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121-475: The origin of the choice of red to describe Native Americans in English is debated. While related terms were used in anthropological literature as early as the 17th century, labels based on skin color entered everyday speech around the middle of the 18th century. "At the start of the eighteenth century, Indians and Europeans rarely mentioned the color of each other's skins. By midcentury, remarks about skin color and

242-527: A "substantial composite of Native Americans", and this is demonstrated "by the near complete drop-off in usage of 'redskins' as a reference to Native Americans beginning in the 1960s". Evidence of disparagement submitted by the petitioners in the TTAB case include the frequent references to "scalping" made by sportswriters for sixty years when reporting the Redskins loss of a game, and passages from movies made from

363-653: A French population of 2,500; it was located to the west of the Ohio Country and was concentrated around Kaskaskia , Cahokia , and Sainte Genevieve . Enrico Tonti was one of the first explorers to navigate and sail the upper Great Lakes. He also sailed the Illinois and the Mississippi , to its mouth and thereupon claimed the length of the Mississippi for Louis XIV of France . He is credited with founding

484-475: A dichotomy that had pervasive symbolic meanings in southeastern Native cultures which was less prevalent among northern tribes. While there was occasional use of red in Indian-European diplomacy in the northeast, it was still rare there even after it had become common in the southeast. Instead, Indian was translated into the native languages there as "men", "real people", or "original people". Usage in

605-453: A generic label for all Native Americans. Linguistic evidence indicates that, while some tribes may have used red to refer to themselves during the pre-Columbian era based upon their origin stories, the general use of the term was in response to meeting people who called themselves white and their slaves black . The choice of red rather than other colors may have been due to cultural associations, rather than skin color. Red and white were

726-566: A harmful form of ethnic stereotyping which should be eliminated. The R-word is the moral equivalent of the N-word . It packs the same level of bigotry and insensitivity for Native Americans as any other racial slur. We cannot tolerate the NFL’s continued commitment to normalizing this demeaning characterization of Native Americans. The success of the Washington football franchise does not depend on

847-625: A huge and distant territory. He therefore offered to sell all of Louisiana for $ 15 million. The United States completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, doubling the size of the nation. Nieuw-Nederland , or New Netherland, was a colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands chartered in 1614, in what became New York, New Jersey , and parts of other neighboring states. The peak population

968-400: A large black slave population. New Jersey began as a division of New York, and was divided into the proprietary colonies of East and West Jersey for a time. Pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur , or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It

1089-434: A large degree of religious, political, economic, and ethnic diversity. The Dutch colony of New Netherland was taken over by the English and renamed New York. However, large numbers of Dutch remained in the colony, dominating the rural areas between New York City and Albany . Meanwhile, Yankees from New England started moving in, as did immigrants from Germany . New York City attracted a large polyglot population, including

1210-476: A new life in a much richer environment. The consensus view among economic historians and economists is that the indentured servitude occurred largely as "an institutional response to a capital market imperfection," but that it "enabled prospective migrants to borrow against their future earnings in order to pay the high cost of passage to America." Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution,

1331-673: A new one was issued in 1691 that combined Massachusetts and Plymouth into the Province of Massachusetts Bay . King William III sought to unite the New England colonies militarily by appointing the Earl of Bellomont to three simultaneous governorships and military command over Connecticut and Rhode Island. However, these attempts at unified control failed. The Middle Colonies consisted of the present-day states of New York , New Jersey , Pennsylvania , and Delaware and were characterized by

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1452-545: A number of possible meanings in Choctaw, one of which is "humma, an addition to a man's name which gives him some distinction, calling on him for courage and honor." The name Oklahoma was created in 1866 by Principal Chief Allen Wright ( Choctaw , 1826–1885). The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma states that in the Choctaw language Okla means "people" and humma means "red." The first combination of red with skin , to form

1573-505: A process of pejoration , by which it gained a negative connotation. Goddard suggests that redskin emerged from French translations of Native American speech in Illinois and Missouri territories in the 18th century. He cites as the earliest example a 1769 set of "talks", or letters, from chiefs of the Piankeshaw to Col. John Wilkins an English officer at Fort de Chartres . One letter included " si quelques peaux Rouges ", which

1694-495: A racial epithet by some, but as neutral by others, including some Native Americans. The American Heritage style guide advises that "the term redskin evokes an even more objectionable stereotype" than the use of red as a racial adjective by outsiders, while others urge writers to use the term only in a historical context. In modern dictionaries of American English it is labeled "usually offensive", "disparaging", "insulting", or " taboo ". Three predominantly Native American schools use

1815-428: A red-skin, but what I say is the truth, and notwithstanding I came a long way I am content, but wish to return from here." However, while these usages may have been earliest, they may not have been disseminated widely. While the 1812 meeting with President Madison was contemporaneously recorded, the records were not published until 2004. The earliest known appearance of the term in print occurred in 1813, in an article in

1936-428: A royally appointed governor. On a more local level, governmental power was invested in county courts, which were self-perpetuating (the incumbents filled any vacancies and there never were popular elections). As cash crop producers, Chesapeake plantations were heavily dependent on trade with England. With easy navigation by river, there were few towns and no cities; planters shipped directly to Britain. High death rates and

