In Navajo Land: The Red Mesa Redskins!

Red Mesa Redskins. Red Mesa, Navajo Nation, Arizona, 2016

Yes, that is indeed their official high school mascot–just like that other team in Washington, D.C.

Here’s the thing. The Red Mesa Redskins can be found on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona! And apparently there is a fairly solid base of support throughout the Navajo community for keeping the name, despite all the hullabaloo over the pro football team’s identical mascot.

Perhaps the explanation is this (assuming, of course, that there really is support for the “Redskins”): They are keeping the name in order to co-opt it as their own thus de-arming it as a potentially racist term. Own it, and the meanness dissipates. Just my theory.

For more in-depth background on this interesting situation, here is a link to an October 26, 2014 article in the Washington Post: In Arizona, a Navajo high school emerges as a defender of the Washington Redskins.