Sioux Tribe Rejects Bribe From Redskins’ Sham Foundation

Image via Zimbio

It’s an ongoing disgusting thing that Daniel Snyder, the billionaire jagoff owner of the Washington Redskins, refuses to even consider changing the name of the team, an antiquated reminder of a time when racism was so widespread and rampant that an inappropriately named NFL team didn’t even register as an issue.

Snyder’s unwavering dedication to preserving his franchise’s racist history is bad enough on its own, but what’s worse is his vehement insistence that the term “Redskin” is a salute to Native Americans, rather than a slur. Snyder’s strategy to combat the bad PR has been an equal mix of stupid, condescending and evil.

In fact, those three words basically sum up the guy’s entire existence.

The first line of defense is simply denying reality—lying is one of the few things at which Snyder truly excels. Upset by the local media coverage of his dumpster fire excuse for a football team, Snyder’s solution was to put half of the Washington sports media on the payroll and sue the other half.

Snyder has employed similarly transparent tactics in defending the indefensible, buying off individual Indians to stand beside him for photo ops and nod in agreement whenever he says awful things. That’s a lot of nodding, because everything he says is generally awful on some level.

The idea is to convince the public, and perhaps the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that these individuals are authorized ambassadors that reflect the opinion of a much larger group of people—even though they don’t. In April it was revealed that an elected chairwoman of the Paiute Indian Tribe faced impeachment after accepting bribes from Snyder.

Equally artificial and cynical is the Washington Redskin’ Original Americans Foundation, which Snyder started in March 2014. He said the foundation was “the result of four months of research into what Native Americans though of the Redskins nickname and logo, including visits by Snyder and his staff to 26 Indian reservations in 20 states.”

Over a year later and the mission of Snyder’s “charity” seems clear: throw money at anyone who will take it. Dealing with his blood money has been a source of consternation for tribes, many of which have become divided due to the infighting over whether or not to accept hollow financial gesture of a soulless man.

While some tribes have gladly accepted Snyder’s handouts, this week the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota flatly rejected a $25,000 donation to their rodeo association. Although Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier was given permission to seek money from the foundation, the tribal council convened for a vote and the decision was made to return the check.

“A lot of those in our community are opposed to accepting money from the Redskins, which to us is a racist organization; the term is derogatory and inappropriate,” said Ryan LeBeau, a councilman and vice chairman for the tribe. “Their fans make a mockery of Indian culture, and that’s just wrong.”

He said the tribe could certainly use the money, but not from an organization that actively denigrates Indians as a whole. “It just feels like they want to buy us off and keep us quiet,” LeBeau added, proving himself astutely aware of Snyder’s nefarious nature.

Redskins’ spokesman Maury Lane insists that the vast majority of the foundation’s donations are well-received, classifying the return as an “anomaly.” But since the organization is predictably shady and secretive, all we have is the word of a mouthpiece representing a bunch of complicit and delusional liars.