Former director of NMAI calls team's foundation 'bait and switch'


Video: Gary Edwards discusses Original Americans Foundation.

Rick West, the founding director of the National Museum of the American Indian, said the owner of the Washington professional football team is trying to draw attention away from his racist mascot.

West said the team's name remains offensive, no matter how much money owner Dan Snyder pours in Indian Country. He called the new Original Americans Foundation a "bait and switch" tactic.

“Looking at the word 'redskin,' it’s not even close,” West, who now serves as president and chief executive of Autry National Center of the American West in California, told The Los Angeles Times. “It’s an openly derogatory term. It always is and it always has been.”

But West said he wouldn't outright reject a donation from the new foundation, if one were offered.

“It’s not up to me to presume outcomes. I would tell them what my viewpoint is, that I’m troubled about the name, and we would have a discussion about it," West told the paper.

Get the Story:
Redskins owner's new charity scores no points with Autry's West (The Los Angeles Times 3/29)

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