In July 2020, the NFL’s Washington Redskins announced it would drop its name and Native American logo, which some deemed offensive. The team adopted the name Commanders in 2022. But the family of the man the logo was based upon — Blackfeet tribal chief John Two Guns White Calf — says no one bothered to ask their opinion. Below, his nephew, Thomas White Calf, tells The Post President Trump’s recent support for the team’s Blackfeet heritage gives the family hope for the first time that its voice will be heard.
Blackfeet Chief Two Guns White Calf was my great uncle and a great American icon. Americans know his face: he was the face of the Washington Redskins for 48 years, until he was cancelled in 2020.
Americans once knew his story.
White Calf defended tribal traditions in our Blackfeet homeland in Montana, where many of us still live today. He went to Washington D.C. where he forced the U.S. government to honor Indian treaties. He served as a model for the U.S. Mint’s famous 1913 “Indian head” nickel. White Calf’s face is still a collector’s item.
Uncle Two Guns was friends with Teddy Roosevelt Jr., New York Gov. Al Smith and made President Calvin Coolidge a member of the Blackfeet Nation. White Calf was so famous in his era that his death in 1934 was front-page news across the country.
White Calf became the proud warrior face of the Redskins in 1972, championed by Blackfeet leader Blackie Wetzel and with support of Native Americans across the country.
Cancel-culture racists decided at some point they wanted to get rid of Indian images in the public domain. The Redskins and Two Guns were their No. 1 target.
White Calf’s name was dropped from the Redskins narrative. His life story was erased from history. Even worse: Uncle Two Guns was dehumanized. He was ridiculed as a “savage and clownish mascot.”
The National Congress of American Indians Fund, which led the effort to erase and ridicule Uncle Two Guns, was funded in part by the George Soros foundation.
They reduced a hero to a clown so they could remove American Indians from American history.
Polls by the Washington Post and others showed that 90% of Indians supported the Redskins. Nobody cared what Indians thought. Nobody asked the White Calf family for our opinion.
The family of Blackfeet chief John Two Guns White Calf is deeply grateful to President Donald Trump for his bold calls to bring back the Washington Redskins and expose racial injustice.
President Trump cares. And here is our opinion: it is time to correct history and end racial injustice.
We ask that the Washington Redskins — still the Redskins to us — work with President Trump to reclaim their rightful name and their proud image of American hero John Two Guns White Calf.
We ask that the White Calf family be given a seat at the table.
We ask that a Hall of Honor be established within a new Redskins stadium where the public can celebrate Two Guns White Calf, the Blackfeet people and American Indian contributions to the founding of the United States.
Finally, we ask that the American Indian never be erased, dehumanized or forgotten again.
God Bless the Blackfeet. God Bless President Trump. And God Bless the United States of America.
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