Transcripts

BILL WAREHAM: With five weeks remaining in the football season, the Washington Redskins own the NFL's only unbeaten record, making the team a favorite to appear in the Super Bowl next January. The Kansas City Chiefs also appear headed for postseason play, so it's possible that two teams with American-Indian inspired nicknames could end up in professional football's showcase event. That event will take place just a few blocks from American Indian Movement headquarters in Minneapolis, where AIM national director Clyde Bellecourt and others organized the protest that drew national attention during the World Series.

CLYDE BELLECOURT: One thing for sure, we will be in better shape, come Super Bowl time, than we've ever been in our life, as far as organizing.

BILL WAREHAM: One aspect of that preparation involves putting the football teams on notice now that some members of the Native American community consider their team names offensive. Attempts to talk with a Washington Redskins representative for this story were unsuccessful. But a Kansas City Chiefs spokesperson says that franchise has addressed issues of racial sensitivity. Chiefs director of public relations Bob Moore says he doesn't think critics can make a label of racism stick to his organization.

BOB MOORE: We've worked with a number of Native American groups. And we have found that all of those are proud of their affiliation with the Chiefs and believe it serves their purposes. And nevertheless, we're very aware of the sensitivities of the Native Americans. And therefore, I think that's why we've taken such special pains to communicate with them. And this is something we did long before, I suppose, the current controversy in Atlanta ever came to light.

BILL WAREHAM: But a recent Chiefs poster promotion illustrates just how widely opinion varies, even within the American Indian population, over the appropriateness of Indian nicknames and images in sports. The poster shows 13 members of the Chiefs football team, none of them of Indian ancestry, dressed in a combination of football pads and authentic American Indian regalia.

All proceeds from poster sales go to the Heart of America Indian Center in Kansas city, whose volunteers helped outfit the players. But that participation has sparked calls for the resignation of the center's executive director, Chester Ellis, who stands by his decision to cooperate with the Chiefs.

CHESTER ELLIS: In the eyes of the beholder. I felt that we didn't. We were not undignified. We weren't. We gave the best integrity we could. It could have been that those same individuals, but you've seen the football games where you got the guys with the goofy paint on, the pigeon feathers, and everything else that you can imagine, it's all over.

And if you've looked at them, that's what that poster could have come out like. And I think by our participation, we told them, we wanted this to look right. We didn't want it to look-- these Indian people that came and helped to do this did volunteered. They did it because they thought that the program was good.

BILL WAREHAM: Even the most ardent critics of Indian-related team names acknowledge change won't come overnight. But they say they'll keep applying the pressure to change, especially on teams who find themselves competing in the sports world's highest profile events. I'm Bill Wareham.