Interesting view by Tony Perry who is an author and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation living in England. Published November 3rd, 2020.
The Exeter Chiefs’ branding perpetuates a long, dark history of racism against Native Americans.
The south west of England has been celebrating. The Exeter Chiefs rugby team completed a historic season and won two major championships in as many weeks – the European Cup and the Premiership – just 10 short years after being promoted to the top flight of English rugby.
Sadly, not everyone feels the joy of Exeter’s triumph and rugby’s rags-to-riches fairytale. Many of us Native Americans around the world feel dismay and disgust for the club who claim to honour us.
Exeter adopted the ‘Chiefs’ moniker in 1999 as English rugby union started to turn professional. Some of the early rugby clubs in the south west called themselves “chiefs”, but there was no connection with the stylised Native American chief image the club chose for a logo. Over the years, they have added to the theme, with a Native American chief mascot, fans started wearing headdresses and singing the “Tomahawk chop” mock war chant. Bars around the grounds have stereotyped names like “pow-wow”.
In June, as the #BlackLivesMatter movement grew, a group of Exeter fans called Exeter Chiefs for Change raised concerns that were building over several years. They petitioned their team to replace the Native American-themed branding. Pressure from fans and sponsors had finally pushed some US teams, like the Washington R*dskins now known as the Washington Football Team, to make this choice. These fans wanted Exeter to follow suit.
When more than 4,000 supporters signed a petition by Exeter Chiefs for Change, the Exeter Chiefs Board considered the request. The Board retired their mascot, “Big Chief”, but refused to change the logo, which they bafflingly declared “was in fact highly respectful”. The Board claimed that they spoke with various stakeholders to reach their decision, but seemed to ignore the communications from those directly affected: Native Americans.
The Exeter Chiefs’ branding perpetuates a long, dark history of racism against Native Americans. As Philip Deloria argued in his book Playing Indian, early settlers to what became the United States used Native mascots to affirm their identity as being not British, but something different. Native Americans represented a sense of freedom and idyllicism that the colonists longed for in their new lives in their new home.
The use of Native American mascots marks a sense of “progress” for colonists. Mascots frame Native Americans as peoples of the past, symbols of a bygone era consumed in the onward march toward the Americans’ “manifest destiny” to settle and “civilise” the land they occupied. This march to progress saw many Native Americans, like my ancestors, removed from their homelands and forced to assimilate into the lives of their oppressors.
Relegating Native Americans to a stereotyped mascot or a logo denigrates our past and ignores our struggles and triumphs today.
There’s overwhelming evidence that these outdated images perpetuated by Native American mascots and imagery are causing proven harm to the well-being of Indigenous communities, contributing to stereotyping and undermining true representation. This is particularly damaging to Native American youth, who already face an uphill struggle for true equality.
The Chiefs’ decision to keep their logo and branding is anything but the “respect” they claim to give. Relegating Native Americans to a stereotyped mascot or a logo denigrates our past and ignores our struggles and triumphs today. The Exeter Chiefs cannot say they did not know better; they made a conscious choice to offend and oppress. Their logo remains, the “tomahawk chops” continue and their supporters still band together as a “tribe”.
We Native Americans are still here and our lives matter. We have survived, against the odds, and we thrive. Some of us, like me, are also British, members of a multicultural society that recognises the diversity of its peoples. We seek the respect and protections afforded other minority ethnic peoples.
Many supporters continue to spew their hateful bile that shows a complete disregard for the people they so steadfastly claim to “honour” in ways they wouldn’t dare to do with other minority groups. I’ve dealt with it personally. Their actions cast light upon a dark hole in British society and in rugby in particular. It is unacceptable. We can do better, and we must.
Always a Wasp
