Navajo woman leads challenge to Washington Redskins name

Friday, March 8, 2013  

Amanda Blackhorse, a young member of the Navajo Nation, is leading a new challenge against the Washington Redskins professional football team.

Blackhorse is asking the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to cancel marks registered to the team. She said the term "Redskins" is offensive and disparages Native people.

"I think enough people have spoken out,” Blackhorse, who testified at the board's hearing on Thursday, told Cronkite News. “One is too many.”

Blackhorse and the other plaintiffs weren't born when the marks were first registered to the Redskins in 1967. They joined the battle after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an earlier case on the grounds that it was filed too late.

"Our people were skinned. That's the history that we want to just bury at long last—and this revives it," Suzan Shown Harjo of the Morning Star Institute, who was the lead plaintiff in the earlier case, told ABC News. "This keeps it going and makes it possible for all sorts of other racial slur to be used against us."

The team continues to defend the name, arguing that it is harmless. The team also says the new challenge was filed too long after the marks were registered.

Get the Story:
Navajo woman challenges Washington Redskins “offensive” name (Cronkite News 3/7)
Challenge to Redskins name begins anew at trademark hearing (AP 3/7)
Trademark Board Hears Challenge To 'Redskins' Team Name (NPR 3/7)
The Washington Redskins' Trademark Might Be Too Offensive to Be Legal (The Atlantic Wire 3/7)
Redskins defend trademark before government judges (Fox 5 News 3/7)
Allen: 'I'm Proud Of What We Represent' (Redskins.Com 3/7)
Group files lawsuit against Washington Redskins (ABC News 3/8)

Trademark board hears dispute over Washington Redskins name (3/7)