean that those making the claim are «wrong to draw an association between a term that empathizes an identity based upon skin color and a history that commodified Native American body parts».^[33][34]

The term red-skin was, in fact used in conjunction with scalp hunting in the 19th century. In 1863 a Winona, Minnesota, newspaper, the Daily Republican, printed an announcement: «The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory. This sum is more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River are worth.»^[35] A news story published by the Atchison Daily Champion in Atchison, Kansas, on October 9, 1885, tells of the settlers’ «hunt for redskins, with a view of obtaining their scalps», worth $250.^[36] In his early career as the owner of a newspaper in South Dakota, L. Frank Baum wrote an editorial upon the death of Chief Sitting Bull in which he advocates the annihilation of all remaining redskins in order to secure the safety of white settlers, and because «better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are.»^[37]

When Hollywood westerns were most popular, roughly 1920–1970, the term redskins was often used to refer to Native Americans when war was imminent or in progress.^[38] In the Washington Redskins trademark dispute, the main issue was the meaning of the term in the period when the trademark registrations were issued, 1967–1990. The linguistic expert for the petitioner, Geoffrey Nunberg, successfully argued that whatever its origins, redskins was a slur at that time based upon passages from books and newspapers and movie clips, in which the word is inevitably associated with contempt, derision, condescension, or sentimental paeans to the noble savage.^[39] John McWhorter, an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, had compared the evolution of the name into a slur to that of other racial terms such as Oriental which also acquired implied meanings associated with contempt.^[40]

Current use[edit]

In the United States, redskin is regarded as a racial epithet by some,^[41] but as neutral by others, including some Native Americans.^[42] The American Heritage style guide advises that «the term redskin evokes an even more objectionable stereotype» than the use of red as a racial adjective by outsiders,^[43] while others urge writers to use the term only in a historical context.^[44] In modern dictionaries of American English it is labeled «usually offensive»,^[45] «disparaging»,^[46][47] «insulting»,^[48] or «taboo».^[49]

Use among Native Americans[edit]

Three predominantly Native American schools use the name for their athletic teams, two of which serve reservations: Red Mesa High School in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona where the student body is 99% Navajo.^[50] and Wellpinit High School in Wellpinit, Washington on the Spokane Indian Reservation.^[51] The principal of Red Mesa said in 2014 that use of the word outside American Indian communities should be avoided because it could perpetuate «the legacy of negativity that the term has created.»^[52] In 2014, Wellpinit High School voted to keep the Redskins name.^[53] Native American writer and attorney Gyasi Ross compares Native American use of variations of the word Redskin with African-American use of variations of the word nigger. Use of these terms by some members of minority communities does not mean that these words may be used by outsiders. Ross also notes that while activism on the issue may be from a minority of Native Americans, this is due to most being concerned with more immediate issues, but also says «The presentation of the name ‘Redskins’ is problematic for many Native Americans because it identifies Natives in a way that the vast majority of Natives simply don’t identity ourselves.»^[54]

Sports teams[edit]

Numerous civil rights, educational, athletic, and academic organizations consider any use of native names/symbols by non-native sports teams to be a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping which should be eliminated.^[55]

Washington Redskins[edit]

The controversy regarding Native mascots in general, and use of the name Redskins, was most prominent in the name used by the Washington National Football League team from 1933 to 2020. Public protest of the name began in 1968, with a resolution by the National Congress of American Indians.^[57] Native American groups and their supporters argue that since they view the word redskin as offensive, it is inappropriate for an NFL team to continue to use it, regardless of whether any offense is intended.^[24][58][59]

After decades of opposition to the name of the team by Native Americans, major sponsors responded to opponents of systemic racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. FedEx, Nike, and PepsiCo advocated changing the name. On July 3, 2020, Washington owner Daniel Snyder and team management announced a process of review of the name.^[60][61] On July 13, 2020, the team made an official statement that their review would result in the retirement of the Redskins name and logo.^[62] The new name, Washington Commanders was announced on February 2, 2022.^[63][64][65]

Public opinion[edit]

The meaning of the term redskin was directly relevant to the controversy, with supporters pointing to public opinion polls. Both a 2004 poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania,^[66] and a May 2016 poll by The Washington Post produced the same results, that 90% of the self-identified Native American respondents were «not bothered» by the team’s name.^[67][68][69] However, in a commentary published soon after the 2004 poll, fifteen Native American scholars collaborated on a critique that stated that there were so many flaws in the Annenberg study that rather than being a measure of Native American opinion, it was an expression of white privilege and colonialism.^[70] Similar objections were made after the 2016 poll, mainly with regard to the use of self-identification to select Native American respondents.^[71][72]

A 2020 study at UC Berkeley which found that 49% of self-identified Native Americans responded that the Washington Redskins name was offensive or very offensive, while only 38% were not bothered by it. In addition, for study participants who were heavily engaged in their native or tribal cultures, 67% said they were offended, for young people 60%, and those with tribal affiliations 52%.^[73][74] These results are similar to that found in a study by the Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies at California State University, San Bernardino. A survey of 400 individuals, with 98 individuals positively identified as Native Americans, found that 67% agreed with the statement that redskins is offensive and racist. The response from non-natives was almost the opposite, with 68% responding that the name is not offensive.^[75][76]

Trademark case[edit]

On June 18, 2014, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) cancelled the six trademarks held by the team in a two-to-one decision that held that the term redskins is disparaging to a «substantial composite of Native Americans», and this is demonstrated «by the near complete drop-off in usage of ‘redskins’ as a reference to Native Americans beginning in the 1960s».^[77][78] Evidence of disparagement submitted by the petitioners in the TTAB case include the frequent references to «scalping» made by sportswriters for sixty years when reporting the Redskins loss of a game,^[79] and passages from movies made from the 1940s to the 1960s using «redskin» to refer to Native Americans as a savage enemy.^[80] A linguistics expert for the team unsuccessfully argued that the name is merely a descriptive term no different than other uses of color to differentiate people by race.^[81] The linguistic expert for the petitioners, Geoffrey Nunberg, argued that whatever its origins, redskins was a slur at the time of the trademark registrations, based upon the passages from books and newspapers and movie clips, in which the word is inevitably associated with contempt, derision, condescension, or sentimental paeans to the noble savage.^[39] Although the USPTO decision was upheld upon appeal,^[82] on June 19, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in another case, Matal v. Tam, that the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause.^[83] Both the Native American petitioners and the Justice Department withdrew from any further litigation, the legal issue being moot.^[84]

College and secondary school teams[edit]

College teams that formerly used the name changed voluntarily; the University of Utah became the Utah Utes in 1972, Miami University (of Ohio) became the RedHawks in 1997 and Southern Nazarene University became the Crimson Storm in 1998.

The number of high schools using the Redskins name has been in steady decline (some of which closed or merged), with 37 remaining. In a survey conducted in 2013, 40% had local efforts to change the name, while 28 high schools in 18 states had done so.^[50] By December 2017, the number of high school «Redskins» had continued to decline from 62 to 49,^[85] including four affected by a 2015 California law.^[86] In 2019, Teton High School in Idaho^[87] and in March 2020 Paw Paw High School in Michigan^[88] retired the name. The rate of change increased following the decision by the Washington Football Team, Anderson High School in Ohio and Clinton Community Schools in Michigan^[89][90] changing immediately, followed by La Veta High School in Colorado.,^[91] Union High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma),^[92] Wichita North High School,^[93] Cuyahoga Heights High School in Ohio^[94] and Saranac High School in Saranac, Michigan.^[95] In April, 2022 the Sandusky Community Schools Board of Education voted to retire its mascot at the end of the school year.^[96]