2057-495: A second group including Anne Hutchinson established a second settlement on Aquidneck Island , also known as Rhode Island. Other colonists settled to the north, mingling with adventurers and profit-oriented settlers to establish more religiously diverse colonies in New Hampshire and Maine . These small settlements were absorbed by Massachusetts when it made significant land claims in the 1640s and 1650s, but New Hampshire

2178-577: A third of the population in the 21st century is descended from the Spanish settlers. Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of present-day California starting with Cabrillo in 1542–43. From 1565 to 1815, Spanish galleons regularly arrived from Manila at Cape Mendocino , about 300 miles (480 km) north of San Francisco or farther south. Then they sailed south along the California coast to Acapulco, Mexico. Often they did not land, because of

2299-788: A variety of social and religious groups, including adventurers, farmers, indentured servants, tradesmen, and a very few from the aristocracy. Settlers included the Dutch of New Netherland , the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden , the English Quakers of the Province of Pennsylvania , the English Puritans of New England , the Virginian Cavaliers, the English Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists of

2420-483: A very young population profile characterized the colony during its first years. Randall Miller points out that "America had no titled aristocracy... although one aristocrat, Lord Thomas Fairfax, did take up residence in Virginia in 1734." Lord Fairfax (1693–1781) was a Scottish baron who came to America permanently to oversee his family's vast land holdings. Historian Arthur Schlesinger says that he "was unique among

2541-451: Is also used to express criticism , hostility , or disregard. Sometimes, a term is regarded as pejorative in some social or ethnic groups but not in others or may be originally pejorative but later adopt a non-pejorative sense (or vice versa ) in some or all contexts. The word pejorative is derived from a Late Latin past participle stem of peiorare , meaning "to make worse", from peior "worse". In historical linguistics ,

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2662-400: Is cited as Native American usage was generally attributed to them by European writers. Any use of red in its various forms, including redskin, by Native Americans to refer to themselves reflected their need to use the language of the times in order to be understood by Europeans. Sociologist James V. Fenelon makes a more explicit statement that Goddard's article is poor scholarship, given that

2783-586: The Mayflower . Upon their arrival, they drew up the Mayflower Compact , by which they bound themselves together as a united community, thus establishing the small Plymouth Colony . William Bradford was their main leader. After its founding, other settlers traveled from England to join the colony. The non-separatist Puritans constituted a much larger group than the Pilgrims, and they established

2904-676: The Ajacán Mission in Virginia (1570–71). The French failed at Parris Island, South Carolina (1562–63), Fort Caroline on Florida's Atlantic coast (1564–65), Saint Croix Island, Maine (1604–05), and Fort Saint Louis, Texas (1685–89). The most notable English failures were the " Lost Colony of Roanoke " (1583–90) in North Carolina and Popham Colony in Maine (1607–08). It was at the Roanoke Colony that Virginia Dare became

3025-530: The Delaware River Valley from 1638 to 1655 and encompassed land in present-day Delaware , southern New Jersey , and southeastern Pennsylvania . The several hundred settlers were centered around the capital of Fort Christina , at the location of what is today the city of Wilmington, Delaware . The colony also had settlements near the present-day location of Salem, New Jersey ( Fort Nya Elfsborg ) and on Tinicum Island, Pennsylvania . The colony

3146-693: The Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 with 400 settlers. They sought to reform the Church of England by creating a new, pure church in the New World. By 1640, 20,000 had arrived ; many died soon after arrival, but the others found a healthy climate and an ample food supply. The Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies together spawned other Puritan colonies in New England, including the New Haven , Saybrook , and Connecticut colonies. During

3267-880: The Mexican–American War (1846–1848), and the Spanish–American War (1898). There were also several Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest , but Spain gave the United States all claims to the Pacific Northwest in the Adams–Onís Treaty. There were several thousand families in New Mexico and California who became American citizens in 1848, plus small numbers in the other colonies. Spain established several small outposts in Florida in

3388-794: The Mississippi River were taken over and most of the inhabitants were assimilated. In Nova Scotia , however, the British expelled the French Acadians , and many relocated to Louisiana. The two chief armed rebellions were short-lived failures in Virginia in 1676 and in New York in 1689–1691 . Some of the colonies developed legalized systems of slavery, centered largely around the Atlantic slave trade . Wars were recurrent between

3509-600: The Northern Mariana Islands ). New Spain encompassed the territory of Louisiana after the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762) , though Louisiana reverted to France in the 1800 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso . Many territories that had been part of New Spain became part of the United States after 1776 through various wars and treaties, including the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the Adams–Onís Treaty (1819),

3630-827: The Province of Maryland was founded in part to be a haven for Roman Catholics . Several European countries attempted to found colonies in the Americas after 1500. Most of those attempts ended in failure. The colonists themselves faced high rates of death from disease, starvation, inefficient resupply, conflict with Native Americans, attacks by rival European powers, and other causes. Spain had numerous failed attempts, including San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina (1526), Pánfilo de Narváez 's expedition to Florida's Gulf coast (1528–36), Pensacola in West Florida (1559–61), Fort San Juan in North Carolina (1567–68), and

3751-755: The Province of Maryland , the " worthy poor " of the Province of Georgia , the Germans who settled the mid-Atlantic colonies, and the Ulster Scots of the Appalachian Mountains . These groups all became part of the United States when it gained its independence in 1776. Russian America and parts of New France and New Spain were also incorporated into the United States at later times. The diverse colonists from these various regions built colonies of distinctive social, religious, political, and economic style. Over time, non-British colonies East of

