The California Gold Rush began in 1848 but it took a year for the word to get out, and soby the time 1849 rolled around, thousands of fortune hunters had arrived in Northern California to mine for gold. That was a nice step. But this name is part of our teams heritage! scream the bad-faith Dan Snyders of the world. Its also understandable. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! Again, confirming bigoted and lets be honest, Hollywood reinforced images of what the average American perceived all Indigenous people to be. You have wifi. Surely enough, the 49ers have become one of the most successful teams in the NFL. What Makes it So Hot? This era has made the 49ers, statistically, one of the most successful teams in the NFL. Redface. Like O'Loughlin, he cited the "growing epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women across the country, across Indian country at large, and where we see these large disproportionate number of our native women and children in particular have gone missing and turned up deceased" and "the protection of native peoples' natural resources, their lands, their waters, their cultures and who they are as a people.". Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. Matthew Rozsa is a professional writer whose work has appeared in multiple national media outlets since 2012 and exclusively at Salon since 2016. Cold rage! We already know that their name is problematic because of the controversy over the name of another football team, the Washington Redskins. Stephen A. Douglas, the Illinois senator whose seat would later be challenged by Abraham Lincoln, proposed extinguishing Indian land ownership in the far West by establishing expansive plots of land where Indians may be permanently located and protected. (This proposal was the beginning of todays reservation system.) If more voices come out to protest the connotation of the franchises moniker andits relationship to the genocide that took place during this period, San Francisco might just be the next team to see a change in their name. The 49ers won 49-26. is the nickname for those who flocked to northern California in 1849, also a kind of Olympic-style racing dinghy, team founder Tony Morabito saw opportunity where others saw uncertainty, are registered as the San Francisco Forty Niners,, French prospectors were the first to bring the chewy, tangy sourdough recipe. It will be hard to hide. Colin Kaepernick was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1987. It is why people cared so much when a San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, used his platform to speak out against injustice, and why they are inspired by 49ers offensive assistant coach Katie Sowers, one of the few women to ever coach for an NFL team, the first openly LGBTQ coach and the first woman and openly LGBTQ coach to appear in a Super Bowl. "I think most problematic when we see them used in the school setting is that they actually cause harm to students, native students and non-native students alike, and that they have this real negative impact on the students," Campbell told Salon. Tom Cruise's 'ditching' of Suri showcased by Judd Apatow's 'co-parenting' joke, ex-Scientology exec says, Ask Amy: I feel guilty for not speaking up about my co-worker's activities, Ask Amy: I had a good reason not to tell my friend I was moving, Warriors 3 Things: Steve Kerr entered playoff mode before Golden State's win over Portland. Thats the easiest fix there is. And then, I have to ask, are we so blind to our own history that we want to cheer on a team that is, at the very least, covering up genocide and, at the very worst, celebrating one? Because roughly 80% of the U.S. population was white in the 1960s, it's safe. Following the purchase, he gave the team to his son Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. Disease, malnutrition, and starvationdriven by exotic white pathogens and widespread environmental destructionaccounted for a significant reduction in the indigenous population. And the 49ers are certainly not the only professional team to use a historically problematic or controversial figure as a mascot. Laws by the U.S. government like Greaser Act in the 1850s sought to ethnically cleanse Spanish Indians from California. Around this period of US history, the government reportedly armed local militiasto kill Native American men and seize women and childrento besold to miners and used as free labor. They first adopted statutes that forced people designated as foreignersthat is, anyone who was not an American of northern European ancestryto pay a monthly $20 tax for the right to work in the goldfields. And thats the way it needs to be described in the history books., Newsom will no doubt be donning San Francisco 49ers gear and posing with Sourdough Sam, the teams mascot, at the many Super Bowl festivities this weekend. Americans (of all cultural backgrounds) are woefully uneducated or, worse, miseducated about anything pertaining to Indigenous history or our modern lives. Besides being really hot, Death Valley seems [], Partner Spotlight: West Ave Tavern in Tallmadge, OH, Partner Spotlight: Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom in Merrillville, IN, Partner Spotlight: Crave Hot Dogs & BBQ in Canton, MI, What Is a Caste? The actual name "San Francisco 49ers" is relatively simple to unpack in terms of meaning, especially if you compare it to other more obscure names like the Green Bay Packers. The winner that shook out was an honorific for a local mayor whose nickname was Chief. This is due to said mayor starting a Boy Scout club that ripped off Native American rituals and paired it with Hollywood-inspired iconography, but thats another fight for another day. To his credit, current California Governor Gavin Newsom recently took one of the first steps to acknowledge the facts of history by issuing a formal apology to the states Native American tribes. Their helmets have a gold sheen to them, and a horn blows when they score similar to the old-time mining horns. The influx of opportunists was a boon for California's economy, and. These fortunate early gold miners were quickly dubbed the forty-niners. There were published reports around the country about them, and there was a book, The Forty-niners, Or, The Pioneers Daughter published in 1879. The 49ers hired Chargers offensive coordinator Bill Walsh as head coach and drafted Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana. He was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor in 2016. Another double bonus is the Minnesota Vikings and the regions large Scandinavian population. I know they starve; I know they perish by hundreds It is a crying sin that our government, so wealthy and so powerful, should shut its eyes to the miserable fate of these rightful owners of the soil.. While Montgomery acknowledged that there were some "reckless adventurers" who caused "serious trouble," he reassured readers that "the stern hand of a Vigilance Committee, organized by a majority of the best citizens of San Francisco, speedily taught desperadoes and thieves that life and property must be respected.". He later added, "There is a certain honor and respect within American Indian communities that attaches to that. His diverse interests are reflected in his interviews including: President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (1999-2001), animal scientist and autism activist Temple Grandin, inventor Ern Rubik, comedian Bill Burr ("F Is for Family"), novelist James Patterson ("The President's Daughter"), epidemiologist Monica Gandhi, theoretical cosmologist Janna Levin, voice actor Rob Paulsen ("Animaniacs"), mRNA vaccine pioneer Katalin Karik, philosopher of science Vinciane Despret, actor George Takei ("Star Trek"), climatologist Michael E. Mann, Washington Gov. Origin and meaning The San Francisco 49ers scored a stunning upset against the top-seeded Green Bay Packers, earning themselves a shot at the NFC Championship. These prospectors were dubbed the 49ers.. Yet the same men and women who attempted to become wealthy off of the precious metals in the earth exploited, enslaved and even murdered the indigenous people in what's now the state of California in order to do so. The 49ers are not the only professional franchise the York family has shaped In 1978, DeBartolo Sr. purchased the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL and established Denise as the owner and president of the team. (Salon reached out to both the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers organizations and did not receive a response.) In 1848, at Sutters Mill, roughly 130 miles from what is now San Francisco, gold was discovered. In just four years, Harbaugh left the 49ers as one of their most successful head coaches. Such vagrant, as the law described the Indian, would be hired out for four months for the highest price that can be had.. While the team colors of red and gold are certainly a nod to the whole gold rush aspect of the 49ers name, their official mascot takes the NorCal representation to new heights. Also, California was still disputed territory. Jed York, the son of Denise and John, has been involved with the team after leaving his job as a financial analyst for Guggenheim Partners at their New York City offices. The Cleveland Indians have walked back from Chief Wahoo. Lea noted, with some chagrin, that there was violent opposition to [the California treaties] in the legislature of that State, but he nonetheless requested their adoption by the U.S. Senate. The 49ers returned to the NFC Championship in Harbaughs third season, making it three in a row. Thats the positive news. Names like the Giants, Jaguars, or Cowboys are generally pretty self-explanatory in terms of connotations. After keeping a small portion for the Indians, the justice held the power to sell or grant the excess property to any chosen white man, who could, with the same magistrates permission, kidnap Indian children and adopt themor keep the youths as unpaid houseworkers and field hands until they reached the age of majority. You Cant Use These English Words In The