Activists will be pushing the Kansas City Chiefs to abandon the team’s name, mascot, and their fan-favorite “tomahawk chop” in a planned protest at the Super Bowl.
The Kansas City-based Indigenous activist group Not In Our Honor is planning a demonstration with other tribes to be outside the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. They previously protested the team in 2021.
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“People are trying to be really positive about Kansas City and what it does and how, like, ‘Yes, sports binds us all together,'” group founder Rhonda LeValdo said in a Thursday press conference. “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.”
The Chiefs President Mark Donovan has no plans to change the team name or mascot but says he respects the rights of protesters to share their voice.
“We also respect that we need to continue to educate and raise awareness of the Native American culture and the things we do to celebrate, that we’ve done more over the last seven years — I think — than any other team to raise awareness and educate ourselves,” Donovan said.
The Chiefs have two Native American players with long snapper James Winchester, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and center Creed Humphrey from the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma.
The team has several tributes to Native American culture planned in the Super Bowl program, with the artwork on all Super Bowl tickets made by Native and Chicana artist Lucinda Hinojos and deaf Navajo Nation member Colin Denny performing “America the Beautiful” during the game’s pre-show while using North American Indian Sign Language.
“The NFL simultaneously condones Kansas City’s team and their names and monikers and their derogatory traditions,” said Cher Thomas, an activist and Gila River Community member, who is planning to protest on Sunday.
The Chiefs have been working with the American Indian Community Working Group since 2013 to promote tribal cultures and adapted their “tomahawk chop.” The franchise stopped allowing fans in 2020 to wear headdresses, war paint, and tribal clothing at Arrowhead Stadium.
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They were named the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963 after previously being called the Dallas Texans.
In recent years, other sports teams have been pressured to change their names, including Washington dropping the name “Redskins” to become the “Commanders” and the Cleveland Indians baseball team changing their name to the “Guardians.”