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3872-563: The Seven Years' War . Florida was home to about 3,000 Spaniards at the time, and nearly all quickly left. Britain occupied Florida but did not send many settlers to the area. Dr. Andrew Turnbull 's failed colony at New Smyrna , however, resulted in hundreds of Menorcans, Greeks, and Italians settling in St. Augustine in 1777. During the American Revolution, East and West Florida were Loyalist colonies. Spain regained control of Florida in 1783 by

3993-778: The United States in 1776 during the Revolutionary War . In the late 16th century, England , France , Spain , and the Dutch Republic launched major colonization expeditions in North America. The death rate was very high among early immigrants, and some early attempts disappeared altogether, such as the English Lost Colony of Roanoke . Nevertheless, successful colonies were established within several decades. European settlers came from

4114-657: The Weekly Register quoting a letter dated August 27, 1813. It concerned an expedition during the War of 1812 led by General Benjamin Howard against Indians in the Illinois and Mississippi territories: "The expedition will be 40 days out, and there is no doubt but we shall have to contend with powerful hordes of red skins ..." Goddard suggests that a key usage was in a 20 July 1815 speech by Meskwaki Chief Black Thunder at

4235-406: The euphemism treadmill , for example as in the successive pejoration of the terms bog-house , privy-house , latrine , water closet , toilet , bathroom , and restroom (US English). When a term begins as pejorative and eventually is adopted in a non-pejorative sense, this is called melioration or amelioration . One example is the shift in meaning of the word nice from meaning a person

4356-423: The indigenous peoples of California , while protecting historic Spanish claims to the area. The missions introduced European technology, livestock, and crops. The Indian Reductions converted the native peoples into groups of Mission Indians ; they worked as laborers in the missions and the ranchos. In the 1830s the missions were disbanded and the lands sold to Californios. The indigenous Native American population

4477-420: The treaty council at Portage des Sioux , in which he is recorded as stating, "My Father – Restrain your feelings, and hear ca[l]mly what I shall say. I shall tell it to you plainly, I shall not speak with fear and trembling. I feel no fear. I have no cause to fear. I have never injured you, and innocence can feel no fear. I turn to all, red skins and white skins, and challenge an accusation against me." This speech

4598-454: The 1660s, which meant that the government became a partner with merchants based in England to increase political power and private wealth. This was done to the exclusion of other empires and even other merchants in its own colonies. The government protected its London-based merchants and kept out others by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries to maximize exports from

4719-556: The 16th century, Spain explored the southwest from Mexico. The first expedition was the Niza expedition in 1538. Francisco Coronado followed with a larger expedition in 1539, throughout modern New Mexico and Arizona, arriving in New Mexico in 1540. The Spanish moved north from Mexico, settling villages in the upper valley of the Rio Grande, including much of the western half of the present-day state of New Mexico. The capital of Santa Fe

4840-543: The 1783 Treaty of Paris, and the U.S. would acquire another portion of French territory with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The remainder of New France became part of Canada, with the exception of the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon . The first French colonial empire stretched to over 10,000,000 km (3,900,000 sq mi) at its peak in 1710, which was the second largest colonial empire in

4961-659: The 17th century, the New Haven and Saybrook colonies were absorbed by Connecticut. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit, and politically innovative culture that still influences the modern United States. They hoped that this new land would serve as a " redeemer nation ". They fled England and attempted to create a "nation of saints" or a " City upon a Hill " in America: an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled

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5082-430: The 1940s to the 1960s using "redskin" to refer to Native Americans as a savage enemy. A linguistics expert for the team unsuccessfully argued that the name is merely a descriptive term no different than other uses of color to differentiate people by race. The linguistic expert for the petitioners, Geoffrey Nunberg , argued that whatever its origins, redskins was a slur at the time of the trademark registrations, based upon

5203-548: The 19th century was marked by the Puerto Rican struggle for sovereignty . A census conducted in 1860 revealed a population of 583,308. Of these, 300,406 (51.5%) were white and 282,775 (48.5%) were persons of color, the latter including people of primarily African heritage, mulattos and mestizos . The majority of the population in Puerto Rico was illiterate (83.7%) and lived in poverty, and the agricultural industry—at

5324-718: The 19th century. In 1863 a Winona, Minnesota , newspaper, the Daily Republican , printed an announcement: "The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $ 200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory . This sum is more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River are worth." A news story published by the Atchison Daily Champion in Atchison, Kansas , on October 9, 1885, tells of

5445-442: The 19th century. Many did not view Natives as distinctly different in color from themselves, and thus could be assimilated into colonial society , beginning with conversion to Christianity. In the modern debate over sports teams with the name, Oklahoma News 4 asserted that Oklahoma should change its name. The name Oklahoma translates from Choctaw as 'red people' ( okla 'people' + humma 'red'). However, humma has

5566-560: The 2004 poll, fifteen Native American scholars collaborated on a critique that stated that there were so many flaws in the Annenberg study that rather than being a measure of Native American opinion, it was an expression of white privilege and colonialism. Similar objections were made after the 2016 poll, mainly with regard to the use of self-identification to select Native American respondents. A 2020 study at UC Berkeley which found that 49% of self-identified Native Americans responded that