Some communities have been sharply divided, with long-term residents seeking to keep the mascot while newcomers being open to change. In Driggs, Idaho, the deciding factor was the participation of local tribes advocating change.^[87] Other school districts made changes with little opposition. The school board for Cuyahoga Heights Ohio voted unanimously to retire their mascot following the decision by the Cleveland Indians to become the Guardians.^[94] The Wichita school board followed the recommendations of a committee appointed to examine the issue.^[93]

See also[edit]

• Historical race concepts
• Stereotypes of indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Bass, Amy (2005). In the Game: Race, Identity, and Sports in the Twentieth Century.
• Nafziger, James A. R.; Paterson, Robert Kirkwood; Renteln, Alison Dundes (2010). Cultural Law: International, Comparative, and Indigenous. Cambridge University Press. p. 644. ISBN 978-0-521-86550-0.
• Rosier, Paul C. (2003). Native American Issues.
• Zografos, Daphne (2010). Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 93–. ISBN 978-1-84980-633-6.

External links[edit]

• «More than a Mascot». Capitol News Service. 13 December 2017.

Redskin is a slang term for Native Americans in the United States and First Nations in Canada. The term redskin underwent pejoration through the 19th to early 20th centuries^[1] and in contemporary dictionaries of American English it is labeled as offensive, disparaging, or insulting.

Although the term has almost disappeared from contemporary use, it remains as the name of many sports teams. The most prominent was the Washington NFL team. After decades of resistance to change by the owners, management and fans; major sponsors responded to calls to end systemic racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by advocating a name change. The new name Washington Commanders was announced on February 2, 2022. While the usage by other teams has been declining steadily, 37 high schools in the United States continue to be Redskins. School administrators and alumni assert that their use of the name is honoring their local tradition and not insulting to Native Americans.

The origin of the choice of red to describe Native Americans in English is debated. While related terms were used in anthropological literature as early as the 17th century, labels based on skin color entered everyday speech around the middle of the 18th century. «At the start of the eighteenth century, Indians and Europeans rarely mentioned the color of each other’s skins. By midcentury, remarks about skin color and the categorization of peoples by simple color-coded labels (red, white, black) had become commonplace.»^[2]

Red as a racial identifier[edit]

Documents from the colonial period indicate that the use of red as an identifier by Native Americans for themselves emerged in the context of Indian-European diplomacy in the southeastern region of North America, becoming common usage in the 1720s. Subsequently, variations of «red men» were adopted by Europeans, becoming a generic label for all Native Americans.^{[3][4]: 627–28}

Linguistic evidence indicates that, while some tribes may have used red to refer to themselves during the pre-Columbian era based upon their origin stories,^[4]: 634 the general use of the term was in response to meeting people who called themselves white and their slaves black.^[4]: 629 The choice of red rather than other colors may have been due to cultural associations, rather than skin color.^[4]: 632 Red and white were a dichotomy that had pervasive symbolic meanings in southeastern Native cultures which was less prevalent among northern tribes.^[4]: 632 While there was occasional use of red in Indian-European diplomacy in the northeast, it was still rare there even after it had become common in the southeast. Instead, Indian was translated into the native languages there as «men», «real people», or «original people».^{[4]: 629–30} Usage in the northeast region by Europeans may have been largely limited to descriptions of tribes such as the Beothuk of Newfoundland, whose practice of painting their bodies and possessions with red ochre led Europeans to refer to them as «Red Indians».^[5]

Early ethnographic writers used a variety of terms; olivastre (olive) by François Bernier (1684),^[6] rufus (reddish, ruddy) by Linnaeus (1758),^[7] kupferroth («copper-red») by Blumenbach (1779),^[8] and eventually simply «red» by René Lesson (1847).^[9] Early explorers and later Anglo-Americans termed Native Americans «light-skinned», «brown», «tawny», or «russet», but not «red» prior to the 19th century. Many did not view Natives as distinctly different in color from themselves, and thus could be assimilated into colonial society, beginning with conversion to Christianity.^[10]

