Saw this and wanted to share. Wasn’t aware of this history
June 20, 2024
someone’s response to a claim that the Chiefs are racist for being called the Chiefs
25 comments
Sure. But did they ask why Bartle called himself “The Chief”?
Any other references to this outside a tweet or whatever?
Jackson_cap is a disinfo agent
It is true but also kind of not. Bartle got his nickname The Chief because he would often wear a Native American headdress.
The second part is very much true. The team also still has a very good relationship with local tribes. One local tribe just redid the war drum because it was getting warn out. Obviously there are members of the NA community who take issue with some of the things around the name or other aspects but it’s certainly not a unanimous opinion.
Devil’s advocate here, but this argument is a bit disingenuous. Sure, the guy was nicknamed Chief but that in itself seems like appropriating Native culture. So the Chiefs get a pass just because they’re named after the guy, and not the ones doing the appropriation?
I know I’m gonna get down voted but I’m cool with that. I don’t have a real dog in this fight, just wanted to point out the obvious flaw in the reasoning.
They left out that he got the nickname from being part of a fake native tribe that uses mock outfits, names, and rituals for entertainment. He was a member of the boy scouts “tribe of Mic-o-say.” Just pointing out that saying it “did not have native American Influence” is incorrect.
Anyone remember Warpaint the horse?
This is known. It also doesn’t matter if you name your stadium arrowhead and have a horse called war paint.
The part of this story that they always leave out is that he got that nickname thru involvement with a boy scout society that plays pretend Indian. I’m not providing any commentary about the Chiefs name, but bringing up Roe as if it’s independent of any ickyness is not the play.
it’s more complicated than that comment. yes, the “chiefs” name is referencing former mayor H. Roe Bartle, but he had that nickname because he was the first chief of the “tribe of mic-o-say” – something he created for a boy scout summer camp. i have mixed feelings about it because i went thru it all when i was a scout. and while i certainly appreciate the lessons and life guidance it provided me, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a fake tribe invented by a white dude for children and adults to essentially cosplay as natives.
also, i’m fairly certain tribal leaders have gone on record saying they don’t particularly care for the tomahawk chop (that we stole from FSU anyway), which is why the org asks fans to do it with a closed fist to make it a “beat the drum” kind of thing
tl;dr – it’s nowhere near as problematic a name as “redskins” and is closer to innocuous than it is to something like the cleveland indians with chief wahoo, but it’s not completely innocent. end of the day tho, i’m not sure there’s much of a push from native communities to have the name changed
I love the tradition of smoking meats and destroying our enemies.
Yea but this leaves out the part that the chop wasn’t introduced till the 90’s. It’s not original, nor did the Native organizations who approved of the name approve of the chop. Enough excuses, it’s time to rid ourselves of that racist and moronic tradition. The name is indeed a more complex issue, as is the logo but the chop is so blatantly and obviously wrong
This comes up everytime discussions around name change, head dress or tomahawk chop come up.
Op’s post leaves out some important information. It’s drawn directly from Native American influence, whether people want to admit it or not.
“Everybody’s offended by everything” crowd 🤝 “you should be offended by this” crowd – most annoying fucks in society.
Um, when you start peeling this onion you don’t have to go very far to get to the origin story of why he was called “Chief”, and it’s more than a little creepy.
The term Chief, used alongside a wolf mascot, doesnt offend me. But wrapping any kind of revisionist history around what really happened here isn’t helpful in any way.
Nobody sane is actually offended by the Chiefs name
I don’t know if this is true or not, nor do I really give a crap, but OP are you really saying that you just randomly believe every tweet you read and assume it’s true? lol
“I learned so much from this random social media post I just read with no citations” -OP
Ok
Change the name
I still wouldn’t mind being the Kansas City Fighting BBQs
I had the privilege of having dinner with a colleague who is an authentic Indian Princess. Her Grandfather was Chief of the Blackfoot Nation and she grew up on the Blackfoot reservation in Montana. She is absolutely, one of the most engaging people I’ve ever met. This topic came up during the evening as the controversy between the NCAA and several universities who had NA mascots was at its peak. She was honest and pragmatic. I’ll paraphrase the conversation…
‘The people who are offended by these college mascot names are either “City Indians” who never lived on the Res or forgot their experiences of life on the Res and white people who are patronizing the Tribes. Because this doesn’t help the Res Indians in any way. It doesn’t feed one hungry belly, it doesn’t solve one case of addiction and it doesn’t teach one kid how to read and write. It’s all bullshit symbolism.’
Camp starts 1 month from tomorrow. That’s the extent of my opinion.
Holy shit is it the off-season or what lol
Yeahhhhh the whole name cool. The other stuff like chomp and other things not so much. Cheerleaders wearing headdress, a horse named war paint, fans wearing war paint on face, and like the guy riding his horse carrying a spear with an arrowhead. Tomahawk. Nah dog that all wasn’t the tribes saying yeah that’s cool their is a reason they scaled it back
Well at least if they were forced to change to Wizards I can just break out my old KC soccer gear
25 comments
Sure. But did they ask why Bartle called himself “The Chief”?
