Tales from an Ojibway Chief: Steve and the Redskins

Tales from an Ojibway Chief: Steve and the Redskins

“Tales from an Ojibway Chief” is a long running series on Carl’s blog, focusing on the real adventures, conversations, and stories between Carl and Steve Fobister, an Ojibway chief, during Carl’s time as a fishing guide on Ojibway lands. Follow Carl on Twitter @carlnordgren for the latest in this series.

There are very few folks who have had the profound impact on my life that Steve Fobister has had. We worked together for four summers in the late 60’s on the English River, and he and his family clan introduced me to Ojibway culture and customs.

Steve is very sick from the mercury poisoning that is just one of the tragedies that have befallen the Ojibway of Grassy Narrows Reserve over the years, and one of the central events in The 53rd Parallel and The River of Lakes trilogy. He was elected Chief of the Reserve out of respect for the determination he showed fighting for justice for his people, a fight that goes on.

Nearly 35 years passed between the years we worked together and the summer of 2007 when I flew to Winnipeg to drive to Kenora and then on to Grassy Narrows for our reunion. There is now a timber road from the Reserve to our old fishing camp–you could only get there by float plane when we worked there–and we drove Steve’s 4-wheel drive pick up to camp and spent a couple of short days on the water.

One afternoon we were fishing for Smallmouth Bass. I asked Steve if he could speak for the people of the Reserve about college and professional teams naming themselves after Indians. He thought his views were fairly representative of the folks on the Reserve.

First he said that he noticed that Indian names are used much more in the USA as names of towns and cities and rivers and lakes than they are in Canada, and that he digs that about the USA.

Then he used the Florida State Seminoles as an example of sports team using native imagery in a positive fashion. He knew how FSU works closely with the Seminole tribe to respect their customs and that the tribe has given them public support for their celebration of Chief Osceola. FSU has honored the Seminole people further by creating special scholarship programs and low tuition rates for Seminoles.

He said that the Cleveland Indians selected that name early in their history because they had a great Indian player on the team, so he liked them using the name but he sure didn’t like the cartoon Indian image they use as their logo. Turns out Cleveland did have an Native American star, Louis Sockalexis, but it appears that they choose Indians because of the success of the then Boston and now Atlanta Braves.

When I asked about the Washington Redskins, the name that is causing so much controversy today, he recalled being a young boy and being sent to residential school. (The stated purpose of these schools, in both the States and in Canada, was to “save the Indian by making them white.”) Steve and the other students were called “dirty redskins” and “dumb redskins” by the some of the folks who ran the school. The memory of it was clearly quite painful, being an 8 or 9 year old boy, away from home, beaten with a strap for simply speaking his language, and being cursed for the color of his skin.

Then the sparkle returned to his eyes, a smile to his lips, that sly Little Stevie I loved so much returned, and he said “There is one time the people of the Reserve cheer for the Redskins.” He paused a moment. “Whenever they play the Cowboys, then we root for the Redskins.” And he laughed.