5687-543: The 21st century, in contradiction of the etymological evidence discussed above, assert that redskin refers directly to the bloody, red scalp or other body part collected for bounty. While this claim is associated in the media with litigants in the Washington Redskins trademark dispute ; Amanda Blackhorse and Suzan Shown Harjo , the National Congress of American Indians ' support indicates that

5808-669: The Baptist . The first European colony, Caparra , was founded on August 8, 1508, by Juan Ponce de León , a lieutenant under Columbus, who was greeted by the Taíno Cacique Agüeybaná and who later became the first governor of the island. Ponce de Leon was actively involved in the Higuey massacre of 1503 in Puerto Rico. In 1508, Sir Ponce de Leon was chosen by the Spanish Crown to lead the conquest and enslavement of

5929-692: The British shipped an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts to its American colonies. Alexander Hamilton (1712–1756) was a Scottish-born doctor and writer who lived and worked in Annapolis, Maryland . Leo Lemay says that his 1744 travel diary Gentleman's Progress: The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton is "the best single portrait of men and manners, of rural and urban life, of the wide range of society and scenery in colonial America." His diary has been widely used by scholars, and covers his travels from Maryland to Maine. Biographer Elaine Breslaw says that he encountered: The first successful English colony

6050-766: The British. By 1773, the population of Detroit was 1,400. At the end of the War for Independence in 1783, the region south of the Great Lakes formally became part of the United States. The Italian explorer Enrico Tonti , together with the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle , explored the Great Lakes region. Enrico Tonti founded the first European settlement in Illinois in 1679 and in Arkansas in 1683, known as Poste de Arkansea , making him "The Father of Arkansas". The Illinois Country by 1752 had

6171-433: The Daguao and Macao rivers in 1514 and again in 1521 but each time they were easily repelled by the superior Spanish firepower. However, these would not be the last attempts at control of Puerto Rico. The European powers quickly realized the potential of the lands not yet colonized by Europeans and attempted to gain control of them. Nonetheless, Puerto Rico remained a Spanish possession until the 19th century. The last half of

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6292-438: The French and the British during the French and Indian Wars . By 1760, France was defeated and its colonies were seized by Britain. On the eastern seaboard, the four distinct English regions were New England , the Middle Colonies , the Chesapeake Bay Colonies (Upper South), and the Southern Colonies (Lower South). Some historians add a fifth region of the "Frontier", which was never separately organized. The colonization of

6413-407: The Native American petitioners and the Justice Department withdrew from any further litigation, the legal issue being moot. College teams that formerly used the name changed voluntarily; the University of Utah became the Utah Utes in 1972, Miami University (of Ohio) became the RedHawks in 1997 and Southern Nazarene University became the Crimson Storm in 1998. The number of high schools using

6534-430: The Peace of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War. Spain sent no more settlers or missionaries to Florida during the Second Spanish Period. The inhabitants of West Florida revolted against the Spanish in 1810 and formed the Republic of West Florida , which was quickly annexed by the United States. The United States took possession of East Florida in 1821 according to the terms of the Adams–Onís Treaty . Throughout

6655-465: The Redskins name has been in steady decline (some of which closed or merged), with 36 remaining. In a survey conducted in 2013, 40% had local efforts to change the name, while 28 high schools in 18 states had done so. By December 2017, the number of high school "Redskins" had continued to decline from 62 to 49, including four affected by a 2015 California law. In 2019, Teton High School in Idaho and in March 2020 Paw Paw High School in Michigan retired

6776-571: The Sandusky Community Schools Board of Education voted to retire its mascot at the end of the school year. In June 2024, the Oriskany, New York high school mascot became the Skyhawks. Some communities have been sharply divided, with long-term residents seeking to keep the mascot while newcomers being open to change. In Driggs, Idaho, the deciding factor was the participation of local tribes advocating change. Other school districts made changes with little opposition. The school board for Cuyahoga Heights Ohio voted unanimously to retire their mascot following

6897-420: The Spanish government had begun to offer asylum to slaves from British colonies, and the Spanish Crown officially proclaimed in 1693 that runaway slaves would find freedom in Florida in return for converting to Catholicism and four years of military service to the Spanish Crown. In effect, Spaniards created a maroon settlement in Florida as a front-line defense against English attacks from the north. This settlement

7018-456: The Taíno Indians for gold mining operations. The following year, the colony was abandoned in favor of a nearby island on the coast, named Puerto Rico (Rich Port), which had a suitable harbor. In 1511, a second settlement, San Germán was established in the southwestern part of the island. During the 1520s, the island took the name of Puerto Rico while the port became San Juan . As part of the colonization process, African slaves were brought to

7139-424: The U.S. purchased Alaska , and nearly all Russians abandoned the area except a few missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church working among the natives. England made its first successful efforts at the start of the 17th century for several reasons. During this era, English proto-nationalism and national assertiveness blossomed under the threat of Spanish invasion, assisted by a degree of Protestant militarism and

7260-451: The United States resulted in a large decline of the Native American population primarily because of newly introduced diseases . A significant percentage of the Native Americans living in the eastern region had been ravaged by disease before 1620, possibly introduced to them decades before by explorers and sailors (although no conclusive cause has been established). Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies from

7381-554: The Washington Redskins name was offensive or very offensive, while only 38% were not bothered by it. In addition, for study participants who were heavily engaged in their native or tribal cultures, 67% said they were offended, for young people 60%, and those with tribal affiliations 52%. These results are similar to that found in a study by the Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies at California State University, San Bernardino . A survey of 400 individuals, with 98 individuals positively identified as Native Americans, found that 67% agreed with

