by Antonia Gonzales

Members of the Washington, D.C. based-grassroots Rising Hearts group say they were behind Wednesday’s online campaign aimed at the Washington football team’s name.  Fake articles on website parodies of The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, the Bleacher Report and the Washington football team showed an updated logo and mascot noting the team ditched its R-word name and changed it to the Washington Redhawks.

Rising Hearts released a statement taking claim for the action, crafted as a culture jam.  Culture jamming is a tactic used in social activism creating fake or hoax stories, logos and products to draw attention to an issue and/or critic it.

Website parodies show updated logo and team name of the Washington football team.

“One of the reasons we used this tactic is because we feel as Native people we face this giant wall of erasure and invisibility where it is really difficult to get accurate representation of ourselves in mainstream media,” said Rebecca Nagle, Cherokee Nation, a member of Rising Hearts.

The group said the action was a way to show the NFL team how easy it would be to change the name, a move Native advocates, many tribes and national Native organizations have long asked team owner Dan Snyder to do, calling the R-word a racial slur.

“In the first 12 hours of the website launching all our websites received over a half million visitors, the people who visited our websites Wednesday could fill FedEx Stadium five times over,” said Nagle. “Beyond the visitors to our website, people saw the culture jam on social media and in the news.”

The Washington football team released a statement Wednesday in response to the websites. The team said the name remains the Washington R******* and will remain for the future.

Reaction on social media included comments from people celebrating. Others expressed confusion or were upset over the dupe. Nagle believes there is support for the group’s Redhawks action in Indian Country, but acknowledges there are people who are not pleased.

“We’re open for dialog and feedback with people,” said Nagle. “Our goal is to take this platform this culture jam created to shed more light on this issue and in this moment of that sort of vail of invisibility being lifted really use it to get our message across to the non-Native world.”

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This story is a part of the series, Alaska Water Wars about the proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska. You can find longer versions of the entire series, photos and additional information by going here. Below is audio for the series that aired on National Native News. 

Financial support for reporting on the series was provided by the Alaska Humanities Forum and KNBA public radio. 

By Daysha Eaton

Communities near the fishing industry of Bristol Bay are larger and often have more seasonal and year-round work opportunities than those inland, near the proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska. Some residents, despite concerns about possible impacts to water quality, are eager to take jobs on related infrastructure projects that would be the mine’s foundation.  In the village of Kokhanok, a “man camp” was built this summer to house people working to develop the mine.

“It’s hard work but hey it’s a job,” said Clint Hobson as he plugged exploration drill holes, which are leaking water at the Pebble Mine site. The surrounding area is rolling tundra, streams and lakes as far as the eye can see.

Hobson is Athabaskan and lives about 50 miles across Lake Iliamna from the mine site in the tiny village of Kokhanok.

“I got bills to pay,” said Hobson.

Jobs are scarce in the area and Hobson is happy to have the work.  He makes $19.75 per hour on the seasonal job.  Outside Kokhanok, Brad Angasan, works for the Alaska Peninsula Corporation and describes the project.

“This is the Kokhanok man camp, said Angasan. “There’s approximately about 12-15 tents here.”

Angasan is Sugpiaq and Alutiiq. His mother’s family is from Kokhanok, a community of about 170 Yup’ik, Sugpiaq, and Athabaskan people.  The unemployment rate fluctuates from a low of around nine percent in summer to a high of 16 percent in mid-winter.

If residents don’t want to work directly for the mining company, many are desperate for jobs to help them stay in their villages. The village corporation that Angasan works for represents Kokhanok and four other villages. Some of those villages are on the verge of disappearing.

“Alaska Peninsula Corporation has villages that are, what I consider, nearing the brink of abandonment,” said Angasan.

The camp employed 15 residents this summer. Twenty-seven-year-old Nicholas Mike, who is Yup’ik, took one of the jobs.

“It means a lot. I get to stay home close to family and I don’t have to deal with traffic in Anchorage (laughs),” said Mike.

Others in the region fiercely oppose the project citing environmental concerns and possible impacts to their subsistence way of life.  Angasan does think developing the mine is a risk to the area’s pristine waters, but he hopes it can be done safely, and dramatically change the economic outlook for the region.

Dec. 4, 2017: Alaska Water Wars series examines resource development and Native communities

Dec. 5, 2017: As the Pebble Mine proposal picks up momentum in Southwest Alaska, Native Tribes keep up pressure against it

Dec. 6, 2017: Native people divided on development of Pebble Mine

Dec. 7, 2017: Some Alaska residents eager to take Pebble Mine jobs

Dec. 11, 2017: Native salmon fishers are skeptical of mining company’s promises of smaller, more environmentally friendly mine.