An Aug. 12 Metro article incorrectly said that a spokesman for the Washington Redskins did not respond to three telephone calls seeking comment on a legal challenge to the team name. The spokesman, Karl Swanson, referred a reporter to lawyer Robert L. Raskopf, who did not respond until Saturday, after a story about the legal challenge had been published.
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Indians Fight Redskins Name
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Philip Mause, a lawyer with the firm Drinker Biddle, which is representing the Native American activists, said the challengers in the new case are 19 to 24 years old. Among them are Shquanebin Lone-Bentley, 19, of Alexandria and Phillip Gover, 23, of Charlottesville.
Their youth should counter the legal question of whether they waited too long to sue, because they were not born when the first trademark was granted, Mause said. He said the new filing would force the courts to rule on the underlying issue of whether the Redskins name is disparaging enough for the team to lose its trademark protection.
"It will allow this to be resolved on its merits," Mause said.
Suzan Shown Harjo, a Native American activist and one of the original 1992 challengers, said she was "proud that the native young people have stepped forward to take on this despicable, disparaging name."
She said she attended a Redskins game in 1974 with her husband but had to leave after fellow spectators pulled their hair and mocked them for being "real redskins."
"They were touching us," she said. "It was really such a bizarre thing that we had to leave."
Harjo said that more than 2,000 Native American references in team names and mascots have been changed since 1970. Stanford University in California changed its sports teams from the Indians to the Cardinal. St. John's University in New York switched from the Redmen to the Red Storm. In Ohio, Miami University's Redskins became the Redhawks.
But 900 teams continue to use Indian references, such as the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Braves, Harjo said.
The Washington Redskins were originally based in Boston and called the Braves. The owner changed the name to the Redskins in 1933, and the team moved to Washington in 1937.