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7502-480: The belief is widespread. Goddard denies any direct connection to scalping, and says there is a lack of evidence for the claim. C. Richard King argues that the lack of direct evidence for the assertion does not mean that those making the claim are "wrong to draw an association between a term that empathizes an identity based upon skin color and a history that commodified Native American body parts". The term red-skin was, in fact used in conjunction with scalp hunting in

7623-432: The categorization of peoples by simple color-coded labels (red, white, black) had become commonplace." Documents from the colonial period indicate that the use of red as an identifier by Native Americans for themselves emerged in the context of Indian-European diplomacy in the southeastern region of North America, becoming common usage in the 1720s. Subsequently, variations of "red men" were adopted by Europeans, becoming

7744-515: The coast from Lower California to Mendocino and some inland areas and recommended Monterey for settlement. The King agreed, but the settlement project was diverted to areas off Japan. No settlements were established until 1769. From 1769 until the independence of Mexico in 1820, Spain sent missionaries and soldiers to Alta California who created a series of missions operated by Franciscan priests. They also operated presidios (forts), pueblos (settlements), and ranchos (land grant ranches), along

7865-429: The colony in 1674 and renamed it New York . However the Dutch landholdings remained, and the Hudson River Valley maintained a traditional Dutch character until the 1820s. Traces of Dutch influence remain in present-day northern New Jersey and southeastern New York State, such as homes, family surnames, and the names of roads and whole towns. New Sweden ( Swedish : Nya Sverige ) was a Swedish colony that existed along

7986-457: The conclusion of the origin and usage by Natives as "entirely benign" is divorced from the socio-historical realities of hostility and racism from which it emerged. The pejoration of the term redskin arguably begins as soon as its introduction in the early 19th century. A linguistic analysis of 42 books published between 1875 and 1930 found that negative contexts for the use of redskin were significantly more frequent than positive ones. However,

8107-410: The decision by the Cleveland Indians to become the Guardians. The Wichita school board followed the recommendations of a committee appointed to examine the issue. Colonial history of the United States The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of North America from the early 16th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into

8228-425: The difference between the speaker and the target. However, Luvell Anderson of the University of Memphis , in his paper "Slurring Words", argues that for a word to be a slur, the word must communicate ideas beyond identifying a target group, and that slurs are offensive because the additional data contained in those words differentiates those individuals from otherwise accepted groups. Some Native American activists in

8349-499: The early 16th century. The most important of these was St. Augustine , founded alongside Mission Nombre de Dios in 1565 but repeatedly attacked and burned by pirates, privateers, and English forces, and nearly all the Spanish left after the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Florida to Great Britain. Certain First Spanish Period structures remain today, especially those made of coquina , a limestone quarried nearby. The British attacked Spanish Florida during numerous wars. As early as 1687,

8470-530: The energy of Queen Elizabeth . At this time, however, there was no official attempt by the English government to create a colonial empire. Rather the motivation behind the founding of colonies was piecemeal and variable. Practical considerations played their parts, such as commercial enterprise , over-crowding, and the desire for freedom of religion. The main waves of settlement came in the 17th century. After 1700, most immigrants to Colonial America arrived as indentured servants , young unmarried men and women seeking

8591-481: The expectations of its founders. The Puritan economy was based on the efforts of self-supporting farmsteads that traded only for goods which they could not produce themselves, unlike the cash crop-oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region. There was a generally higher economic standing and standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, along with agriculture, fishing, and logging, serving as

8712-610: The explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor . The U.S. defeated Spain by the end of the year, and won control of Puerto Rico in the ensuing peace treaty. In the Foraker Act of 1900, the U.S. Congress established Puerto Rico's status as an unincorporated territory . New France was the vast area centered on the Saint Lawrence River , Great Lakes , Mississippi River , and other major tributary rivers that

8833-542: The first English child born in America; her fate is unknown. Starting in the 16th century, Spain built a colonial empire in the Americas consisting of New Spain and other vice-royalties. New Spain included territories in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, much of the United States west of the Mississippi River , parts of Latin America (including Puerto Rico), and the Spanish East Indies (including Guam and

8954-522: The goal was to enrich the mother country. The prospect of religious persecution by authorities of the crown and the Church of England prompted a significant number of colonization efforts. The Pilgrims were separatist Puritans who fled persecution in England, first to the Netherlands and ultimately to Plymouth Plantation in 1620. Over the following 20 years, people fleeing persecution from King Charles I settled most of New England . Similarly,

9075-737: The hub for trading between the southern colonies and Europe. Providence Plantation was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams on land provided by Narragansett sachem Canonicus . Williams was a Puritan who preached religious tolerance , separation of Church and State , and a complete break with the Church of England. He was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony over theological disagreements, and he and other settlers founded Providence Plantation based on an egalitarian constitution providing for majority rule "in civil things" and "liberty of conscience" in religious matters. In 1637,

9196-707: The illustrative reference is to Last of the Mohicans . Johnathan Buffalo, historic preservation director of the Meskwaki , said that in the 1800s redskins was used by the tribe for self-identification. Similarly, they identified others as "whiteskins" or "blackskins". Goddard's evidence for indigenous usage includes a 1914 phonetic transcription of the Meskwaki language in which both eesaawinameshkaata 'one with brown skin' and meeshkwinameshkaata 'one with red skin' were used to refer to Indians, while waapeshkinameshkaanichini 'one with white skin, white person'

