So, what is in a word? Wampum first explained the meaning of this word to me. The most powerful explanation of the meaning of this word is in a song that you can hear at Whole Wheat Radio. Click on the Requests button on the left and search for Reverend Goat. Select Redskins. It will play.

Fightin' words

Oh gee...I must have misread the word. It said "Redskins". What a relief! Call off the liberal masses with their torches and pitchforks. Its just a term which obviously "honors" American Indians. In fact, here's an excerpt from an op-ed by Linda Cypret-Kilbournem, an Anishinabek, on the subject of mascots:

"Redskins" means murdered, scalped and skinned Native Americans. This is the true meaning. When bounties were set upon Natives, they were murdered and then their bodies were skinned from the neck down and scalped. Using the word "redskin" is institutional racism. We understand that people did not intentionally use the word to cause hurt, but once you are told something like this is hurtful and you continue to use it, then it becomes racism.

Its not just a word; its a call to murder, even a call for genocide. Great name for a sports team, eh? Don't suspect though that Oliver or many other fans, black or white, would be cheering the Lynched Niggers. Doesn't have quite the same ring.
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Here is the op-ed by Linda Cypret-Kilbournem that Wampum mentions. Go read it.

Marshall Redskins: Should name be changed?; Term belittles an entire culture

Here it was the 4th of July, "Freedom Day," but who was truly free? When the Declaration of Independence was signed, African-Americans were enslaved, Native Americans (Indians - Anishinabek) were murdered. When Britain (the English) came over to force control on the colonists, it was called a Revolutionary War, but when the Native Americans (Indians) defended themselves against forced control, it was called an uprising. When they won a battle, it was a victory; when Natives won, it was a massacre. This is what we do with words, just like the word "redskin." You really have to know history from the Native Americans' side, not what you read in school history books or saw in Hollywood movies. The Pilgrims came to this country for freedom of religion, but ironically they imposed Christianity on the Native Americans and we were put in prisons for practicing our own religion (if you must call it that, for us it is a way of daily life). We could not practice our own religion until 1975 legally.

People say why now? Why, 71 years later, are we saying "Redskins" is an offensive word? It always has been an offensive word. Recently I have been told that this has been addressed several times in the past 60 years. I know for a fact that the Marshall school board has been addressed about this issue since 1991. It is not something that just came about in the year 2000. Marshall has had plenty of time to make this change.
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The Reverend Goat song, Redskins, describes how Andrew Jackson's indian fighters would skin Indians from the waist down to make a pair of pants. It was an act of terrorism. An act of terrorism that became fashionable. He reminds us that calling a football team the Washington Resdkins is like calling a football team the Auschwitz Lampskins. This is the foundation that America is built on. I'm going to be sick.