Indigenous Groups Are Protesting the Kansas City Chiefs Here's Why

The Kansas City Chiefs soccer staff has lengthy been the subject of scrutiny. Here's the controversy about their mascot, explained.

As the Kansas City Chiefs soccer team gears up for Super Bowl LVII, many sports activities lovers have taken a renewed passion in the sport and its avid gamers. However, there's one more reason the Kansas City Chiefs, specifically, are attracting attention this yr.

Native American groups throughout the nation have asked sports groups, corresponding to the Washington Commanders (previously the Washington Redskins) and baseball crew the Cleveland Guardians (formerly the Cleveland Indians), to switch their group names and mascots to reduce harm and cultural appropriation.

Let's unpack the controversy behind the Kansas City Chiefs mascot, crew name, and fan behavior.

Here's the controversy at the back of the Kansas City Chiefs mascot, explained.

The Kansas City football group initially started as the Dallas Texans, but changed when the team moved to Kansas City in 1963, in line with the Associated Press. The football crew title used to be selected for the city's white mayor at the time, Mayor Harold Roe Bartle, who allegedly received permission from the Northern Arapaho other folks. The name used to be in keeping with a nickname of Bartle's, which was once reportedly "the Chief."

Chiefs president Mark Donovan lately claimed to the AP that the staff "documented tribal officials confirming" permission to make use of what Indigenous activists have called a culturally appropriative workforce name. The Native American–led social justice organization IllumiNative, for instance, released an Instagram put up on Feb. 9, 2023, calling out the use of Native imagery appropriated by way of the soccer team.

In 2013, the Kansas City Chiefs created the American Indian Community Working Group, a bunch of Native American advisers serving to promote tribal culture and discourage cultural appropriation. A 2016 report from the AP suggested that the team used to be running extra intently with Chiefs management to watch American Indian Heritage Month.

The Kansas City Chiefs up to now had a pinto horse mascot named Warpaint, who used to be switched out for a character named K.C. Wolf. The horse mascot used to be introduced back in 2009, but in 2021, The New York Times reported that the team retired the mascot as a result of "it was the right thing to do." Unfortunately, the Chiefs mascot is not the handiest act of cultural appropriation surrounding the staff.

In 2020 the Chiefs formally banned enthusiasts from wearing headdresses and Native American face paint inside of Arrowhead Stadium, a convention that had been taking place for years. In a statement, the group said transferring ahead, "While we have discouraged fans from wearing headdresses for several years, effective immediately, fans will be prohibited from wearing headdresses into the stadium."

Additionally, the statement read, "Face painting is still allowed for all fans, but any face paint that is styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions will be prohibited."

Finally, the Chiefs did address the "Tomahawk Chop," a fan-created gesture deemed racist by Native American groups. Activists coined the hashtag #StopTheChop to discourage the gesture, but so far, the Chiefs' best solution has been to encourage enthusiasts to switch the open-palmed gesture to a closed fist.

Now that the Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl yet again, there was renewed protest over the workforce name itself, which is thought of as racist and appropriative. Activist Rhonda LeValdo, leader of Kansas City–primarily based workforce Not In Our Honor, defined to the AP, "People are trying to be really positive about Kansas City and what it does and how like ‘Yes, sports binds us all together.'"

She explains that for Indigenous peoples, "It’s not bringing our people into this celebration together. Really, it’s hurting us more because now it’s the bigger spotlight where you’re seeing this all over the world." Rhonda will be part of a gaggle protesting outdoor of the State Farm Stadium in Arizona, where the Super Bowl will probably be held in 2023.

In response, Mark Donovan told the AP he respects the crew's right to protest.

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