Did you know that there are NO federally recognized reservations in illinois despite the fact that one of the largest groups of indigenous people lived there pre european contact? Did you know that Illinois is an algonquin word? Did you know that most of the state’s highway system was built from native trade routes and trails? Did you know that the state’s agriculture system was built up from land already cultivated from native farmers?

Did you know that the illinois natives were forced off of their land? Did you know chicago probably would not exist as we know it if it hadn’t been for the hard work and progress the natives there made? The work that was stolen from them? The trail of tears passed through illinois. The blackhawk war to reclaim land that had been stolen took part in northern illinois. The entire state of illinois is soaked with native blood.

And how do we memorialize this?

The funny thing is that war bonnets belonged to the plains indians and Black Hawk was a woodland indian. The team can pretend that it’s “honoring” Black Hawk all the want, but it’s an empty lie as long as that racist caricature is worn on those jerseys. The team isn’t even named after Black Hawk himself, it’s named after a US infantry division that was named after Black Hawk.

lets also compare what the actual Black Hawk looked like versus the logo:

This wasn’t made to honor an individual, it’s a generic caricature. Don’t even get me started on how the US decides “good” indians from”bad” indians in history. Which individuals were ~noble worthy adversaries and which ones were villains that needed to be exterminated.

“But Dana! the Black Hawks aren’t as bad as say the Redskins or the Inidians!” like you’re theoretically correct that the blackhawks are doing the bare minimum of not using slurs as their team names but let me lay something on you:

This shit actively and continually hurts us. It hurts native children who already start off disadvantaged in this world. It hurts all of us when no one takes us fucking seriously because our cultures and our sacred traditions are reduced to spot rituals for profit. It doesn’t matter if the blackhawks are “less racist” than other teams. Racism is racism, especially on this scale especially when the franchise makes an astronomical amount of profit on the sale of their merchandise.

So yes, I’m sure if you aren’t native it’s easy to say “well if they fired this one player, it wouldn’t be so bad!” I’m sure most of hockey tumblr agrees with that statement! But you’re wrong and this is why. The blackhawks org is a product of a culture of murder and rape a theft and it’s a reminder to all of us native people of the abuse of our people.

October 12, 2020

Ryan Reaves

"I have to go back to (Wednesday) night to be honest. We went out for dinner with a couple of the boys and then Brayden McNabb asked if we were going to play (Thursday). I said 'yeah, why not?' I then came upstairs and asked myself if we were really going to play. Are we not going to support what's going on here? We have to, you have to think we are. Honestly I was up all night," said Reaves.

"I ended up calling Marc-Andre Fleury, I texted him at 12 a.m. to see if he was still up. He called me back and we had a decent conversation. In my head, I was thinking about how there were only a couple players of color in the bubble. How is this going to look? Am I just going to walk out to support my black community? Am I going to be the one or two or three out of the eight teams doing it? Am I not going to support and just go play and act like everything is fine? I was back and forth, but in my head I felt like we shouldn't play. I felt like this was something that we needed to support.

"Lo and behold, I wake up after an hour or two of sleep and I have a text from Kevin Shattenkirk asking me to call him. I called him and he said he had players from the teams out east and they wanted to hear what I had to say. I said I feel like it's a strong message and a very powerful message if a sport like hockey, which is predominantly white, can stand up and say I don't know what you've been through and never will, but I see what's going on in this country and I don't think it is right. Every single player said they would stand behind it and that we should not play. I got another text that Vancouver wanted to talk. I get outside their locker room and every one of those guys thought we should sit for two days and said they'd stand behind it. It was a big exhale for me because I felt like I was alone in it, but it was the exact opposite. I couldn't have felt more in a group than I did this morning. It was great because it was such a powerful message to see that people really see what is going on in this country. As white athletes, they don't want to stand for it anymore. To take that stance, I applaud every single NHL player right now. I really do."

canes twitter liveblogging the columbus/tampa game: a saga

bonus: