Redskins’ Name Change Remains Activist’s Unfinished Business; New York Times, 10/9/13

Ken Belson, New York Times; Redskins’ Name Change Remains Activist’s Unfinished Business: "Since the 1960s, Ms. Harjo has been at the center of efforts to persuade schools, colleges and professional sports teams to drop American Indian names and mascots that some consider derogatory. The fight has escalated in recent days as groups have intensified lobbying efforts and organized protests, even prompting President Obama to weigh in. The debate tends to settle on one question: how many people must be offended by a team’s name for a change to be warranted? The Redskins and the National Football League cite polling in which most respondents said they were not offended by the name, while those lobbying the team to drop its name dispute the accuracy of that data and say that no matter, the word is widely regarded as a slur. More than two-thirds of the roughly 3,000 teams with American Indian mascots have dropped them, many voluntarily and without incident. Along the way, Ms. Harjo, the director of the Morning Star Institute, a group that promotes Native American causes, became something of a godmother to the cause of eliminating disparaging mascots."