Dan Snyder Creating Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation

Posted By Toyacoyah Brown March 26th, 2014 Last Updated on: March 26th, 2014

Are you buying what he's selling?

In a four-page letter yesterday, Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskin's football team, announced that he was creating the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation.

The mission of the Original Americans Foundation is to provide meaningful and measurable resources that provide genuine opportunities for Tribal communities. With open arms and determined minds, we will work as partners to begin to tackle the troubling

realities facing so many tribes across our country. Our efforts will address the urgent challenges plaguing Indian country based on what Tribal leaders tell us they need most. We may have created this new organization, but the direction of the Foundation is truly theirs.

As reported by the Washington Post, this announcement drew criticism from the Oneida Indian Nation. In a statement released late Monday, tribal representative Ray Halbritter reiterated the Oneidas’ hope that Snyder will change the name.

“We are glad that after more than a decade of owning the Washington team, Mr. Snyder is finally interested in Native American heritage, and we are hopeful that when his team finally stands on the right side of history and changes its name, he will honor the commitment to Native Americans that he is making today,” Halbritter’s statement read. ”We are also hopeful that in his new initiative to honor Native Americans’ struggle, Mr. Snyder makes sure people do not forget that he and his predecessor, George Preston Marshall, a famous segregationist, have made our people’s lives so much more difficult by using a racial slur as Washington’s team’s name.”

You can read the full letter here.

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