GLENDIVE, Montana — A Montana senator’s bid to force an NFL team thousands of miles away to restore its old logo may soon see his long-shot endeavor bolstered by the Treasure State’s pivotal Senate election.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) has for months blocked bipartisan legislation that would pave the way for a new Washington Commanders stadium in Washington, D.C., over the franchise’s refusal to revert to its retired Redskins logo, a cause he’s taken up on behalf of the Montana Native American family and tribe behind the logo’s inception.
Republican Tim Sheehy, locked in a tight battle against Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in a race that could determine Senate control, is ready to reinforce Daines’ effort in Washington.
“The Indians themselves want that to happen,” Sheehy recently told the Washington Examiner of local Native families and restoring the logo. “I would certainly support it.”
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The old logo of a Native American chief, since replaced with a simple “W” brandishing the team’s burgundy and gold colors, was inspired by Blackfeet Tribe chief John Two Guns White Calf and created by Walter “Blackie” Wetzel. The portrait logo was used by the team from 1972 until the Redskins name was retired in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, as the franchise sought to respond to the controversy around the name and image that other Indigenous people found offensive.
Daines, chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm and a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, has been a vocal advocate on Capitol Hill for White Calf and Wetzel family descendants who have lobbied the Commanders to readopt their logo.
Daines’ blockade against a House-passed bill has prevented the local government of Washington, D.C., from taking control of the federally owned land that’s home to the abandoned RFK Stadium, which the team and city want for a new stadium. The Commanders’ current stadium sits a few miles outside city limits in Landover, Maryland.
“This is about righting a wrong,” Daines told the Washington Examiner. “The legendary Blackfeet logo that was championed by Blackie Wetzel and based on the likeness of Chief Two Guns White Calf must be restored to a place of honor.”
But not everyone in Montana feels it’s a worthwhile mission for United States senators.
“This is something I really don’t care about, I don’t spend much time thinking about,” Ryan Busse, the Democratic challenger to Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT), told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview. “I don’t really think it’s a Montana issue, but I’ve not heard about it anywhere. It certainly isn’t elevated to, like, property taxes, I can tell you that.”
Darcy Saunders, a Tester supporter and Bozeman resident with Native heritage advocated for Daines to divert his focus to what she said were more pressing Native American issues, such as healthcare, education, and housing.
“I think people need to be sensitive to that portrayal of Native Americans, or any other cultural,” Saunders said. “For Daines to think that’s one of the main issues for him, it’s just — there are so many things going on that he’s been totally silent on.”
Sheehy has faced backlash on the campaign trail for derogatory remarks about Native Americans unveiled in leaked audio, in which he said a “great way to bond with all the Indians, to be out there while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.” Sheehy later admitted the remarks were “insensitive” during a debate with Tester, but the former Navy SEAL batted down Tester’s call for an apology.
“I come from the military, as many of our tribal members do,” Sheehy said at the time. “We make insensitive jokes and probably off color-jokes sometimes.”
Last month, the Commanders unveiled a memorial at their current stadium honoring the Blackfeet Nation and Wetzel to roughly two dozen Wetzel family members. It features a black and gold plaque that pays homage to the former logo’s history by noting Wetzel “designed this logo to symbolize and pay tribute to Indigenous populations and to honor the many values embodied by this country’s first people, including strength, pride, courage, and service.”
Wetzel’s grandson, Ryan Wetzel, has led the charge for the old logo. He recently said relations with the team honoring his family were “going in the right direction” but that family members remained unsatisfied.
“I don’t want to get too complex,” Ryan Wetzel told The Washington Post following the memorial unveiling, declining to specify what further action was desired.
Daines called the tribute a “step in the right direction.”
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“The logo is a point of pride and represents the rich Native American history that helped make our nation great, and it should be enthusiastically celebrated across our culture,” he said.
The Commanders, on a recent winning streak, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Senate Energy and National Resources Committee will begin to consider the House-passed RFK stadium bill after lawmakers return to Congress the week after the Nov. 5 elections and try to advance it through the narrowly divided chamber that Democrats control. Conversations are ongoing between the Commanders, the NFL, and the Wetzels, according to a source familiar with the matter.
If Republicans retake the Senate, the measure would likely be placed in further jeopardy of ever passing. Senators would only have a few short weeks to approve it before lawmakers leave for the holidays and the new Congress commences in early January.
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Ryan Wetzel did not respond to interview requests but previously told the Washington Examiner that severing ties with the Native American community after some five decades “left people hanging who took pride in that logo.”
“Now that I’m old enough to be a part of this story and see the bigger picture, I don’t think people understood the connection with the logo and tribal affiliation,” he said earlier this year. “It’s about just understanding the legacy of my grandfather. He was for the native people throughout the country, and that was the whole point of connecting the logo with the franchise. It was a point of pride.”