UK, Understanding Black History: 10 Terms That Illuminate The Black Experience In The US. NFL Week 4 recap: From Tottenham to Tom Brady. It has also been a place where geopolitical conflicts have heated up, such as during the Cold War when the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics and the Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. A relic of the stone age which, yes, represented weaponry used during the previous millennia but also helped solidify in peoples minds that the Indigenous people of the western plains were stone-age savages. In 1995, the San Francisco 49ers became the first NFL team to win five Super Bowls. NFL players, coaches, front-office staff, and owners . (Last Updated On: April 18, 2019) What Is a Caste? The team's name is a nod to history. Sourdough Sam has been the teams rootin tootin unblinkin mascot since the 1970s (though the image of a wily, trigger-happy prospector goes back to the early days of the team). San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) acknowledges the fans as he exits the field to the locker room following the NFC Divisional Round playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings. No laws governed the growing population in the new territory. The teams mascot was a gold miner named Sourdough Sam (pictured above). This is a team that is named after a Native American position of authority, features an arrowhead on their helmets andplays at a facility called Arrowhead Stadium. Besides, would a single person in Kansas City be any less stoked if the Kansas City Wolves were going to the Super Bowl? Aaron Rodgers reaches 500 career touchdowns, to kill Native American men and seize women and children, How did the Los Angeles Rams get their name? But fans and consumers have the power to convince NFL team owners to do the right thing. Few professional organizations have the history of the 49ers. Then, you have names like the San Francisco 49ers. Relics like Cahokia, the largest urban center in the Mississippian culture pre-colonization was a wonder to see. That cheer still hasnt died to this day. Its fans engage in a ritual called the "tomahawk chop," often wear face paint and headdresses to games and cheer to game day rituals such as a dignitary banging a drum while surrounded by cheerleaders or a cheerleader riding a horse named Warpaint around the field before the game and when the team scores. appreciated. Prove it by playing this quiz. Wolf, was introduced. The indigenous population of California went from more than 200,000 . If you dont live near there youve probably still heard of the environmental extreme Death Valley. A century after the Gold Rush, the 49ers were memorialized when San Franciscos first major league professional sports franchise, a football team, was named. And this campaign of exploitation and genocide against the 150,000 people who had originally lived in what's nowCalifornia was hardly accidental. The influx of opportunists was a boon for California's economy, and. It was a single-generation system. This influx of people was also a major reason why San Francisco and other Californian cities would end up becoming major population centers. O'Loughlin also reflected on the fact that America's education system shortchanges Native American history, particularly in completely neglecting what has happened to indigenous communities in recent years. Why Is it Called Death Valley? Meeting in a closed-door executive session on July 8, 1852, a majority of senators voted to reject all 18 treaties. I have seen it, and seeing all this, I cannot help them. Chapter 133s most abhorrent clause stated, In no case shall a white man be convicted of any offence upon the testimony of an Indian, or Indians. With those 20 words, California effectively legalized the rape, robbery, and murder of any Native American within the boundaries of the state. Forgot password? The 60s and 70s marked varying degrees of success for the 49ers, but they would really begin to break out in the 1980s and early 1990s. The San Francisco 49ers publicly condemned the person who sent racist messages to Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker and announced that they have begun an investigation into identifying the fan . Abraham Lincoln himself, then a Whig congressman from Illinois, recognized that the war was a blatantly imperialistic exercise and denounced it in one of his earliest well-known speeches. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! They were working along the American River near what is now Coloma, California, when they cracked open a vein of gold. Within 20 years of the start of the Gold Rush, 80 percent of California's Native Americans were wiped out; 100,000 perished during the first two years alone. Who is Zuri Hall? Yet the reality of the men behind the legend is not quite so lovable and comic. The otherpart of this was the larger trend in American conquest of Mexican land. Defenders of the teams and the status quo in general might be tempted to fall back on an oft-repeated line:Why can't they just leave politics out of football? They were the 49ers from the start. Top 10: The Forty-Niners, a novel by Alan Moore and Gene Ha. Who is the owner of the San Francisco 49ers? All rights reserved. The precedent was set by a Swiss immigrant named John Sutterwho ventured to California in 1841, and was followed by others who attempted to make their fortune in the so-called Wild West. Race is an issue that defines our nation. The name was in place, the team was in town, and logos needed to be made. Even in that image above, from a Chicago Blackhawks game, shows a single fan in a sea of fans who are not in fake headdresses. The SF 49ers' stay at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia between Weeks 2 and 3 contradicts the organization's statements on racism. The California Gold Rush began in 1848 but it took a year for the word to get out, and so by the time 1849 rolled around, thousands of fortune hunters had . While he was kept there, Sutter worked him hard and then fed him in troughs. In 2020, you dont get to play the well, I didnt know card anymore. The influx of opportunists was a boon for Californias economy, and hastened its admittance into the union in 1850. (Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images/NFL/Salon), ------------------------------------------, exploited, enslaved and even murdered the indigenous people in what's now the state of California, 80 percent of California's Native Americans were wiped out, April Moore from the Nisenan Maidu told PBS. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the Mexican-American War hero Zachary Taylor swept into the White House with fresh vigor. There was actually a write-in contest for local Kansas City denizens to name the team. There are more historic parallels between the team and the historical context of its name: The 49ers were the first NFL team, and, in fact, the first major professional sports team to originate on the West Coast. So understand this: when Indigenous people see Sourdough Sam, the 49ers mascot, they may very well think of the sheer audacity it takes to whitewash an actual genocide with a smiling, blue-eyed miner rather than a folk hero. Shannon Keller O'Loughlin, a Choctaw and the Executive Director of the Association on American Indian Affairs, doesn't excludepro teams like the Chiefs from having that kind of impact, too. The question is whether they will follow through on that. And not anybody in an American Indian community can wear an eagle feather headdress. "The name Chiefs on its own by itself may not be offensive, right? Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. As one newspaper wrote at the time, "Whites are becoming impressed with the belief that it will be absolutely necessary to exterminate the savages before they can labor much longer in the mines with security. The sleeping Indians werent even members of the same Maidu tribe, but to the miners, it didnt matter: Indian was Indian. Of all those who came to California, some 49ers grew wealthy but it was the merchantsthose that sold goods and services to the gold seekerswho typically made more money than the miners. Hired in 2011, Harbaugh guided the 49ers to a 13-3 record in his first year, culminating in an overtime loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants in the NFC Championship. Nowadays, when we think about the original 49ers, we imagine hardscrabble, risk-taking men expressing radical individualism,. "The 49ers", a group of Cathay Pacific Airways pilots fired on 9 July 2001. It wasnt until Jim Harbaugh took over the reins as head coach that the 49ers returned as one of the top teams in the NFL. What Is the Real Meaning Behind Ring Around the Rosie? Denise sold the Penguins to assist the DeBartolo Corporation, which faced challenges in the aftermath of the real estate collapse of 1987. When the AAFC folded three years later, the 49ers joined the NFL in 1950. By the mid-1850s, more than 300,000 people had poured into California. He is, after all, not just the governor but the citys former mayor. "When you look at the Kansas City Chiefs, and you look at a lot of their fans that are wearing headdresses, a lot of their fans that are putting war paint on their faces and bringing different kinds of things with them that symbolize a bow and an arrow or some kind of a tool or sacred item that is Indian in nature, the treatment of that is what the problem is, and the treatment of those things impacts and tarnishes the name of the team," Allis told Salon. The protests of Californias white men, however, drowned out Leas tepid advocacy. Sorry, pal, our heritage predates the NFL by a few millennia. It barely makes a blip on the national consciousness. They would end up winning multiple Super Bowls in this era, in 1984, 1988, 1989, and 1994. Activate your account. The NFL Has Always Been Racist. A Complete List of Official Disney Princesses, 14 Greys Anatomy Trivia Team Names that Wont Make You an MD. Confirming bigoted and lets be honest, Hollywood reinforced images of what average... 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