Last week, the NFL met with representatives of the Oneida Indian Nation. The meeting reasonably could be viewed as legitimizing the opposition to the Redskins name.
Next, the NFL will meet with New York representative Claudia Tenney. That meeting reasonably could be viewed as legitimizing the alleged illegitimacy of Oneida Indian Nation representative Ray Halbritter.
“She requested a meeting,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT via email. “We want to hear from different perspectives.”
For Tenney, however, the perspective doesn’t relate to the Redskins name. It relates to her attack on Halbritter.
“We know she’s not a big fan of Halbritter,” McCarthy said.
The Oneida Indian Nation previously fired back at attacks on Halbritter’s status, including citation to a federal court finding that the contention Halbritter isn’t the legitimate representative of the tribe “is not only specious, it comes very close to being sanctionable.”
At the time, the NFL had no comment regarding Tenney’s challenge to Halbritter.
“Groups and political leaders representing millions of people understand a self evident and painfully obvious truth: promoting a dictionary defined racial epithet in the 21st century in not acceptable,” Oneida Indian Nation spokesman Joel Barkin said in response to the league’s agreement to meet with Tenney. “Our campaign will be expanding in the coming weeks to promote this message and finally end the Washington team’s use of this derogatory term.”
Meanwhile, the NFL has not yet responded to specific requests made in Halbritter’s recent letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell. Halbritter has asked Goodell and Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to visit the Oneida Indian Nation Homelands, has requested an audience with the league’s owners during Super Bowl week, and has petitioned Goodell to sanction Snyder for not changing the name.
