Indian Citizenship Act
The Indian Citizenship Act grants Native Americans full citizenship, but many states still disenfranchise them at the polls.
01/01/1924
Otis Davis overcomes racism to become Olympic champion
As a man of Black and Native American heritage, Otis Davis endured racism growing up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the height of the Jim Crow South. Like many others, he was not able to attend the high school closest to his home because of his race. Davis went on to serve four years in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War before enrolling in college at the University of Oregon. He would then win two gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics, taking the 400 meters in world-record time and two days later anchoring the U.S. 4×400-meter relay team to another gold medal and a world record. Davis was among a group of rising Black athletes who also won their first gold medals during the 1960 Rome Olympics, including Wilma Rudolph and Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay).
09/06/1960
Billy Mills, member of the Sioux tribe, becomes the only American man to win gold in the Olympic 10,000m
Mills, who is also known as Tamakoce Te’Hila and is a member of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) tribe, scores a huge upset, winning gold in the 10,000-meter race at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. His journey to his win almost tragically ends before it begins, as the pain that racism directed toward Mills causes him to consider suicide. He uses the goal of winning the race to help him push through, however, and now Mills advocates for Native American youth through Running Strong for American Indian Youth, which he helps start and becomes the spokesperson for in 1986. Mills also fights for Native American civil and voting rights, spending the vast majority of his time traveling for that cause, and in 2013 he is awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, he second-highest U.S. civilian award. More than 50 years since his historic upset, Mills is still the only American to win the Olympic 10,000 meter.
10/14/1964
Arizona State retires Navajo athlete Ryneldi Becenti’s jersey
Raised in Fort Defiance on the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona, Becenti’s passion for basketball eventually takes her to Arizona State, where in the 1990s she stars for the women’s basketball team. She immediately lifts the program to the NCAA Tournament, a place it had not been for nearly a decade, and in 1997 she becomes the first Native American to play in the WNBA. Following a career that spans multiple continents, she returns to Arizona State in 2013 for the ceremony retiring her jersey. She was the first Sun Devils women’s basketball player to receive that honor.
12/21/2013
NFL’s Washington club announces retirement of racist team name and logo; MLB’s Cleveland club does the same.
Dozens of Native American groups, tribal nations, national tribal organizations, individuals and civil rights group have protested Washington’s 87-year-old team mascot and asked for its removal dating back more than a half-century. Washington owner Dan Snyder said he would never change the logo and team name – a racist slur toward Native Americans – but corporate pressure in 2020 forces him to retire them. Top team sponsor FedEx says it will terminate its stadium naming rights deal, worth an additional $45 million, if Snyder did not change the team name. Other sponsors, including PepsiCo, Nike and Bank of America, make similar demands. Since known as the Washington Football Team, the club on February 2, 2022 officially becomes the Washington Commanders. In 2018, MLB’s Cleveland club, facing similar backlash for its team name and mascot, announces it will retire its “Chief Wahoo” logo for the 2019 season, and in December 2020 says it will change the team’s nickname for the 2022 season. In July 2021, they reveal their new name, the Cleveland Guardians.
07/13/2020