The Washington “Redskins” are no more, and the new team name is yet to be determined.
My vote for a new name (not that anybody is asking) is the “Washington Powhatan.”
It’s easy to understand how the “Redskins” name became controversial despite its innocent origins, but team names such as the Chicago Blackhawks and Florida State Seminoles have always seemed good because they honor specific local tribes.
The “Washington Powhatan” would be a tribute, of course, to the Powhatan Confederacy, the alliance of Native Americans living in Virginia when English settlers founded Jamestown in 1607. Pocahontas was the daughter of the leader of the Powhatan.
The team would need the support of living tribal leaders — much like the Florida State Seminoles have the full support of the Seminole Tribe — for the “Washington Powhatan” to even be a possibility.
And politically correct Washingtonians still uncomfortable in those circumstances with a team named after the Powhatan Confederacy would have an obvious alternative name to use: “The Washington P.C.”