In the modern debate over sports teams with the name, it is sometimes asserted that Oklahoma translates from Choctaw as ‘red people’ (okla ‘people’ + humma ‘red’).^[11] However, humma has a number of possible meanings in Choctaw, one of which is «humma, an addition to a man’s name which gives him some distinction, calling on him for courage and honor.»^[12] The alternative meaning of Oklahoma becomes ‘honorable/courageous nation’ or ‘a brave people’.^[13]

Origins of redskin in English[edit]

The first combination of red with skin, to form the term redskin, is dated to 1769 by Ives Goddard, linguist and curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Goddard begins by pointed out that what had previously been considered the earliest English use of the term, a letter purported to have been written to an Englishman living in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1699, was spurious.^[14]

Goddard’s alternative etymology is that the term emerged from the speech of Native Americans themselves, and that the origin and use of the term in the late 18th and early 19th century was benign. When it first appeared «it came in the most respectful context and at the highest level. … These are white people and Indians talking together, with the white people trying to ingratiate themselves».^[15] The word later underwent a process of pejoration, by which it gained a negative connotation.^[16] Goddard suggests that redskin emerged from French translations of Native American speech in Illinois and Missouri territories in the 18th century. He cites as the earliest example a 1769 set of «talks», or letters, from chiefs of the Piankeshaw to Col. John Wilkins an English officer at Fort de Chartres. One letter included «si quelques peaux Rouges«, which was translated as ‘if any redskins’, and the second included «tout les peaux rouges«, which was translated as ‘all the redskins’.^[17]: 4 The term here refers to warriors specifically. The term redskin enters wider English usage only in the first half of the 19th century.^{[17]: 4–5} However, in an interview, Goddard admitted that it is impossible to verify whether the French translations of the Miami-Illinois language were accurate.^[15]

The term was used in an August 22, 1812, meeting between President James Madison and a delegation of chiefs from western tribes. There, the response of Osage chief «No Ears» (Osage: Tetobasi) to Madison’s speech included the statement, «I know the manners of the whites and the red skins,» while French Crow, principal chief of the Wahpekute band of Santee Sioux, was recorded as having said, «I am a red-skin, but what I say is the truth, and notwithstanding I came a long way I am content, but wish to return from here.» However, while these usages may have been earliest, they may not have been disseminated widely. While the 1812 meeting with President Madison was contemporaneously recorded, the records were not published until 2004.^[17]: 6

The earliest known appearance of the term in print occurred in 1813, in an article in the Weekly Register quoting a letter dated August 27, 1813. It concerned an expedition during the War of 1812 led by General Benjamin Howard against Indians in the Illinois and Mississippi territories: «The expedition will be 40 days out, and there is no doubt but we shall have to contend with powerful hordes of red skins …»^[18]

Goddard suggests that a key usage was in a 20 July 1815 speech by Meskwaki Chief Black Thunder at the treaty council at Portage des Sioux, in which he is recorded as stating, «My Father – Restrain your feelings, and hear ca[l]mly what I shall say. I shall tell it to you plainly, I shall not speak with fear and trembling. I feel no fear. I have no cause to fear. I have never injured you, and innocence can feel no fear. I turn to all, red skins and white skins, and challenge an accusation against me.» This speech was published widely, and Goddard speculates that it reached James Fenimore Cooper. In Cooper’s novels The Pioneers (published in 1823) and The Last of the Mohicans (1826), both Native American and white characters use the term. These novels were widely distributed, and can be credited with bringing the term to «universal notice». The first time the term appears in Bartlett’s «Dictionary of Americanisms» (in 1858), Goddard notes, the illustrative reference is to Last of the Mohicans.^{[17]: 15–16}

