The family of Blackfeet Chief John Two Guns White Calf has now stepped forward to say what the franchise and its corporate sponsors long preferred to ignore: that the 2020 retirement of the Washington Redskins name and logo was carried out without a word of consultation with the very people whose ancestor gave the emblem its face. Estate lead Kenneth Conway put the matter plainly when he observed that the team “tried to erase us, like we didn’t exist anymore.” Historian Brock Conway, speaking to WTVR, was equally direct: “They did not even ask our family for approval. They didn’t ask for nothing from us. I mean, we literally got erased.” The portrait that Walter “Blackie” Wetzel designed in 1971, drawn from the chief’s own features, had stood on helmets and merchandise for nearly half a century; its removal, the family insists, was not an act of sensitivity but an act of historical deletion.

What the descendants want is not mere nostalgia but recognition. The logo, they maintain, brought genuine pride to the family and kept the memory of a prominent Blackfeet leader before a national audience. Morningstar Gopher, speaking for the estate, has made clear that the family is “hopeful for a meeting with President Trump in order to help get this pushed forward,” and that restoration would be “a win-win” both for diehard Redskins supporters in the capital region and for the chief’s own people, who would see their ancestor properly honored. The name and image were set aside in 2020 after activist groups and corporate interests declared the word a slur; the family, never invited to that conversation, now asks that its view be weighed at last.

The Washington franchise, rebranded as the Commanders, is preparing a new stadium scheduled to open in 2030. That timetable offers a natural occasion to correct an earlier misstep. Restoring the Redskins name and the chief’s likeness, with the family’s participation, would reattach a living Native American legacy to one of the country’s most visible sporting institutions and would answer the charge of erasure with something more durable than a press release. The family has already said it is ready to sit down; the question is whether the league and the club will treat their ancestor’s history as something worth preserving rather than something to be managed out of existence. Bring back the Redskins. It is time.

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