Clark Hunt: Chiefs mulling more changes to traditions involving Native American imagery
With headdresses and certain types of face-painting already recently banned from Chiefs home games this year, more alterations could be in store regarding the team’s and fans’ use of Native American imagery, Clark Hunt said Saturday.
The Chiefs’ Chairman and CEO wasn’t specific about what might be changed, though he said the team’s nickname and the name of Arrowhead Stadium will likely stay the same.
“I’m sure there will be some steps we take down the road on other things related to our game-day production,” Hunt told reporters Saturday.
Hunt’s sentiments echoed the recent thoughts of Chiefs President Mark Donovan, who spoke on the topic earlier in the week. Both were asked directly about the “Arrowhead Chop”; neither answered specifically or definitively about that, although the team has said it is “engaged in a thorough review process” of the arm-swinging motion and chant often accompanied by audio played over the stadium’s loudspeakers.
The Chiefs began conversations with the “American Indian Community Working Group” in 2014. The group has served in an advisory capacity in helping the Chiefs promote and not denigrate Native American culture. That relationship led to the Chiefs annually celebrating American Indian Heritage Month during a November home game each fall. The team now also consults with the National Congress of American Indians.
Those conversations recently led to the Chiefs’ announcement that they’re banning headdresses and Native American-styled face-painting at games.
“The important thing on the entire subject is how important education has been,” Hunt said. “It’s important to American Indians from a cultural heritage standpoint and just preserving their traditions.
“But it’s also a way of educating our fans that these things are offensive to them.”
Native American names and symbols in sports have come under increasing scrutiny for what many consider to be racist imagery. The biggest change so far in 2020: the decision by Washington’s NFL team to drop its Redskins nickname.
Asked about the Chiefs’ nickname, Clark said the name, as well as the name of Arrowhead Stadium, “aren’t things high on their list” when it comes to Native American groups’ concerns surrounding the team.
Although Chiefs officials didn’t comment Saturday on The Chop, Donovan did talk about the team’s pre-game drum-beating ritual, in which a former player or celebrity bangs a large Native American drum just before kickoff. The event was moved from an end of the field to an elevated deck in 2019, and Donovan said that tradition is part of club officials’ ongoing discussion about game-day activities.
“The drum has become a very big part of the Arrowhead experience,” Donovan said. “We’ve started to work with and started discussions about trying again to educate and make people aware of the sacred position of the drum in American Indian culture. Also, that it’s seen as sort of the heartbeat of that culture.
“When you hear things like that, it’s easy to latch onto that and say, ‘OK, it’s kind of a heartbeat of the stadium, too. People can argue otherwise, but it’s a way to unify our fans. It’s a way of bringing people together at that moment and in other moments throughout the game. How do we do it a respectful way? And that’s what we’re working on right now.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 2:16 PM.