Republican lawmakers who work on issues affecting Native Americans are mostly shrugging off President Donald Trump’s latest preoccupation — making the Washington Commanders football team change its name back to the Washington “Redskins.”
Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, a Chickasaw Nation member and one of the only Native Americans in Congress, said these days, his only issue is that the Washington team played better than his favorite team last season. (In 2014, Cole called the name “insulting” and had backed former President Barack Obama’s call to change it.)
“They’re not my football team,” Cole said. “I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan, a long suffering Dallas Cowboys fan. [The Commanders] got further in the playoffs than we did this year.”