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Harold R. (Hal)
Foster’s Prince Valiant
© Respective
copyright/trademark holders. |
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Harold R. (Hal) Foster’s Prince Valiant
© Respective copyright/trademark holders.
|
If the NFL Football team in our nation’s capital changes its
name to “Redscams” or something else because of political or social pressures,
what good does that do anyone in real terms? Are we quits with tribal people
for genocide, broken treaties, stolen children, cultures, languages, and unacknowledged
contributions to our nation in war and peace and in every aspect of its
constitution?
No, Native tribes still struggle to survive in a twisted
maze of treaty rights and reservation lands that to this day they must battle
to hold on to in the face of interests circling like coyotes beyond the
campfire light. Don’t believe that railing against the Redskins football team
solves anything for tribal interests, it does not.
Tribal interests in the 21st century are more
corporate in nature than traditional. This recurring business of offense at a
sports team logo is good for the publicity that no money can buy them. After everything the tribes have lost, and all
they have suffered, still they must survive; so they adapt nobly and cunningly
to the times, and play the hand they are dealt.
If
we truly care about tribal interests we must start by looking hard into the
mirror. Only by seeing past the cartoon images and two-dimensional ideas of
Native American Indians can we see them as fellow human beings who live and
breathe and suffer and heal as we all do every day. As many tribal acquaintances have expressed to
me, the chief insult is to be seen as a stereotype and in effect made not
human. I don’t claim to speak for any
individual of any Native tribe as to whether he or she feels demeaned by the
Redskins’ name or logo, or the term ‘Indian’ or something else; because each of
them has a voice with which to speak for them-selves. Tribal leaders speak for the
tribe just as politicians speak for Americans: ho ho, what a laugh.
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Harold R. (Hal) Foster’s Prince Valiant
© Respective copyright/trademark holders.
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