Native people grapple with Super Bowl celebration

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Moontee Sinquah spent only one minute onstage inside the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix during the NFL's Super Bowl Opening Night. But it's a minute that will remain unforgettable.

The Native hoop dancer had never been that close to football players and coaches about to compete in the league's biggest game. As he and other Indigenous performers sang and danced, they heard elated whoops from Indigenous people in the audience.

It gave Sinquah chills.

“I’m just really grateful that they did highlight our people because I think it’s really important," said Sinquah, who is a citizen of the Hopi-Tewa and Choctaw nations. But when he thinks of that inclusion coupled with Super Bowl cameras panning to Kansas City Chiefs fans doing the maligned “tomahawk chop,” Sinquah says that juxtaposition leaves him “perplexed.”

https://ictnews.org/news/native-people-grapple-with-super-bowl-celebration