9317-519: The island in 1513. Following the decline of the Taíno population, more slaves were brought to Puerto Rico; however, the number of slaves on the island paled in comparison to those in neighboring islands. Also, early in the colonization of Puerto Rico, attempts were made to wrest control of Puerto Rico from Spain. The Caribs, a raiding tribe of the Caribbean, attacked Spanish settlements along the banks of

9438-469: The issue may be from a minority of Native Americans, this is due to most being concerned with more immediate issues, but also says "The presentation of the name 'Redskins' is problematic for many Native Americans because it identifies Natives in a way that the vast majority of Natives simply don't identity ourselves." Numerous civil rights, educational, athletic, and academic organizations consider any use of native names/symbols by non-native sports teams to be

9559-446: The late 17th century, Virginia's export economy was largely based on tobacco, and new, richer settlers came in to take up large portions of land, build large plantations and import indentured servants and slaves. In 1676, Bacon's Rebellion occurred, but was suppressed by royal officials. After Bacon's Rebellion, African slaves rapidly replaced indentured servants as Virginia's main labor force. The colonial assembly shared power with

9680-560: The lower Delaware River Valley region derive their names from the Swedes. Russia explored the area that became Alaska, starting with the Second Kamchatka expedition in the 1730s and early 1740s. Their first settlement was founded in 1784 by Grigory Shelikhov . The Russian-American Company was formed in 1799 with the influence of Nikolay Rezanov , for the purpose of buying sea otters for their fur from native hunters. In 1867,

9801-500: The name began in 1968, with a resolution by the National Congress of American Indians. Native American groups and their supporters argue that since they view the word redskin as offensive, it is inappropriate for an NFL team to continue to use it, regardless of whether any offense is intended. After decades of opposition to the name of the team by Native Americans, major sponsors responded to opponents of systemic racism in

9922-616: The name for their athletic teams, two of which serve reservations: Red Mesa High School in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona where the student body is 99% Navajo , and Wellpinit High School in Wellpinit, Washington , on the Spokane Indian Reservation . The principal of Red Mesa said in 2014 that use of the word outside American Indian communities should be avoided because it could perpetuate "the legacy of negativity that

10043-641: The name of its team, but rather the talent of its players and leadership. The NFL must abandon its tone-deaf culture as it relates to people of color and change the hurtful name of this team. Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League The controversy regarding Native mascots in general, and use of the name Redskins, was most prominent in the name used by the Washington National Football League team from 1933 to 2020. Public protest of

10164-708: The name. The rate of change increased following the decision by the Washington Football Team, Anderson High School in Ohio and Clinton Community Schools in Michigan changing immediately, followed by La Veta High School in Colorado ., Union High School (Tulsa, Oklahoma) , Wichita North High School , Cuyahoga Heights High School in Ohio and Saranac High School in Saranac, Michigan . In April, 2022

10285-613: The newly independent United States stretched to the Mississippi River. The United States reached an agreement with Spain for navigation rights on the river and was content to let the "feeble" colonial power stay in control of the area. The situation changed when Napoleon forced Spain to return Louisiana to France in 1802 and threatened to close the river to American vessels. Alarmed, the United States offered to buy New Orleans. Napoleon needed funds to wage another war with Great Britain, and he doubted that France could defend such

10406-703: The northeast region by Europeans may have been largely limited to descriptions of tribes such as the Beothuk of Newfoundland, whose practice of painting their bodies and possessions with red ochre led Europeans to refer to them as "Red Indians". Early ethnographic writers used a variety of terms; olivastre ( olive ) by François Bernier (1684), rufus (reddish, ruddy) by Linnaeus (1758), kupferroth ("copper-red") by Blumenbach (1779), and eventually simply "red" by René Lesson (1847). Early explorers and later Anglo-Americans termed Native Americans "light-skinned", "brown", "tawny", or "russet", but not "red" prior to

10527-673: The passages from books and newspapers and movie clips, in which the word is inevitably associated with contempt, derision, condescension, or sentimental paeans to the noble savage. Although the USPTO decision was upheld upon appeal, on June 19, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in another case, Matal v. Tam , that the disparagement clause of the Lanham Act violated the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause. Both

10648-444: The permanent comers in bearing so high a rank as baron." He was a patron of George Washington and was not disturbed during the war. The Pilgrims were a small group of Puritan separatists who felt that they needed to physically distance themselves from the Church of England . They initially moved to the Netherlands, then decided to re-establish themselves in America. The initial Pilgrim settlers sailed to North America in 1620 on

10769-507: The population. The 1689 Boston revolt was inspired by England's Glorious Revolution against James II and led to the arrest of Andros, Boston Anglicans, and senior dominion officials by the Massachusetts militia. Andros was jailed for several months, then returned to England. The Dominion of New England was dissolved and governments resumed under their earlier charters. However, the Massachusetts charter had been revoked in 1684, and

10890-404: The process of an inoffensive word becoming pejorative is a form of semantic drift known as pejoration . An example of pejoration is the shift in meaning of the word silly from meaning that a person was happy and fortunate to meaning that they are foolish and unsophisticated. The process of pejoration can repeat itself around a single concept, leaping from word to word in a phenomenon known as