Johnathan Buffalo, historic preservation director of the Meskwaki, said that in the 1800s redskins was used by the tribe for self-identification. Similarly, they identified others as «whiteskins» or «blackskins».^[19] Goddard’s evidence for indigenous usage includes a 1914 phonetic transcription of the Meskwaki language in which both eesaawinameshkaata ‘one with brown skin’ and meeshkwinameshkaata ‘one with red skin’ were used to refer to Indians, while waapeshkinameshkaanichini ‘one with white skin, white person’ was used to refer to Europeans.^[20] However, the pre-contact Meskwaki use of red in identifying themselves did not refer to skin color, but to their origin stories as the «red-earth» people.^[21]: 239

Historian Darren Reid of Coventry University states it is difficult for historians to document anything with certainty since Native Americans, as a non-literate society, did not produce the written sources upon which historians rely. Instead, what is cited as Native American usage was generally attributed to them by European writers. Any use of red in its various forms, including redskin, by Native Americans to refer to themselves reflected their need to use the language of the times in order to be understood by Europeans.^[22]

Sociologist James V. Fenelon makes a more explicit statement that Goddard’s article is poor scholarship, given that the conclusion of the origin and usage by Natives as «entirely benign» is divorced from the socio-historical realities of hostility and racism from which it emerged.^[23]

Pejoration[edit]

The pejoration of the term redskin arguably begins as soon as its introduction in the early 19th century. A linguistic analysis of 42 books published between 1875 and 1930 found that negative contexts for the use of redskin were significantly more frequent than positive ones. However, the use of the word «Indian» in a similarly selected set of books was nearly the same, with more frequent negative than positive contexts, indicating that it was not the term «redskin» that was loaded pejoratively, but that its usage represents a generally negative attitude towards its referent.^[24] The word was first listed in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in 1898 as «often contemptuous.»^[25]

Sociologist Irving Lewis Allen suggests that slang identifiers for ethnic groups based upon physical characteristics, including redskin, are by nature derogatory, emphasizing the difference between the speaker and the target.^[26] However, Luvell Anderson of the University of Memphis, in his paper «Slurring Words», argues that for a word to be a slur, the word must communicate ideas beyond identifying a target group, and that slurs are offensive because the additional data contained in those words differentiates those individuals from otherwise accepted groups.^[27]

Some Native American activists in the 21st century, in contradiction of the etymological evidence discussed above, assert that redskin refers directly to the bloody, red scalp or other body part collected for bounty.^[28][29] While this claim is associated in the media with litigants in the Washington Redskins trademark dispute; Amanda Blackhorse^[30] and Suzan Shown Harjo,^[31] the National Congress of American Indians’ support indicates that the belief is widespread. Goddard denies any direct connection to scalping, and says there is a lack of evidence for the claim.^{[17]: 1 [32]} C. Richard King argues that the lack of direct evidence for the assertion does not mean that those making the claim are «wrong to draw an association between a term that empathizes an identity based upon skin color and a history that commodified Native American body parts».^[33][34]

The term red-skin was, in fact used in conjunction with scalp hunting in the 19th century. In 1863 a Winona, Minnesota, newspaper, the Daily Republican, printed an announcement: «The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory. This sum is more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River are worth.»^[35] A news story published by the Atchison Daily Champion in Atchison, Kansas, on October 9, 1885, tells of the settlers’ «hunt for redskins, with a view of obtaining their scalps», worth $250.^[36] In his early career as the owner of a newspaper in South Dakota, L. Frank Baum wrote an editorial upon the death of Chief Sitting Bull in which he advocates the annihilation of all remaining redskins in order to secure the safety of white settlers, and because «better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are.»^[37]

