“I mean, its not *just* the name…but it’s also the name,” Lily Gladstone, who is of Siksikaitsitapii and Nimíipuu heritage posted on X on Thursday evening. The Killers of the Flower Moon actor’s quote-reply gave additional comment to an excerpt from a Variety article published earlier the same day, in which she called out the Kansas City Chiefs’ signature fan move, the Tomahawk chop.
"It’s not the name that bothers me. It’s hearing that damn Tomahawk chop,” Gladstone told Variety. “Every time, it’s a stark reminder of what Hollywood has done to us, because the Tomahawk chop directly ties to the soundtracks of old Westerns where we were not playing ourselves, or if we were, we were merely backdrop actors. It’s this ‘claiming’ of that sound and saying it’s in ‘honor’ and the commodification of who we are as people. It’s great to love the game and your players, but it still hurts."
The origins of the team’s name, according to Indian Country Today, trace back to a non-Native man and former Kansas City mayor H. Roe Bartle. Bartle went by the nickname “Chief” through his work with the Boy Scouts and somewhat dubious ties to the Arapaho people. Eventually, as reported by the Kansas City Star, he went on to draw the Dallas Texans football team away from their lone-star state to Kansas City in 1963, where the team went on to also claim the Chiefs name. The origin of the team’s use of the “Tomahawk chop” can be traced to Northwest Missouri State's marching band.
Gladstone’s comments to Variety are not the first time they have called out the Kansas City team. Speaking as an honoree at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Virtuosos Awards on the day before the Super Bowl, Gladstone noted their history-making turn as the first Native American performer nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award, pointing out that some of the first film footage was shot by Native people, documenting their way of life. “But that’s a lot of history and a lot of years of exclusion or misrepresentation and I mean Super Bowl’s tomorrow,” they added. “We haven’t come that far if we look at one of the teams that’s playing.”
