Outside of Allegiant Stadium on unceded Paiute land, a coalition of Native-led organizations held a protest hours ahead of Super Bowl 58. The organizers also held a press conference the night before.
Over a dozen Native relatives chanted “Stop the Chop. Change the Name” on the intersection of Hacienda Ave and Polaris Ave in front of thousands of people entering the stadium. We held signs that read “your chop is synchronized racism” “shake it off. Stop the chop” “Kansas City playing Indian since 1963” and “Native-themed mascots cause harm to all children”.
Amanda Blackhorse, a longtime Diné organizer who brought the coalition of Native-led organizations together for this action, linked the connection of the erasure of Native people in the US through racist imagery, to the genocide happening in Gaza. Amanda Blackhorse stated, “This country doesn’t care about Indigenous people. Because if they did, they wouldn’t be committing genocide against Indigenous people in Palestine”
We thank Amanda Blackhorse for inviting The Red Nation to this action and organizing it. Follow the coalition of organizations for updates on changing racist Native imagery in sports: AZ to Rally Against Native Mascots (@aztorally), No More Native Mascots (nomorrnativemascots.org), Kansas City Indian Center (kcindiancenter.org), and Not In Our Honor (notinourhonor.com)
Special gratitude to Nuwu Art + Community Center(@nuwuare) for hosting the space.
To listen to the interviews gathered at Super Bowl 58 from the organizers and supporters of today’s action, listen to The Red Nation podcast and subscribe to our Patreon.
#superbowlLVIII #decolonization #gaza
