Leadership of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe expressed their support of the Washington, D.C. NFL team dropping their name.
Faron Jackson, Sr., the Band’s tribal chairman, told Leech Lake News the band wishes to “extend a huge thank you and recognize the shareholders and investment firms who contacted Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo urging them to support this effort.”
Jackson also said, “Indigenous people and Native organizations have been tirelessly campaigning to have these symbols removed for quite some time,” and appreciates “the assistance of all our allies in helping to move this particular case across the finish line.”
Media analysts at Poynter have quoted the team’s owner, Daniel Snyder, as saying he would never change the name, but recent events highlighting racial inequality may have initiated the team’s sponsors to support the change.
Snyder has owned the Washington NFL team for 20 years.
