Seattle Seahawks and Museum Mistakes

 

Trademark? No. The Washington Redskins lost their trademark protection for the Redskins logo. 

Football, the Washington Redskins, and Museums.

These three things all share one common trait. Can you guess what it is? That's right! They all suck.

For a few years now the Oneida Nation, as well as several other Native American organizations and their supporters have been calling for the Washington Redskins to change the name and mascot of their team. I wont get into the details of that specific battle but you can read about it here.

Now, for the purposes of this blog post I am going to assume that you are not a buffoon and that you comprehend why naming your team "The Redskins" is offensive. So we all agree the Redskins name sucks.

Things that suck:

Redskins
Football
Museums

Now, since we've established that we all agree the Washington Redskins are terrible, we need to discuss why American football sucks. Psych, no we don't. We all know football is the most overrated, boring, terrible sport to ever exist.

Let's revisit our list.

Things that suck:

Redskins
Football

Museums

Okay, so why would I, a museum professional, say museums suck? I could list about 100 things off the top of my head, but I only need to list one. This one. For those of you who are too lazy to read, the Seattle Art Museum and the Denver Art Museum wagered works of art for the Super Pooper Bowl - the losing museum would have to loan their work to the winner, presumably for the winning city to be able to mock in person. How droll. So what did the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) choose as their little art poker chip? A sacred mask from the Nuxalk Nation? Featuring the same kinds of designs that the Seahawks RIPPED OFF to create their team logo!!!?? And they did so without consulting the tribe first??!! BRILLIANT! Just stupendous. Solid bunch of professionals they have up there in Seattle.

I cannot even fathom why the SAM thought that was a bright idea. Whoever approved it was probably a football fan.

I'll make my point quickly - which I can do because it's pretty simple and kind of one of the most important things to know if you want to work in museums. As museum professionals we care for cultural objects, many are from cultures that are not our own. We have an obligation to ensure that we treat those objects with due respect. I'm still embarking on the horrible, frustrating, disheartening voyage that will be my career in museums but even I, a mere graduate student could have caught that. Its 2014 and there are an overwhelming number of graduate programs for museum studies and we still can't figure out that betting a sacred First Nations object on a football game is a bad idea?

Be proud SAM, you earned this check mark for us all.

Things that suck:

Redskins
Football
Museums

I could go on forever on how blatantly stupid an idea that was but it looks like the Nuxalk Nation put the SAM in its place. This leads me to my second point, and the topic of my graduate thesis big girl paper: Native American intellectual property in museums. Are museums doing enough to acknowledge and protect Native American intellectual property that we hold in museums? Spoiler alert! We aren't! And the SAM boo boo just proves my point even more. I'll be sure to post the paper in full once it's complete for the no one who reads my blog to see. Until then watch this video and visit Change the Mascot.

© 2014 Patricia Lord