{"id":116890,"date":"2025-02-07T20:19:45","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T03:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=116890"},"modified":"2025-02-07T20:19:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T03:19:46","slug":"rhonda-levaldo-and-gaylene-crouser-not-in-our-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/02\/07\/rhonda-levaldo-and-gaylene-crouser-not-in-our-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhonda LeValdo and Gaylene Crouser: Not In Our Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\">\r\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tbCTUTFMM-s?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Indianz.Com Video: <a href=https:\/\/youtu.be\/tbCTUTFMM-s>\u2018Not In Our Honor\u2019 #StopTheChop #ChangeTheName #SBLVIII #NFL (2024)<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Superbowl 2025 Not In Our Honor Statement<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Friday, February 7, 2025<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Rhonda LeValdo and Gaylene Crouser<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source\">Not In Our Honor<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source-links\"><a href=https:\/\/notinourhonor.com>notinourhonor.com<\/a><\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<em>This post originally <a href=https:\/\/notinourhonor.com\/2025\/02\/08\/superbowl-2025-not-in-our-honor-statement\/>appeared on Not In Our Honor<\/a>. It is reprinted here with permission.<\/em>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe Kansas City football team will once again mock Native American culture at the Super Bowl. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nDespite the team leadership stating they have changed the policy on disrespectful behavior for over five years, fans continue to perform the \u201ctomahawk chop\u201d and wear costume headdresses and Native-themed face paint. This behavior is encouraged by the beating of a large imitation \u201cceremonial drum\u201d and the playing of the mock chant that accompanies the \u201ctomahawk chop\u201d at every home game. This does not honor us, this is bastardizing our culture and diminishing the genocide of Native people. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\n <a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/02\/07\/rhonda-levaldo-and-gaylene-crouser-not-in-our-honor\/stopthechop\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-116895\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" data-attachment-id=\"116895\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/02\/07\/rhonda-levaldo-and-gaylene-crouser-not-in-our-honor\/stopthechop\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/08\/stopthechop.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2048,1536\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"&amp;#8216;Not In Our Honor&amp;#8217;\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8216;Not In Our Honor&amp;#8217;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Native activists hold signs calling on the Kansas City professional football team to drop its racist mascot at a press conference at the Nuwu Art Gallery + Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 10, 2024. Photo by Indianz.Com &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/&quot;&gt;(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/08\/stopthechop.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/08\/stopthechop.jpg\" alt=\"&#039;Not In Our Honor&#039;\" class=\"size-full wp-image-116895\" \/><\/a> <figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Native activists hold signs calling on the Kansas City professional football team to drop its racist mascot at a press conference at the Nuwu Art Gallery + Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 10, 2024. Photo by Indianz.Com <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nNot In Our Honor asks the team, fans, and rivals alike to consider the following questions:\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Do the fans and players know what stereotypes they are reinforcing?    <\/li>\r\n<li>Are you aware that sports mascots contribute to the erasure of Native people by only offering so-called \u201chonoring\u201d in a one-dimensional and violent context?   <\/li>\r\n<li>Why does Kansas City continue to tolerate being represented on the global stage by a football team using stereotypes of a race of human beings, their sacred objects, and imagery?   <\/li>\r\n<li>Would someone mock a catholic service, dancing in a pope hat, singing verses of the bible?   <\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nFans often excuse the name of the team by stating it was named after a former KC Mayor and it has nothing to do with Natives.  This legacy is used to justify the team\u2019s longstanding cultural appropriation.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<ol>\r\n<li>The team is named after H.Roe Bartle, the KC mayor who brought the team from Texas in 1962. He was not Native American or a \u201cchief.\u201d <\/li>\r\n<li>Bartle founded a group of Boy Scouts called the Mic-O-Say, who continue to appropriate ceremony and culture from Native nations across the continent. They encourage youth to make costumes, mock Indigenous dances, and give them made-up \u201cIndian\u201d names and \u201cranks\u201d such as brave, shaman, and chief at campgrounds they have named \u201creservations.\u201d  Vast sums of money are donated to be \u201chonored\u201d as a guardian of this society, including the \u201cLone Bear Guardian,\u201d named after Mayor Bartle\u2019s \u201cIndian name.\u201d<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<p><\/p>     \r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpermalink.php%3Fstory_fbid%3Dpfbid0q1PAyJxX8Ya2vaPFLCGhJ6XZDBqTX89uXvnTBnGuUtEa9ZvuDM7ztdjCBnbbBgnkl%26id%3D100037191415836&#038;show_text=true&#038;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"422\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nThe <a href=\"https:\/\/micosay.org\/\">Mic-O-Say website<\/a> states, \u201cthey encourage deep reflection on the values and responsibilities that come with being a member of a tribe.\u201d Reflect on this:\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=mx-4>\r\nTribal citizenship cannot be purchased, worn as a costume, or acted out on game day. Those who participate in this appropriation do not know the racism, oppression and hostility that continues to exist for tribal citizens.  If they took the time for deep reflection, they would no longer appropriate our culture and would instead advocate for empowerment of Native people.  \r\n<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe <a href=https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/sports\/nfl\/nfl-will-remove-end-racism-end-zones-ahead-super-bowl-rcna190686>irony of \u201cEnd Racism\u201d painted in the endzone<\/a> in Kansas City was not lost on us. Now that we are \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2025\/02\/nfl-drop-end-racism-phrase-super-bowl-end-zone-choose-love-1236278612\/\">Choosing Love<\/a>,\u201d we hope you remember that racism and love do not co-exist.  \r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<HR><EM>Rhonda LeValdo (Acoma Pueblo) is the  Founder of the Not In Our Honor Coalition.  Gaylene Crouser (Standing Rock Sioux)) serves as Executive Director of Kansas City Indian Center and is part of the Not In Our Honor Coalition.<\/em><HR>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\n<div class=\"h4-responsive\">Related Stories<\/div><div class=\"related-story\"><a href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/02\/11\/rhonda-levaldo-kansas-city-team-continues-to-mock-native-people\/\" title=\"Rhonda LeValdo: Kansas City team continues to mock Native people\">Rhonda LeValdo: Kansas City team continues to mock Native people<\/a> (February 11, 2024)<\/div>\r\n<img src=https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/08\/notinourhonor.jpg width=0 height=0 class=invisible>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City football team will once again mock Native culture at the Super Bowl.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[1554,5977,176,835,60,61,4539,675],"class_list":["post-116890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-sports","tag-discrimination","tag-gaylene-crouser","tag-genocide","tag-kansas","tag-nfl","tag-racism","tag-rhonda-levaldo","tag-stereotypes","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/08\/notinourhonor.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-upk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116890"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116902,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116890\/revisions\/116902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}