News snippets say there will be “thousands” of Redskins name protesters in St. Paul before the start of the Redskins vs. Vikings contest. Or should I call it the Red Racists vs the Pagan Plunderers?
It’s a free country. Believe what you want, but for the University of Minnesota to point fingers is the pot calling the kettle red.
The news clipping that name changers trot out most frequently to make their case is a clip from the September 24, 1863 Winona Daily Republican announcing a State of Minnesota bounty program. It was part of Governors Alexander Ramsey and Henry Swift’s ethnic cleansing campaign to remove the Sioux from the state after the Dakota War of 1862. Henry Sibley led the military campaign to accomplish that. Those events had a greater effect on the lives of the participants of that war – and their descendants — than the name of a sports team today.
Minnesota counties are named for Ramsey, Swift and Sibley.
The protest will be held in Ramsey County, named in honor of the man who did more than most to devastate Minnesota’s Indian population.
Flagship universities need not explain any of that as long as it can redirect outrage to an NFL team that never used its team name to disparage Native Americans.
Perhaps that’s why a super-majority of everyday sports fans are not buying the argument.
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