When Hollywood westerns were most popular, roughly 1920–1970, the term redskins was often used to refer to Native Americans when war was imminent or in progress.^[38] In the Washington Redskins trademark dispute, the main issue was the meaning of the term in the period when the trademark registrations were issued, 1967–1990. The linguistic expert for the petitioner, Geoffrey Nunberg, successfully argued that whatever its origins, redskins was a slur at that time based upon passages from books and newspapers and movie clips, in which the word is inevitably associated with contempt, derision, condescension, or sentimental paeans to the noble savage.^[39] John McWhorter, an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, had compared the evolution of the name into a slur to that of other racial terms such as Oriental which also acquired implied meanings associated with contempt.^[40]

Current use[edit]

In the United States, redskin is regarded as a racial epithet by some,^[41] but as neutral by others, including some Native Americans.^[42] The American Heritage style guide advises that «the term redskin evokes an even more objectionable stereotype» than the use of red as a racial adjective by outsiders,^[43] while others urge writers to use the term only in a historical context.^[44] In modern dictionaries of American English it is labeled «usually offensive»,^[45] «disparaging»,^[46][47] «insulting»,^[48] or «taboo».^[49]

Use among Native Americans[edit]

Three predominantly Native American schools use the name for their athletic teams, two of which serve reservations: Red Mesa High School in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona where the student body is 99% Navajo.^[50] and Wellpinit High School in Wellpinit, Washington on the Spokane Indian Reservation.^[51] The principal of Red Mesa said in 2014 that use of the word outside American Indian communities should be avoided because it could perpetuate «the legacy of negativity that the term has created.»^[52] In 2014, Wellpinit High School voted to keep the Redskins name.^[53] Native American writer and attorney Gyasi Ross compares Native American use of variations of the word Redskin with African-American use of variations of the word nigger. Use of these terms by some members of minority communities does not mean that these words may be used by outsiders. Ross also notes that while activism on the issue may be from a minority of Native Americans, this is due to most being concerned with more immediate issues, but also says «The presentation of the name ‘Redskins’ is problematic for many Native Americans because it identifies Natives in a way that the vast majority of Natives simply don’t identity ourselves.»^[54]

Sports teams[edit]

Numerous civil rights, educational, athletic, and academic organizations consider any use of native names/symbols by non-native sports teams to be a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping which should be eliminated.^[55]

Washington Redskins[edit]

The controversy regarding Native mascots in general, and use of the name Redskins, was most prominent in the name used by the Washington National Football League team from 1933 to 2020. Public protest of the name began in 1968, with a resolution by the National Congress of American Indians.^[57] Native American groups and their supporters argue that since they view the word redskin as offensive, it is inappropriate for an NFL team to continue to use it, regardless of whether any offense is intended.^[24][58][59]

After decades of opposition to the name of the team by Native Americans, major sponsors responded to opponents of systemic racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. FedEx, Nike, and PepsiCo advocated changing the name. On July 3, 2020, Washington owner Daniel Snyder and team management announced a process of review of the name.^[60][61] On July 13, 2020, the team made an official statement that their review would result in the retirement of the Redskins name and logo.^[62] The new name, Washington Commanders was announced on February 2, 2022.^[63][64][65]

Public opinion[edit]

The meaning of the term redskin was directly relevant to the controversy, with supporters pointing to public opinion polls. Both a 2004 poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania,^[66] and a May 2016 poll by The Washington Post produced the same results, that 90% of the self-identified Native American respondents were «not bothered» by the team’s name.^[67][68][69] However, in a commentary published soon after the 2004 poll, fifteen Native American scholars collaborated on a critique that stated that there were so many flaws in the Annenberg study that rather than being a measure of Native American opinion, it was an expression of white privilege and colonialism.^[70] Similar objections were made after the 2016 poll, mainly with regard to the use of self-identification to select Native American respondents.^[71][72]

