Since Dan Snyder became the owner in 1999, however, the team has made the playoffs just six times, winning two postseason games. The logo stayed with Washington for 48 seasons, which included the franchiseвЂ™s glory years, a decade that included three Super Bowl victories. All the family say they received in return was merchandise. Much to the surprise of the Wetzel family, who received no warning from the team, the new logo showed up on WashingtonвЂ™s helmets in 1972. The logo was his focal point: he thought an accurate portrait was more evocative than the вЂњRвЂќ logo then on the teamвЂ™s helmets. Wetzel says his father, who died in 2003 at the age of 88, was never bothered by the teamвЂ™s nickname itself, because it was regarded for many years as something that saluted Native Americans. The Washington Football Team does not sell any merchandise on the NFL Shop website with the old logo, but a casual search on eBay turns up hundreds of such items, most of which are labeled with the teamвЂ™s old nickname. For one thing, contrary to popular belief, Wetzel says, the logo was not a copy of the profile found on an old Buffalo nickel. Nevertheless, when asked to gauge his chances of getting the logo back, Wetzel says, вЂњI think theyвЂ™re good because this is an issue of social injustice,вЂќ adding, вЂњItвЂ™s more of a moral battle than a legal battle.вЂќДЄs with many stories that include some sort of folklore, the tale of the logo has a lot of hazy areas. It is believed Washington are keen to reach an agreement with the family but any such settlement will take time. A 2016 meeting with the team about the logo had also gone nowhere. He has not heard back from the team, but he is not surprised.

He and his caregiver, Marie Schell, said they met briefly with team officials, but вЂњthey kept interrupting us.вЂќ He became upset and the meeting ended without any agreement being reached.

вЂњWeвЂ™re going to be able to bring up other big issues in Indian country,вЂќ Wetzel says. Wetzel wanted to make sure he can repurpose the logo so that it becomes the face of the Blackie Wetzel Warrior Society, which hopes to raise public awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women as well as other social inequities on reservations. It is unclear whether Washington own the copyright to the logo. So Wetzel, who is 73 and gets around with the help of a prosthetic leg, headed east to ask for the logo back from the team.

вЂњBut with the logo gone, that is kind of gone, too,вЂќ Wetzel says. Blackie considered the logo a sort of вЂњunification symbolвЂќ among Native Americans. The logo was a composite of portraits of a Blackfeet chief named White Calf (who was marketed to wealthy tourists of Glacier National Park as Two Guns White Calf). вЂњHe called his Most Beautiful Chief,вЂќ Don Wetzel tells the Guardian.Д«lackie Wetzel was a Blackfeet tribal chairman and, for a time, the president of the National Congress of American Indians, an influential position in which he worked toward securing housing and job training for Native Americans. The logo stayed on WashingtonвЂ™s helmets until last year, when the teamвЂ™s racist nickname was ditched. That logo, the profile of a Native American trimmed with a circle of life and two eagle feathers, was especially familiar to Don Wetzel because his late father, Walter S вЂњBlackieвЂќ Wetzel, had designed it 50 years ago, then gave it to Jack Kent Cooke, the teamвЂ™s owner. As he moved through the crowd outside FedEx Field, he could not help but notice that more than half the fans were wearing something with the teamвЂ™s former logo. D on Wetzel traveled all the way to the US capital from Montana last month to meet with politicians and to take in a Washington Football Team home game.

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