11011-484: The realm and minimize imports. The government also fought smuggling, and this became a direct source of controversy with North American merchants when their normal business activities became reclassified as "smuggling" by the Navigation Acts . This included activities that had been ordinary business dealings previously, such as direct trade with the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese. The goal of mercantilism

11132-554: The rugged, foggy coast. Spain wanted a safe harbor for galleons. They did not find San Francisco Bay , perhaps because of fog hiding the entrance. In 1585 Gali charted the coast just south of San Francisco Bay, and in 1587 Unamuno explored Monterey Bay. In 1594 Soromenho explored and was shipwrecked in Drake's Bay just north of San Francisco Bay, then went south in a small boat past Half Moon Bay and Monterey Bay. They traded with Native Americans for food. In 1602 Vizcaino charted

11253-571: The settlement that would become Peoria, Illinois . French claims to French Louisiana stretched thousands of miles from modern Louisiana north to the largely unexplored Midwest , and west to the Rocky Mountains . It was generally divided into Upper and Lower Louisiana . This vast tract was first settled at Mobile and Biloxi around 1700, and continued to grow reaching 7,000 French immigrants. René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Enrico Tonti founded New Orleans , and Enrico Tonti

11374-550: The settlers' "hunt for redskins, with a view of obtaining their scalps", worth $ 250. In his early career as the owner of a newspaper in South Dakota, L. Frank Baum wrote an editorial upon the death of Chief Sitting Bull in which he advocates the annihilation of all remaining redskins in order to secure the safety of white settlers, and because "better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are." When Hollywood westerns were most popular, roughly 1920–1970,

11495-419: The southern and central coast of California. Father Junípero Serra , founded the first missions in Spanish upper Las Californias , starting with Mission San Diego de Alcalá in 1769. Through the Spanish and Mexican eras they eventually comprised a series of 21 missions to spread Roman Catholicism among the local Native Americans, linked by El Camino Real ("The Royal Road"). They were established to convert

11616-545: The statement that redskins is offensive and racist. The response from non-natives was almost the opposite, with 68% responding that the name is not offensive. On June 18, 2014, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) cancelled the six trademarks held by the team in a two-to-one decision that held that the term redskins is disparaging to

11737-563: The term redskin was directly relevant to the controversy, with supporters pointing to public opinion polls. Both a 2004 poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and a May 2016 poll by The Washington Post produced the same results, that 90% of the self-identified Native American respondents were "not bothered" by the team's name. However, in a commentary published soon after

11858-657: The term redskin , is dated to 1769 by Ives Goddard , linguist and curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution . Goddard begins by pointing out that what had previously been considered the earliest English use of the term, a letter purported to have been written to an Englishman living in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1699,

11979-479: The term redskins was often used to refer to Native Americans when war was imminent or in progress. In the Washington Redskins trademark dispute , the main issue was the meaning of the term in the period when the trademark registrations were issued, 1967–1990. The linguistic expert for the petitioner, Geoffrey Nunberg , successfully argued that whatever its origins, redskins was a slur at that time based upon passages from books and newspapers and movie clips, in which

12100-419: The term has created." In 2014, Wellpinit High School voted to keep the Redskins name. Native American writer and attorney Gyasi Ross compares Native American use of variations of the word Redskin with African-American use of variations of the word nigger . Use of these terms by some members of minority communities does not mean that these words may be used by outsiders. Ross also notes that while activism on

12221-412: The time, the main source of income—was hampered by lack of road infrastructure, adequate tools and equipment, and natural disasters, including hurricanes and droughts. The economy also suffered from increasing tariffs and taxes imposed by the Spanish Crown. Furthermore, Spain had begun to exile or jail any person who called for liberal reforms. The Spanish–American War broke out in 1898, in the aftermath of

12342-644: The use of the word "Indian" in a similarly selected set of books was nearly the same, with more frequent negative than positive contexts, indicating that it was not the term "redskin" that was loaded pejoratively, but that its usage represents a generally negative attitude towards its referent. The word was first listed in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary in 1898 as "often contemptuous." Sociologist Irving Lewis Allen suggests that slang identifiers for ethnic groups based upon physical characteristics, including redskin , are by nature derogatory, emphasizing

12463-436: The wake of the murder of George Floyd . FedEx , Nike , and PepsiCo advocated changing the name. On July 3, 2020, Washington owner Daniel Snyder and team management announced a process of review of the name. On July 13, 2020, the team made an official statement that their review would result in the retirement of the Redskins name and logo. The new name, Washington Commanders was announced on February 2, 2022. The meaning of

12584-410: The word is inevitably associated with contempt, derision, condescension, or sentimental paeans to the noble savage. John McWhorter , an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University , had compared the evolution of the name into a slur to that of other racial terms such as Oriental which also acquired implied meanings associated with contempt. In the United States, redskin is regarded as

12705-613: The world, after the Spanish Empire . By 1660, French fur trappers, missionaries, and military detachments based in Montreal pushed west along the Great Lakes upriver into the Pays d'en Haut and founded outposts at Green Bay , Fort de Buade and Saint Ignace (both at Michilimackinac ), Sault Sainte Marie , Vincennes , and Detroit in 1701. During the French and Indian War (1754–1763) many of these settlements became occupied by

