Protesters gathered outsider the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Sunday. They were demonstrating over a whole host of different issues from the anti-vaxxers to union workers
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While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were preparing to make history, another group right outside the stadium was working to remind people of what history means to them.
“It’s not an honor for them to use a chief as their mascot,” said protest organizer Stuart Flores. “ We are not a mascot, we’re human.”
The Florida Indigenous Rights and Environmental Equality, or FIREE set up right outside of the stadium, with signs and microphones to make their voices heard.
“We are not your mascot,” screamed another protestor.
Flores told me that the group has protested the use of chief’s images for over 10 years.
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Native American mascots have long been a hot-button issue, but the subject seems to be reaching a tipping point if it hasn t already. The Native American mascot controversy dates back several decades. Professional, semi-pro, college, and high school teams across the country have adopted names, logos, and imagery that portray Native Americans in a certain light. As the argument goes, these images and terminology promote and sustain the marginalization and cultural appropriation of Native cultures. There s a case to be made that they consitute microaggressions toward individuals descendant of those who owned North American land long before The United States of America ever existed.
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Ahead of the kickoff for Super Bowl LV on Sunday, a local group staged a protest at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Raymond James Stadium to urge the team to ditch the Kansas City Chiefs mascot out of respect for Native Americans.
The St. Petersburg-based Florida Indigenous Rights and Environmental Equality, or FIREE, gathered at the stadium at 4 p.m. E.S.T. The details were released shortly before the game on a Facebook page the group created for the event, which is called “WHERE IS THE HONOR?”
“As we move through the 21st century it is time America began to respect the Indigenous Peoples. No other group of human beings suffers the weekly indignity of both racial and spiritual stereotypes trivializing and degrading their culture in a circus-like atmosphere. No other groups are racially trivialized into a mascot,” the group said.
By CBS News Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
A Native American rights group is planning a protest on Sunday urging the Kansas City Chiefs to retire the team s name and stop fans from using an in-game tomahawk chop ahead of Super Bowl LV in Tampa.
Alicia Norris, co-founder of the Florida Indigenous Rights and Environmental Equality (FIREE), is one of the people leading the demonstration set to take place near Raymond James Stadium, where the Chiefs will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the championship. Norris told CBS News that the use of the name and chop are dishonorable and disrespectful.