Erik Brady

USA Today

BOX ELDER – Mike Sangrey understands some people think his Chippewa Cree Tribe is selling out by taking money from the Washington NFL team’s Original Americans Foundation. Sangrey doesn’t care about that. There’s a spanking-new playground scheduled to open at noon today on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, and that’s what matters to him.

“If us accepting the money makes (the team and its owner) sleep better at night, then fine, I wish them a good night’s sleep,” Sangrey said. “What matters is our kids get to enjoy a new playground. And how can that be bad?”

The rodeo-themed playground belongs to the tribe, but the branding belongs to the Washington Redskins. The place is awash in the team colors of burgundy and gold. The team’s logo appears four times, near a slide here and a teeter-totter there. The team’s foundation paid about $200,000 for this gleaming tribute to itself.

Arguments over the Redskins are heard from the White House to trademark court to barrooms across the land, but there is little debate amid the rolling high-plains grasslands of northcentral Montana, where members of the business council of the Chippewa Cree Tribe say the name is fine with them.

“I have no problem with the name,” tribal chairman Rick Morsette said. “And if they’re willing to help our youth, that’s good, too.”

Team owner Daniel Snyder announced the Original Americans Foundation in March, saying in an open letter that after staff visits to more than two dozen Indian reservations he resolved to “address the challenges that plague the Native American community.” More recently, the foundation said it has 145 projects in the works with 40 tribes, though it declined to name them. The foundation declined comment to USA Today, which visited the Rocky Boy’s Reservation because the Chippewa Cree Facebook page tells openly of the tribe’s partnership with the foundation.

Some tribes have turned down foundation offers. Recently the Fort Yuma Quechan (Kwatsan) Tribe, which straddles the Arizona-California border, listened to a presentation for a burgundy-and-gold skate park, budgeted at $250,000, before declining. “We know bribe money when we see it,” tribal member Kenrick Escalanti said.

Dustin White takes offense at that. He is the Chippewa Cree drinking water coordinator as well as a construction coordinator on the playground build.

“You can’t call this bribe money,” White said. “Little kids run up to us every day and say, ‘Is it ready yet?’ Look at the big grins on their faces and tell me this is bribe money. We accept government subsidies on a daily basis. We apply for grant money all the time.”

White, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, said the Chippewa Cree filled out a blind survey sent last year asking about needs. White said the tribe didn’t find out until later that the Washington NFL team was behind the survey. He said foundation director Gary Edwards visited during the winter and that plans quickly began to take shape.

The foundation provided 300 iPads split between two local schools and gave schoolchildren trips to Washington, D.C. White said a foundation-paid walking path near the reservation’s Wellness Center is in the planning stages. Council members have a wish list that includes a sawmill and more playgrounds.

This week, for the 50th annual Rocky Boy Powwow and Celebration, the foundation is sponsoring a youth rodeo school, a 3-on-3 basketball jamboree, an Ultimate Warriors competition and an Indian National Finals Rodeo tour event hosted by the Chippewa Cree Rodeo Association. White is CCRA chairman and he said he approached the foundation in May and asked permission for the tribe’s rodeo team to take the name “Team Redskins.”

White said the foundation agreed and the team of 15 adults and 18 youths — mostly Chippewa Cree but including team members from other tribes such as Blackfeet and Navajo — has been competing under that name in the United States and Canada since. The playground includes an action shot of the team’s Jesse Colliflower, last year’s Indian National Finals Rodeo saddle bronc champion.

“Diabetes is rampant across Indian country,” White said. “This playground will get kids away from their video games and playing outside. And we can thank the foundation for that.”

Sovereign nations

The National Congress of American Indians is a longtime opponent of Indian team names generally and of Washington’s in particular.

“Native Americans cannot be bought,” NCAI executive director Jacqueline Pata said. “While we appreciate billionaire Dan Snyder’s belated and sudden interest in the centuries-old plight of Native Americans, no amount of money makes it acceptable to promote a derogatory racial slur.”

Chippewa Cree chief of staff Richard Sangrey — brother of tribal member Mike Sangrey — said he has no compunction about taking money from the team’s foundation. He pointed out that government officials often say foundations “should take up the slack” when times are tough, and that’s all that’s happening here. Besides, he said, “all tribes are sovereign nations. We never dwell into other tribes’ business,” just as others should not dwell into theirs.

Pata is in agreement on that point. “We always support the sovereign governments of tribes,” she said.

