By Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 28, 1998; Page D1

A group of Native Americans, intent on eliminating what they say is a racial slur from the Washington sports scene, yesterday urged a federal agency to cancel the trademark protection of the Redskins.

"Redskins is the absolute, unquestionably worst term," Raymond D. Apodaca, a former governor of a Texas tribe, said after a hearing. "There is no context in which the term Redskins is not offensive. There is no context in which it is not insulting, pejorative or racist."

But an attorney for Pro-Football Inc., which owns the Washington Redskins, said the term "redskins" is not a slur and compared it to the use of the word "colored" in the name of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"Indian is a neutral term, and the whole thrust of the argument is redskins is a neutral term," John Paul Reiner said. "No one, when they hear the word 'Washington Redskins' or 'Redskins,' thinks it is in any way disparaging."

The hearing resulted from a suit brought against the Redskins six years ago by seven Native Americans. A ruling against the trademark would not force the club to change its name, but the Redskins and National Football League Properties Inc. could lose exclusive rights to use the team name on items such as T-shirts and caps.

"It doesn't give them the exclusive right to use the name to make money," said another of the petitioners, Suzan Shown Harjo, a Cheyenne and president of Morning Star Institute, a Washington-based American Indian rights organization. "And being commercial sports, they'll change the name because they're not in it for the public good. They're in it for the money. Anybody can set up outside the stadium and sell T-shirts and they can't stop them."

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is expected to rule in three or four months, said Bridget Quinn, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That decision could be appealed in federal district court by either side.

The ruling would affect the Redskins' seven registered trademarks, which include the team's name, its promotional logo, the helmet logo showing an Indian's head in profile and the logo for the team cheerleaders, the Redskinettes.

Federal trademark law says names cannot be protected if they are "disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous or disreputable," which is the basis of the challenge.

"The word has always been in the English language a scandalous and disparaging term and remains so today," Harjo said. "It is not a complimentary or neutral term."

Apodaca likened the word Redskins to "the 'N word' for African Americans and "all kinds of pejoratives that exist for Jews, for Hispanics, for women — none of which would ever be accepted or tolerated in relation to sports or anything else."

"Why would it be acceptable for American Indians?" Apodaca asked. "Is it because we're one of the absolute smallest minorities? Because we don't have political and economic clout? That is not justification."

In a brief filed last fall, Reiner called the petitioners a militant group trying "to further their own personal and political agendas."

Present for the hearing was Redskins President John Kent Cooke, who hopes to buy the team. He is the son of the team's late owner, Jack Kent Cooke.

Some other sports teams have stopped using names that made reference to Native Americans. Stanford University dropped the name Indians and became the Cardinal. Miami University of Ohio stopped using Redskins two years ago.

The Redskins have undergone previous name changes, according to Reiner. The team, first located in Boston, was called the Boston Braves. The name was changed by owner George Preston Marshall to the Boston Redskins in 1933 to avoid confusion with the local professional baseball team. Soon after, the team moved to Washington and the name was changed to the Washington Redskins. At the time, the team was coached by Lone Star Dietz, who was part Sioux.

In his brief, Reiner said the name Redskins was adopted by Marshall "out of respect for American Indian heritage and tradition and was never intended to belittle or insult."

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