Justices decline to review challenge by Indians
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned aside a challenge to the Washington Redskins’ logo, refusing to hear arguments by American Indian activists who call the team’s mascot an insult to their people.
Without comment, the court refused to hear arguments that the Redskins’ mascot violates U.S. patent laws against patently offensive logos. It’s the last stop for a lawsuit filed 17 years ago by Suzan Shown Harjo, an activist who organized plaintiffs back in 1992.
Many of the team’s most passionate fans still don’t see what all the fuss was about.
“I think that a lot of noise has been made about this,” said Samu Qureshi, who has given over vast swaths of his home to burgundy and gold merchandise. “And I think, frankly, both Native Americans and the Redskins have bigger things to worry about.”
The Redskins registered their logo in 1967 but U.S. law forbids trademarks that denigrate others.
In 1992, Harjo challenged the logo at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
In 1999, the office ruled against the team, but a federal judge later overturned that decision, ruling that Harjo and her friends waited too long to file their challenge.
Harjo didn’t respond to a request for comment.
But John Dossett, a lawyer with the National Congress of American Indians who filed a petition in favor of Harjo, said the fight is far from over.
“It’s definitely going to continue,” he said. “A new case has been filed, with a new set of plaintiffs. The federal government shouldn’t offer trademark protection for a derogatory term.”
Some fans bristled at that last suggestion.
“The assertion that the team chose a racial slur as its brand name is absurd,” said Scott Hurrey of The Hogs.Net Web site. “Most people don’t even think of Native Americans when they hear the word Redskin. They think of an underachieving football team with a meddlesome owner.”
» Team founded in Boston as the (Football) Braves, 1932.
» Renamed “Redskins” after coach William Henry “Lone Star” Dietz, an American Indian, took over in 1933.
» Team moved to Washington in 1937.
» According to Forbes, second most valuable NFL team, worth $1.6 billion, including $148 million in “brand management.”
Not all of Redskins nation speaks with one voice.
Jordan Wright, granddaughter of original team owner George Preston Marshall, said the logo ought to go.
“I think now that everyone’s consciousness has been raised it is an inappropriate, insulting and degrading name for a sports team,” Wright said. “It behooves us to recognize that and to change the name.”
Zema “Chief Zee” Williams, long famed as the team’s unofficial mascot, said Monday that it was time to end the noise.
“I think they ought to leave it to rest and let them go on,” he said. “It’s been going on for how many years?”
