Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) intends to block legislation that would give the District greater control over the RFK Stadium site until the Washington Commanders honor a Native American family that helped design the team’s former logo.
At a Wednesday hearing in the Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee on National Parks, Daines will call for Commanders officials to meet with the family of Walter “Blackie” Wetzel and members of the Blackfeet Tribe. Wetzel helped create the profile of an Indian warrior that served as the NFL team’s primary logo from 1972 until 2020, when the team dropped both the logo and the “Redskins” team name that had been a source of public debate.
In prepared comments shared with The Washington Post, Daines will demand “that the new team leadership and the NFL sit down with the Wetzel family, sit down with the Blackfeet [Nation], sit down with tribal leaders, and find a way to properly honor the history of the logo and heritage of our tribal nations, and to rededicate the organization as an advocate for Indian Country.”
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According to the prepared comments, Daines is “NOT calling for the return of the former team name which has become increasingly controversial, especially in Indian Country.”
The D.C. RFK Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act cleared the House in February, with overwhelming support. The legislation would allow D.C. to develop the federally owned plot by the Anacostia River, which could include a new Commanders stadium. But the bill needs to pass the Senate for such a stadium to become an option, and Daines could hold up the legislation on his own.
Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) usually will not consider bills on smaller, individual matters. Such bills typically need either unanimous support — so they can pass without needing a formal “roll call” vote — or to be attached to a bigger bill as what’s known as a policy “rider.” Thus, a lone senator can block a unanimous vote, so even the threat of objection often is enough to prevent leaders from trying to pass such legislation.
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Daines’s action could jeopardize the legislation’s chances this year. The Senate will go on a long break starting in late June and return briefly in September before the November election.
On Monday afternoon, Commanders officials met with Ryan Wetzel, Blackie’s grandson.
“We have spoken directly with the Wetzel family and are working collaboratively to recognize Blackie Wetzel for his contributions in creating our former logo,” a Commanders spokesperson said in a statement.
Ryan Wetzel called the meeting, his first with the team under new ownership, “fantastic.” He was optimistic the team would figure out how to capture his family’s contributions in a satisfactory way, maybe with a plaque or other installation. He said that while he understands the name will never come back, he hopes the team could wear the logo on throwback jerseys.
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A spokesperson for Daines said that even though the meeting went well, the plans for Wednesday’s hearing remain unchanged.
Last week, D.C. officials lobbied legislators to attach the RFK bill to the large, unrelated Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, according to two people with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The bill passed late Thursday — but the RFK language was not part of it.
In the Senate subcommittee hearing, Daines plans to suggest approaches for the team to satisfy the Wetzels, including restoring the logo with a new team name that’s supported by tribal leaders, “telling the history of the logo’s connection to the Wetzel family and honoring the native communities it represents” or “resuming merchandise sales featuring the logo and using a portion of the proceeds to bring awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and other tribal causes.”
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“They can properly honor the heritage of the Wetzel family, the Blackfeet tribe, Native Americans across the United States, former players and the community as a whole,” the remarks said.
In 1972, Wetzel persuaded team executives to drop the “R” logo from Washington’s helmets in favor of the logo he helped design.
“It made us all so proud to have an Indian on a big-time team,” Wetzel told The Post in 2002. “It’s only a small group of radicals who oppose those names. Indians are proud of Indians.”
Even Wetzel’s descendants disagree on whether the team’s former name was offensive.
“I’ve never heard anything negative about the logo or the name from the tribal members I have run into,” said his son Donald Wetzel Sr. “If they called me ‘Chief,’ now that got to me. But if they had said ‘Redskin,’ I would have said, ‘You’re damn right.’ ”
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In 2021, Donald Wetzel Sr. traveled to Washington to meet with Daines and team leadership. He asked the team to return the rights of the logo to the Blackfeet Tribe, but the team declined. Donald died in March 2023, and his son Ryan has continued his mission.
But Blackie’s great-nephew Bill Wetzel said of the team’s name, “Right now, anybody still fighting for it, they’re on the wrong side of history. … We are in a different world now. What was acceptable in my grandfather’s time, given what we know now, is simply not acceptable anymore.”
On Monday, Ryan Wetzel said he preferred to “stay out of the weeds” on the politics of the logo. But after years of believing the Commanders weren’t listening to his father, he felt the team had a “good group of people” who were ready to work together.
“I want this to be a continued conversation and a relationship for as long as this can go,” he said.
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