BREAKING NEWS – Washington, D.C. – The Native Americans who are leading a viral petition demanding the Washington Commanders reclaim their historic Redskins name bristled with anger and resolve after a team representative called their organization “a fake group.”
“We’re not a fake group. We’re tribal-enrolled members from tribes across the United States,” Eunice Davidson, co-founder and president of the nonprofit Native American Guardians Association (NAGA), headquartered in North Dakota.
Davidson calls herself “full-blooded Dakota Sioux.”
The effort now has some 128,000 signatures.
“You understand the people that started this petition is a fake group, right?” Matthew Laux, a premium-seat sales manager for the Commanders and FedEx Field, wrote on August 18 in a text to a former luxury-suite season ticket holder. “Rather than focusing on a name change, maybe those people should apologize for what they did to General Custer. He approached them in a loving fashion and extended his hand to them in friendship, but instead of accepting his offer to have a meal with him at one of the fine dining restaurants at Little Big Horn, Montana, they gave him a haircut that did not meet the minimum barber safety standards.”