page_title: Washington Redskins name controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Washington Redskins name controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: Protest of the Washington NFL team in Minnesota
context_page_description: The Washington Redskins name controversy involves the name and logo used from 1933 to 2020 by the National Football League franchise located in the Washington metropolitan area. Native American groups have questioned the use of the "Redskins" name and image since the 1960s; the topic began receiving widespread public attention in the 1990s. In July 2020, following a wave of racial awareness and reforms in wake of national protests after the killing of George Floyd, major sponsors of the league and team threatened to stop supporting them until the name was changed. The team initiated a review which resulted in the decision to retire the name and the logo for the 2020 season, playing as the Washington Football Team pending adoption of a permanent name.
  Native Americans demanding a name change included tribal nations, national tribal organizations, civil rights organizations, and individuals. The largest of these organizations, the National Congress of American Indians, counted the enrollment of its member tribes as totaling 1.2 million individuals in 2013.
context_section_description: The Washington Redskins name controversy involves the name and logo used from 1933 to 2020 by the National Football League (NFL) franchise located in the Washington metropolitan area. Native American groups have questioned the use of the "Redskins" name and image since the 1960s; the topic began receiving widespread public attention in the 1990s. In July 2020, following a wave of racial awareness and reforms in wake of national protests after the killing of George Floyd, major sponsors of the league and team threatened to stop supporting them until the name was changed. The team initiated a review which resulted in the decision to retire the name and the logo for the 2020 season, playing as the Washington Football Team pending adoption of a permanent name. 
  Native Americans demanding a name change included tribal nations, national tribal organizations, civil rights organizations, and individuals. The largest of these organizations, the National Congress of American Indians, counted the enrollment of its member tribes as totaling 1.2 million individuals in 2013. The Washington team was only one example of the larger Native American mascot controversy, but it received more public attention because modern dictionaries define the name as derogatory or insulting and because the team has its home in the nation's capital. The team headquarters is in Ashburn, Virginia and its home stadium, FedExField is in Landover, Maryland. The name controversy was a factor in the team's departure from Washington, D.C. in 1997, and remained a barrier in discussions of the location of a new stadium. 
  Support for continued use of the name "Redskins" came from the team's owners, management, the NFL Commissioner, and a majority of fans, which include some Native Americans. Supporters said that the name honors the achievements and virtues of Native Americans, and that it was not intended in a negative manner. Some, such as former team president Bruce Allen, also pointed to the use of Redskins by three high school teams, two on reservations, that have a Native American student majority. Supporters asserted that a majority of Native Americans were not offended by the name based upon a national poll by Annenberg Public Policy Center in 2004. In a commentary published soon after that poll, 15 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. Specific criticism of the methodology includes the use of self-reporting to identify Native Americans, which violated the basic principles supporting the validity of public opinion polling. In May 2016, The Washington Post published a poll that duplicated the central question posed in 2004, yielding an identical result. A 2019 study by UC Berkeley found that 49% of Native Americans found the name offensive, rising to 67% of those who said they regularly participated in native or tribal culture.
caption: In November 2014, a demonstration against the "Redskins" name and logo was held outside TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota before a game against the Vikings.[1]
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