Opinion

Gyasi Ross: Don't judge our people for taking NFL team's money

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Gyasi Ross. Photo from Cut Bank Creek Press

Gyasi Ross urges Indian people to help their own instead of judging those who have taken money from the Washington NFL team:

The Original Americans Foundation has gone to some of the other most economically vulnerable Native communities as well to create programs where programs are desperately needed. Rocky Boy, Browning, probably others. These places are remote and struggling economically. In these struggling places, unfortunately there’s not a surplus of folks saying, “We want to help you start a youth basketball league for your kids," or "We want to help you buy back-to-school clothes for your kids.” Not a lot of programs. And it’s not an accident that he’s picking our most economically vulnerable communities—money talks in those places. People are hurting. Electricity bills need to be paid, kids need to be fed, and money is incredibly scarce in these areas. It’s a different reality than that of the Tribes who are fortunate enough to be near large population centers and have meaningful economic development—no, “remote location” usually means “broke.” God bless those Tribes who have created incredible economic development within their homelands—that is important and beautiful and creates a lot of options that many folks without those resources don’t have. But those are not the Tribes Dan Snyder is going after and there’s a very simple reason why.
No, Dan Snyder’s Original Americans Foundation is going into the most impoverished Native communities and presenting shiny things in exchange for perceived or real acceptance of the Redskins name/logo. That presents an interesting conundrum. Obviously Dan Snyder's foundation is engaging in ugly and predatory economics, seeking to pick off Indian Country's most vulnerable communities with pennies on the dollar. That's bad. Yet, these brothers and sisters have to eat. They should be able to eat. They should be able to take care of their kids and pay their bills as long as they’re doing it legally. They should be able to do those things without criticism.
In fact, we should be the last ones criticizing our own people for feeding their families. Whites with white privilege is bad enough—we don’t need Natives with it too.

Get the Story:
Gyasi Ross: Snyder's Blood Money: The Zuni Need Our Love and Support (Indian Country Today 8/11)