12826-486: Was Jamestown , established May 14, 1607, near Chesapeake Bay . The business venture was financed and coordinated by the London Virginia Company , a joint-stock company looking for gold. Its first years were extremely difficult, with very high death rates from disease and starvation, wars with local Amerindians, and little gold. The colony survived and flourished by turning to tobacco as a cash crop . By

12947-461: Was around 150,000; the Californios (Mexican era Californians) around 10,000; including immigrant Americans and other nationalities involved in trade and business in California. In September 1493, Christopher Columbus set sail on his second voyage with 17 ships from Cádiz . On November 19, 1493, he landed on the island of Puerto Rico, naming it San Juan Bautista in honor of Saint John

13068-485: Was captured by the Dutch in 1655 and merged into New Netherland , with most of the colonists remaining. Years later, the entire New Netherland colony was incorporated into England's colonial holdings. The colony of New Sweden introduced Lutheranism to America in the form of some of the continent's oldest European churches. The colonists also introduced the log cabin to America, and numerous rivers, towns, and families in

13189-400: Was centered at Fort Mose . Spain also intended to destabilize the plantation economy of the British colonies by creating a free black community to attract slaves. Notable British raids on St. Augustine were James Moore's 1702 raid and James Oglethorpe 's 1740 siege. In 1763, Spain traded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for control of Havana, Cuba , which the British had captured during

13310-563: Was eventually given a separate charter in 1679. Maine remained a part of Massachusetts until achieving statehood in 1820. Under King James II of England , the New England colonies, New York, and the Jerseys were briefly united as the Dominion of New England (1686–1689). The administration was eventually led by Governor Sir Edmund Andros and seized colonial charters, revoked land titles, and ruled without local assemblies, causing anger among

13431-521: Was explored and claimed by France starting in the early 17th century. It was composed of several colonies: Acadia , Canada , Newfoundland , Louisiana , Île-Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island ), and Île Saint Jean (present-day Prince Edward Island ). These colonies came under British or Spanish control after the French and Indian War , though France briefly re-acquired a portion of Louisiana in 1800. The United States would gain much of New France in

13552-425: Was foolish to meaning that a person is pleasant. When performed deliberately, it is described as reclamation or reappropriation . Examples of a word that has been reclaimed by portions of the community that it targets is queer , faggot and dyke which began being re-appropriated as a positive descriptor in the early 1990s by activist groups. However, due to its history and – in some regions – continued use as

13673-473: Was governor of the Louisiana Territory for the next 20 years. Settlement proceeded very slowly; New Orleans became an important port as the gateway to the Mississippi River, but there was little other economic development because the city lacked a prosperous hinterland. In 1763, Louisiana was ceded to Spain around New Orleans and west of the Mississippi River. In the 1780s, the western border of

13794-424: Was less than 10,000. The Dutch established a patroon system with feudal-like rights given to a few powerful landholders; they also established religious tolerance and free trade. The colony's capital of New Amsterdam was founded in 1625 and located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan , which grew to become a major world city. The city was captured by the English in 1664; they took complete control of

13915-500: Was published widely, and Goddard speculates that it reached James Fenimore Cooper . In Cooper's novels The Pioneers (published in 1823) and The Last of the Mohicans (1826), both Native American and white characters use the term. These novels were widely distributed, and can be credited with bringing the term to "universal notice". The first time the term appears in Bartlett's "Dictionary of Americanisms" (in 1858), Goddard notes,

14036-593: Was settled in 1610 and remains one of the oldest continually European-inhabited settlements in the United States. Local Indians expelled the Spanish for 12 years following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680; they returned in 1692 in the bloodless reoccupation of Santa Fe. Control was by Spain (223 years) and Mexico (25 years) until 1846, when the American Army of the West took over in the Mexican–American War . About

14157-439: Was spurious. Goddard's alternative etymology is that the term emerged from the speech of Native Americans themselves, and that the origin and use of the term in the late 18th and early 19th century was benign. When it first appeared "it came in the most respectful context and at the highest level. ... These are white people and Indians talking together, with the white people trying to ingratiate themselves". The word later underwent

14278-664: Was to run trade surpluses so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on the Royal Navy, which protected the British colonies and also threatened the colonies of the other empires, sometimes even seizing them. Thus, the British Navy captured New Amsterdam (New York) in 1664. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and

14399-499: Was translated as 'if any redskins', and the second included " tout les peaux rouges ", which was translated as 'all the redskins'. The term here refers to warriors specifically. The term redskin enters wider English usage only in the first half of the 19th century. However, in an interview, Goddard admitted that it is impossible to verify whether the French translations of the Miami-Illinois language were accurate. The term

14520-459: Was used in an August 22, 1812, meeting between President James Madison and a delegation of chiefs from western tribes. There, the response of Osage chief "No Ears" ( Osage : Tetobasi ) to Madison's speech included the statement, "I know the manners of the whites and the red skins," while French Crow, principal chief of the Wahpekute band of Santee Sioux , was recorded as having said, "I am

14641-442: Was used to refer to Europeans. However, the pre-contact Meskwaki use of red in identifying themselves did not refer to skin color, but to their origin stories as the "red-earth" people. Historian Darren Reid of Coventry University states it is difficult for historians to document anything with certainty since Native Americans, as a non-literate society, did not produce the written sources upon which historians rely. Instead, what

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