A 2020 study at UC Berkeley which found that 49% of self-identified Native Americans responded that the Washington Redskins name was offensive or very offensive, while only 38% were not bothered by it. In addition, for study participants who were heavily engaged in their native or tribal cultures, 67% said they were offended, for young people 60%, and those with tribal affiliations 52%.^[73][74] These results are similar to that found in a study by the Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies at California State University, San Bernardino. A survey of 400 individuals, with 98 individuals positively identified as Native Americans, found that 67% agreed with the statement that redskins is offensive and racist. The response from non-natives was almost the opposite, with 68% responding that the name is not offensive.^[75][76]

Trademark case[edit]

On June 18, 2014, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) cancelled the six trademarks held by the team in a two-to-one decision that held that the term redskins is disparaging to a «substantial composite of Native Americans», and this is demonstrated «by the near complete drop-off in usage of ‘redskins’ as a reference to Native Americans beginning in the 1960s».^[77][78] Evidence of disparagement submitted by the petitioners in the TTAB case include the frequent references to «scalping» made by sportswriters for sixty years when reporting the Redskins loss of a game,^[79] and passages from movies made from the 1940s to the 1960s using «redskin» to refer to Native Americans as a savage enemy.^[80] A linguistics expert for the team unsuccessfully argued that the name is merely a descriptive term no different than other uses of color to differentiate people by race.^[81] The linguistic expert for the petitioners, Geoffrey Nunberg, argued that whatever its origins, redskins was a slur at the time of the trademark registrations, based upon the passages from books and newspapers and movie clips, in which the word is inevitably associated with contempt, derision, condescension, or sentimental paeans to the noble savage.^[39] Although the USPTO decision was upheld upon appeal,^[82] on June 19, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in another case, Matal v. Tam, that the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause.^[83] Both the Native American petitioners and the Justice Department withdrew from any further litigation, the legal issue being moot.^[84]

College and secondary school teams[edit]

College teams that formerly used the name changed voluntarily; the University of Utah became the Utah Utes in 1972, Miami University (of Ohio) became the RedHawks in 1997 and Southern Nazarene University became the Crimson Storm in 1998.

The number of high schools using the Redskins name has been in steady decline (some of which closed or merged), with 37 remaining. In a survey conducted in 2013, 40% had local efforts to change the name, while 28 high schools in 18 states had done so.^[50] By December 2017, the number of high school «Redskins» had continued to decline from 62 to 49,^[85] including four affected by a 2015 California law.^[86] In 2019, Teton High School in Idaho^[87] and in March 2020 Paw Paw High School in Michigan^[88] retired the name. The rate of change increased following the decision by the Washington Football Team, Anderson High School in Ohio and Clinton Community Schools in Michigan^[89][90] changing immediately, followed by La Veta High School in Colorado.,^[91] Union High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma),^[92] Wichita North High School,^[93] Cuyahoga Heights High School in Ohio^[94] and Saranac High School in Saranac, Michigan.^[95] In April, 2022 the Sandusky Community Schools Board of Education voted to retire its mascot at the end of the school year.^[96]

Some communities have been sharply divided, with long-term residents seeking to keep the mascot while newcomers being open to change. In Driggs, Idaho, the deciding factor was the participation of local tribes advocating change.^[87] Other school districts made changes with little opposition. The school board for Cuyahoga Heights Ohio voted unanimously to retire their mascot following the decision by the Cleveland Indians to become the Guardians.^[94] The Wichita school board followed the recommendations of a committee appointed to examine the issue.^[93]

See also[edit]

• Historical race concepts
• Stereotypes of indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Bass, Amy (2005). In the Game: Race, Identity, and Sports in the Twentieth Century.
• Nafziger, James A. R.; Paterson, Robert Kirkwood; Renteln, Alison Dundes (2010). Cultural Law: International, Comparative, and Indigenous. Cambridge University Press. p. 644. ISBN 978-0-521-86550-0.
• Rosier, Paul C. (2003). Native American Issues.
• Zografos, Daphne (2010). Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 93–. ISBN 978-1-84980-633-6.

External links[edit]

• «More than a Mascot». Capitol News Service. 13 December 2017.