Any other references to this outside a tweet or whatever?
Jackson_cap is a disinfo agent
It is true but also kind of not. Bartle got his nickname The Chief because he would often wear a Native American headdress.
The second part is very much true. The team also still has a very good relationship with local tribes. One local tribe just redid the war drum because it was getting warn out. Obviously there are members of the NA community who take issue with some of the things around the name or other aspects but it’s certainly not a unanimous opinion.
Devil’s advocate here, but this argument is a bit disingenuous. Sure, the guy was nicknamed Chief but that in itself seems like appropriating Native culture. So the Chiefs get a pass just because they’re named after the guy, and not the ones doing the appropriation?
I know I’m gonna get down voted but I’m cool with that. I don’t have a real dog in this fight, just wanted to point out the obvious flaw in the reasoning.
They left out that he got the nickname from being part of a fake native tribe that uses mock outfits, names, and rituals for entertainment. He was a member of the boy scouts “tribe of Mic-o-say.” Just pointing out that saying it “did not have native American Influence” is incorrect.
Anyone remember Warpaint the horse?
This is known. It also doesn’t matter if you name your stadium arrowhead and have a horse called war paint.
The part of this story that they always leave out is that he got that nickname thru involvement with a boy scout society that plays pretend Indian. I’m not providing any commentary about the Chiefs name, but bringing up Roe as if it’s independent of any ickyness is not the play.
it’s more complicated than that comment. yes, the “chiefs” name is referencing former mayor H. Roe Bartle, but he had that nickname because he was the first chief of the “tribe of mic-o-say” – something he created for a boy scout summer camp. i have mixed feelings about it because i went thru it all when i was a scout. and while i certainly appreciate the lessons and life guidance it provided me, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a fake tribe invented by a white dude for children and adults to essentially cosplay as natives.
also, i’m fairly certain tribal leaders have gone on record saying they don’t particularly care for the tomahawk chop (that we stole from FSU anyway), which is why the org asks fans to do it with a closed fist to make it a “beat the drum” kind of thing
tl;dr – it’s nowhere near as problematic a name as “redskins” and is closer to innocuous than it is to something like the cleveland indians with chief wahoo, but it’s not completely innocent. end of the day tho, i’m not sure there’s much of a push from native communities to have the name changed
I love the tradition of smoking meats and destroying our enemies.
Yea but this leaves out the part that the chop wasn’t introduced till the 90’s. It’s not original, nor did the Native organizations who approved of the name approve of the chop. Enough excuses, it’s time to rid ourselves of that racist and moronic tradition. The name is indeed a more complex issue, as is the logo but the chop is so blatantly and obviously wrong
This comes up everytime discussions around name change, head dress or tomahawk chop come up.
Op’s post leaves out some important information. It’s drawn directly from Native American influence, whether people want to admit it or not.
“Everybody’s offended by everything” crowd 🤝 “you should be offended by this” crowd – most annoying fucks in society.
Um, when you start peeling this onion you don’t have to go very far to get to the origin story of why he was called “Chief”, and it’s more than a little creepy.
The term Chief, used alongside a wolf mascot, doesnt offend me. But wrapping any kind of revisionist history around what really happened here isn’t helpful in any way.
Nobody sane is actually offended by the Chiefs name
I don’t know if this is true or not, nor do I really give a crap, but OP are you really saying that you just randomly believe every tweet you read and assume it’s true? lol
“I learned so much from this random social media post I just read with no citations” -OP
Ok
Change the name
I still wouldn’t mind being the Kansas City Fighting BBQs
I had the privilege of having dinner with a colleague who is an authentic Indian Princess. Her Grandfather was Chief of the Blackfoot Nation and she grew up on the Blackfoot reservation in Montana. She is absolutely, one of the most engaging people I’ve ever met. This topic came up during the evening as the controversy between the NCAA and several universities who had NA mascots was at its peak. She was honest and pragmatic. I’ll paraphrase the conversation…
‘The people who are offended by these college mascot names are either “City Indians” who never lived on the Res or forgot their experiences of life on the Res and white people who are patronizing the Tribes. Because this doesn’t help the Res Indians in any way. It doesn’t feed one hungry belly, it doesn’t solve one case of addiction and it doesn’t teach one kid how to read and write. It’s all bullshit symbolism.’
Camp starts 1 month from tomorrow. That’s the extent of my opinion.
Holy shit is it the off-season or what lol
Yeahhhhh the whole name cool. The other stuff like chomp and other things not so much. Cheerleaders wearing headdress, a horse named war paint, fans wearing war paint on face, and like the guy riding his horse carrying a spear with an arrowhead. Tomahawk. Nah dog that all wasn’t the tribes saying yeah that’s cool their is a reason they scaled it back
Well at least if they were forced to change to Wizards I can just break out my old KC soccer gear