AN OPEN LETTER TO ROB MANFRED FROM A MVSKOKE AND SEMVNOLE NATIVE
Hello Mr Manfred,
My name is Frances Danger and I’m Mvskoke and Semvnole, Daughter of Kaccvlke, of Tribal Town Arbeka. I currently reside in Oklahoma. This is due to the forced removal of my ancestors from our ancestral lands in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Atlanta is located on those lands.
It is my understanding that you have no issue with the Atlanta baseball team name and tomahawk chop based upon the support of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
I humbly ask you to set aside time to review the information I’m about to provide. I know you are busy and that it’s a lot but it is my hope that you will have an open mind and devote this time to hearing from a Daughter of the lands on which the team currently plays.
While EBCI currently reside near that region the land encompassing Atlanta are not their ancestral lands. The reason the EBCI are still in that region is because the Mvskoke (Muscogee) Red Sticks, our warriors, approached Cherokee Chief John Ross to join with them in battle to defend their respective lands. The Red Sticks were fierce. They were ready to give their lives for our sacred lands. Unfortunately that's exactly what happened.
Chief Ross took the information on the Red Sticks and met with andrew jackson. He offered it up in exchange for the Cherokee retaining their lands. jackson agreed. It didn’t stop there however. When the Red Sticks met jackson’s forces in battle at Horseshoe Bend they were flanked by the Cherokee. The EBCI, which are the current partners of Atlanta, are the descendants of those Cherokee who facilitated the removal of the Muscogee Nation from their ancestral lands with their participation at Horseshoe Bend. Without the Cherokee decision to save themselves at the expense of 900 Red Stick lives, in addition to the 8,000 people who perished during Nene Estemerkvlke, The Road of Suffering People, known as The Creek Trail of Tears, Atlanta would be dealing with the Mvskoke instead of the EBCI.
It being established that the space currently illegally occupied by the city of Atlanta where Truist Park is located are the ancestral lands of the Muscogee Nation and Truist Park being the home of the Atlanta baseball team it therefore holds that the Muscogee Nation has a vested interest in the way that they and other Native Nations, citizens, and Peoples are represented by the Major League Baseball team that plays on those lands.
That said the Muscogee Nation in no uncertain terms condemns the use of Native sports team names and iconography. In Resolution 2001-8 adopted by The Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes in 2001 The Muscogee Nation, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (whose ancestral lands abut those of the Muscogee Nation), Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Choctaw Nation, and Chickasaw Nation called to eliminate the stereotypical use of American Indian names and images as mascots in sports and other events and to provide meaningful education about real American Indian people, current American Indian issues, and, the rich variety of American Indian cultures in the U.S.
This resolution directly contradicts your assertion that Natives near Atlanta don't mind the name or the chop. While it may be hard for settlers to understand the Mvskoke are still near those lands. Our ancestors are buried there. We are of that land. Removal was only physical. We hold our stewardship of those lands sacred despite being thousands of miles away. We are, in fact, closer to that land than any other Native Nations or other Peoples, including those who are the descendants of those that did their level best to exterminate us in the quest to steal them or hold their own at our expense.
That said I urge you, Commissioner Manfred, to set aside your colonial understanding of land ownership and proximity and honor the true stewards of that land by listening now.
The Atlanta baseball team name, chop, and chant are not only stereotypical they are harmful in that they remove our humanity and our tribal identities. They distill us down to the basest accepted versions of what this country and the history it has written allow us to be. After May 25, 2020 it should be clear that that is no longer acceptable. It should be even clearer that it never was.
But both you and the Atlanta baseball team understand exactly what that date means. Unlike BIPOC, AAPI, and all other People of Color who have lived with the fact that we are to society what our skin color says we are you and those like you have taken that date as an "Uh oh how do we spin this?" moment.
There are copious press releases from MLB and the teams about their commitment to diversity and equity. You used that date for cynical PR stunts that would assuage your guilt for your complicity in our subjugation and to give yourself permission to do the bare minimum to address those issues. If that seems cynical, well, that's because that's what your efforts engender.
Take Atlanta for example. Both the team and the fans are quick to trot out the EBCI as "proof" that the harm that is being done by that name, that chop, and that chant isn't harmful at all because, like all people who defend their racist behavior, you've got a Native friend and they're not offended.
If that two decade partnership with the EBCI and respect to Native Nations and Peoples was that important then why wait to showcase that partnership until it was needed for defense of the name, the chop, and the chant? It was only given its own mention on the Atlanta team page on November 24, 2020, a time when it was adventageous to no one but MLB and Atlanta to mention it.
Why, after two decades, did you all feel the sudden need to hold the first EBCI Night at Truist Park while not even giving a mention to the EBCI in your 2021 Media guide (despite covering all the other community impact programs the Atlanta baseball team participates in) or sparing even a tweet from ATL to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples Day?
No need to address it. We all know the answer and it isn't because of your unfaltering altruism.
When it comes down to it what is happening in Atlanta is egregious cultural appropriation and denigration that harms Native Nations, citizens, and Peoples. The longer it persists the more ingrained the societal idea of who Natives are, the stoic Chief, the untamed warrior, the wanton Indian princess, becomes. Unless and until that name, that chop, and that chant are history then history is where you consign us. You may be perfectly ok with that but we aren't so know this.
We are rising. We are coming. We won't stop until that name, that chop, and that chant are no more.
Thank you for your time. See you at the stadium.
Frances Danger