Thomas Christian, an executive board member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, also in high-plains Montana, is careful to criticize the foundation, not the Chippewa Cree. “We would not take money from an organization that uses a name that is dehumanizing to us and our children,” he said. “But I am not attacking my relatives in Rocky Boy. That is totally up to them. Their need is even greater than ours.”

The Chippewa Cree have more than 6,000 enrolled members, and about 60 percent live on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, where the median household annual income is about $27,000.

Richard Sangrey said the tribe’s unemployment rate approaches 70 percent. “We are in dire straits,” he said. “We take resources where we can find them.”

Pata thinks the NFL team’s colors and logos at the playground are more about marketing than philanthropy. “People need to take resources where they can get them,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean people should be publicly pressured to defend a slur.”

Many Chippewa Cree don’t see the Washington team name that way. Kristie Pullin, retention officer at Stone Child College, said she is happy an organization stepped forward to help Native youths. Helen Parker, 78, the college’s elder on campus, said she thinks Washington’s team name is an honor. “I can’t understand why people get so upset that some ball teams are called the Chiefs or the Indians,” she said.

Chontay Standing Rock, 20, said Washington’s team name doesn’t offend him. “My only problem,” he said, “is when their fans dress in war paint with the feathers.”

Jeronimo Illeagle, 28, offered a dissenting view. “The name harkens back to a time when the government paid dollars for scalps,” he said. “The playground is uplifting to the community, and we need this funding. But it’s a PR stunt to me. It’s selling out, and I don’t do that or condone it.”

Jerry and Gladys Flat Lip live in a home that backs up to the playground. They have watched it rise for the past week. The team colors and logos don’t bother them at all, even if he is a New York Jets fan.

“I love that an NFL team built something here,” he said. “We can sit on out back every evening and watch kids play.”

As for the Washington team name, “at first I didn’t like it,” he said. “But it’s just a name.” He put his arm around his wife. “We’re just two redskins, Native Americans, and we know who we are.”

‘Poorest in Montana’

Six members of the Chippewa Cree business council that governs the tribe agreed to meet with USA Today Sports this week. They sat in their chairs in council chambers and told about the tribe’s dealings with the Original Americans Foundation, which they said is sensitive to preserving tribal culture.

“Our tribe is the poorest in Montana,” council member Gerald Small said, “but we are the richest in culture.”

Vice chairman Ted Whitford said the Chippewa Cree received a letter from Don Wetzel Sr. that told how his father, the late Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, a leader of the Blackfeet Nation, designed the Indian head logo of the Washington team. The letter, addressed to tribal chairman Morsette, says Snyder “has been awakened to our issues” and “wants to partner with Tribes to honor our history and culture, and to help us improve our Tribal Communities.” (The letter does not mention that Bill Wetzel, Blackie’s grandson and Don’s nephew, vehemently opposes the team name and wants it changed.)

“So let us not forget that an American Indian from the State of Montana created that logo,” says the letter, which calls opposition to the Washington team name “political propaganda from organizations and persons who have the time and money to pursue reform agendas such as removing our likeness and skin color from team names and logos, while many of our communities continue to suffer every day!”

“The letter was very helpful to me,” council member Ted Russette III said.

Morsette said the business council made its decision to accept offers from the foundation based on what is best for the reservation’s young people. “We have some opposition in our tribe to the name,” he said, “but they’ve been the Washington Redskins ever since I can remember.”

Three popular former Washington players — Mark Moseley, Gary Clark and Chris Cooley — appeared in council chambers hours later with foundation director Gary Edwards and chief financial officer Karl Schreiber. Moseley joked that he’d rather change the Washington part of the team’s name than the nickname.

Clark said how pleased he was to “meet some people of the brand I played for.” Cooley said they wanted nothing in return, they were just there to help.

Edwards said the team name stands for pride, courage and intelligence. He listened to some of the items on the tribe’s wish list and said the foundation will continue to work with the tribe “if you allow us.” Edwards declined to speak to USA Today after the meeting. Schreiber offered a phone number but did not return calls.

“We’re here to talk to people and start to understand how they feel and what their life’s like,” Cooley said. “It’s been such a good experience. This place is beautiful.”

The ex-players ran a youth football camp and appeared on a tribal radio station during their two-day visit. Edwards has made multiple trips to the reservation.

“They’re here,” tribal member Mike Sangrey said. “That’s the important thing. They’re not just going to cut us a check. We have good people here, I’m proud to be from Rocky Boy, but we’re not too famous for handling our own funds. They’re not just kicking a dollar to the tribe. They’re actually here, and that’s what we need.”