Native American group that wanted 'Redskins' removal is funded by Soros foundation, other leftist orgs

The new owners of the Washington Commanders appear to have some powerful support as they continue to grapple with a culture-war clash over the organization’s historic — and already discarded — Redskins name and logo.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), a major Native American rights organization, had issued calls to get rid of the Redskins name for decades. Last week, it touted its efforts at "fostering a proactive partnership" with the NFL team.

The NCAI is funded by George Soros' Open Society Foundations as well as other left-leaning groups. It is also funded through American taxpayer dollars from an array of federal departments, according to claims by the group itself.

Now, the politically connected organization is facing a grassroots uprising. Other Native Americans around the nation want the NFL team to reclaim the Redskins legacy — and these Native American groups say history is on their side.

Yet the NCAI has led a decades-long effort to remove Native American images and history from the national discourse.

The NCAI "has tracked the retirement of more than 200 unsanctioned Native ‘themed’ mascots since 2019, and has supported legislation banning the use of these mascots in multiple states," the group said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

On its site, the NCAI shows that it receives support from seven different taxpayer-funded bureaucracies of the federal government, including the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, and Justice.

The NCAI also lists among its supporters Soros’ Open Society Foundations, a grantmaking network which, according to its critics, promotes woke ideology, racial division and a simplistic binary narrative of American history.

Those critics include a different chorus of Native Americans who say they are fighting to save their heritage and preserve their important contributions to American history.

And these other Native Americans have urged the new owners of the NFL's Commanders to bring back the franchise’s historic Redskins name and logo and use the opportunity to share a powerful, positive story of Native American contributions to the U. S.

The effort to reclaim the Redskins legacy includes a petition by the North Dakota-based Native American Guardians Association (NAGA), which has generated more than 130,000 signatures this summer.

"Going back to the old name is not being considered. Period."

Last week, though, the Commanders appeared to slam the door on their effort and on that franchise heritage.

"Going back to the old name is not being considered. Period," team president Jason Wright said on 106.7 "The Fan" in Washington, D. C., on Aug. 30, the day after Fox News Digital reported that NAGA had been labeled a "fake group" by a team representative.

The Commanders organization later clarified that the individual did not speak for the team.

As for the NCAI, It "receives grants from left-wing foundations like the Ford Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and George Soros' Open Society Foundations," reports InfluenceWatch.org.

NCAI "has received over $26 million in funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation," adds InfluenceWatch.

"This whole group is out there banning names and images. That's how you erase a culture."

Wright’s statement was echoed later that day in a tweet and a press release from the NCAI, stating that it opposes the Redskins name and is "committed to fostering a proactive partnership with the Washington Commanders leadership."

To Eunice Davidson, a Dakota Sioux and president of NAGA, the "proactive partnership" that the NCAI said it would like to foster with the Commanders suggests further that leftists and "racist White woke" elitists want to erase Native American images and history from the national consciousness.

"The timing [of the two groups' statements] is very coincidental," Davidson told Fox News Digital.

"This whole group [the NCAI] is out there banning names and images," she said. "That's how you erase a culture. You forget about people if you don't see them after a while."

Soros or his foundations have successfully supported far-left district attorney candidates in big cities around the nation.

Victories by these DAs have been followed by increased crime and a decreased quality of life in several cities, hurting minority communities the most, critics note and data supports.

The Soros family funds grant-making organizations such as Open Society, which doles out cash to left-leaning organizations and political candidates.

The NCAI has actively engaged in erasing Native American imagery from public view at least since the 1980s, NAGA's Davidson charges.

Currently, the NCAI website touts its own efforts to remove Native American images in 21 states.

Its website says, "NCAI is the oldest, largest and most representative national organization sharing the unified voice of hundreds of Tribal Nations representing millions of Native people, and that voice has been consistent and clear for decades: unsanctioned sports mascots are symbols of disrespect that degrade, mock and harm Native people, particularly Native youth."

"The use of unsanctioned themed sports mascots perpetuates harm and dehumanizes our citizens."

NCAI executive director Larry Wright Jr. wrote in response to the Commanders' public statement last week, "The use of unsanctioned themed sports mascots perpetuates harm and dehumanizes our citizens."

But the pro-Redskins group NAGA asserts that the NCAI does not represent a majority opinion among Native Americans.

The NCAI has led calls to retire the Redskins for decades.

The group issued a report in 2013 titled, "Ending the Legacy of Racism in Sports & the Era of Harmful ‘Indian’ Sports Mascots."

The report referred to the team nickname as ‘Redsk*ns" and claimed that NCAI’s effort to "bring an end to negative and harmful stereotypes in media and popular culture" began in 1968.

The NCAI "has passed a number of resolutions on the issue, specifically in 1993 calling on the Washington football team to end the use of the team’s name and in 2005 in support of the NCAA ban on ‘Indian’ mascots, nicknames and imagery in postseason play," the report states.

The report blamed "the intolerance and harm promoted by ‘Indian’ mascots" such as the Redskins on a long list of social ills, including suicide, violence and low self-esteem among Native American youth.... (Read more)

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