DONNA —“Go, fight, win, Redskins!”
The chant is inspired, yelled by students, fans, alumni and administrators well before kickoff of another Donna High School football game. There are fans wearing Indian headdresses. Some have their faces painted. Drums ignite Indian chants and war cries.
This is the “Reservation,” a name proudly announced early and often over the public address speaker during high school football games at Bennie La Prade Stadium, where the Rio Grande Valley’s only public school state champion, the Donna Redskins, call home.
On this brisk Friday night in early November, it is homecoming. The spirit of the Redskins, and in such the Donna community, is more alive than ever.
“It’s fantastic, it’s phenomenal,” Donna ISD Superintendent Roberto F. Loredo said. “Inspirational. Motivational. It seems that everyone gets pumped up at a game.”
The name ‘Redskins’ has been a staple of the Donna community since the 1930s. But while it is embraced within the Rio Grande Valley, it is a hot topic of discussion in national circles, particularly in the nation’s capital where the name is seen as nothing short of a racial slur.
Within this year, writers at media outlets such as Sports Illustrated and the San Francisco Chronicle have stopped using the name, and there has been a lot of attention paid toward the NFL’s Washington Redskins and whether they should change their name because of the perceived sensitivity of it.
What’s in a name?
According to a Capital News Service report, 62 high schools in 22 states use the Redskins name, while 28 high schools in 18 states have dropped the name in the last 25 years.
In Texas, Donna is one of two high schools to use the name. Houston’s Lamar High School is the other.
“If Washington has issues, maybe it’s a big enough issue to do something about it,” Donna ISD board president Ernesto Lugo said. “It comes down to peoples’ feelings. But down here, it’s never been an issue. People are real proud of our team land name. We don’t see anything wrong with it because I don’t think we’re trying to use it to be disrespectful.”
Robert Soto, vice chairman of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas that originated in the Rio Grande Valley, sees it the same way. In 2001, there was an issue when Donna High presented a mascot at a kindergarten graduation ceremony Soto was performing at that “was a big, tall, gorilla-looking character, more like a naked bear,” according to Soto.
“It was over exaggerating us,” Soto said. “It didn’t look anything like a native at all; it looked more like a bear. The feather on its head was the only thing that gave it away.”
Soto and members of the tribe wrote a letter of complaint to the district, which handled the matter and did away with the mascot.
“I don’t see anything personally wrong with Donna High School’s use of the Redskins,” Soto said. “The district has always listened to our concerns and responded, so we’ve had no problem. Most of my family feels that way. The people who only get offended over this are what we call ‘native newbies,’ people who just found out recently through genealogy or something opposed to people who have known and understood what we’re about all along.”
The Lipan Apache tribe is 4,030 strong and the only state-recognized tribe, Soto said. Soto, who was born in McAllen 61 years ago and whose family has been in the Valley for more than 97 years, said his understanding is the Redskins were a warrior society that would paint their bodies with red mud before going to battle.
The settlers, Soto said, would say, ‘Here come the Redskins’ whenever the group approached. The name is commonly believed to be a slang color metaphor for race.
“People don’t realize how many Native Americans are really out there, even in the Valley,” said Soto, adding the race makes up for the fourth largest group in the nation. “There are enough natives that go to these schools that if something would be a big deal, it would keep coming up. Today people just get offended over anything and everything.”
‘It exemplifies Donna’
Mario Ruiz has lived in Donna all his life. He works at Donna North, where he is part of a group that works on traditions. He also helps at Donna High, providing history and contacts for projects and anniversaries honoring the Redskins.
He sees the Redskins in Donna as a point of pride, not disrespect.
“You have schools like Robstown with the Cottonpickers and so on … if we’re going to go down this route, we can go after a lot of schools,” Ruiz said. “I do understand history and tradition, and it is something we have to be conscious about to shine (Redskins) in a positive light.”
Ruiz rattles off a plethora of Donna traditions: the Indian dancers that perform at events, the varsity cheerleaders’ unique night uniforms, the traditional yells, the sprinkling of dirt, the seamstress that makes the Indian-maden costumes and moccasins at games.
And there is no greater tradition than the Indian Sweetheart, which started in 1934 as first a way to raise money for the prom. The girl that raised the most votes for the contest, as well as money, was honored as the Indian Sweetheart. It has evolved into a popular contest among young ladies for any senior girl and junior girl, and the Sweetheart serves as the ceremonial figurehead for the student body and city of Donna.
“There’s a lot of history with that, and these elections are held in the spring,” said Donna High athletic trainer Mark Lozano, who has worked in Donna for three years. “These girls take this with a lot of pride and they all have different stories and different backgrounds. I’ve seen how important it is to these girls and it’s rewarding.
“It exemplifies Donna.”
Tradition speaks
Ruiz speaks of a rumor that says Donna would only consider changing the Redskins name if the NFL’s Washington team was to do so. In the past two years, four high schools have changed their name — Maine’s Wiscasset High (now the Chiefs) and Sanford High (Spartans), California’s Colusa High (RedHawks) and Montana’s Red Lodge High (Rams).
Loredo, who has lived in Donna the last seven years and was born in San Juan, says it will take more than Washington’s Redskins to change Donna’s.
“The only way Donna might do away with it is if it there was some national or federal law that says so,” he said.
As Donna High put the finishing touches on a 24-6 homecoming night victory that clinched its sixth playoff berth in seven years, with students hollering war chants and doing the tomahawk chop to help sustain lengthy offensive drives, there is not the discord that exists in Washington.
In fact, if Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who has been defiant in his defense of the name, could pick an example of what the name can mean to people, he’d likely point to Donna, a small border town synonymous with ‘Redskins,’ rich in history and richer in pride.
“Tradition is tradition,” Ruiz said, “and that’s what you must do.”