It is time for Jeep to stop using the Cherokee Nation’s name on its Cherokee and Grand Cherokee SUVs, the chief of the Oklahoma-based tribe has said.
Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr said in a statement, which was first reported by Car & Driver magazine, that he believes corporations and sports teams should stop using Native American names, images and mascots as nicknames or on their products.
“I’m sure this comes from a place that is well-intended, but it does not honor us by having our name plastered on the side of a car,” Hoskin said.
The statement marked the first time that the Cherokee Nation had called for the change since Jeep first began using “Cherokee” on its vehicles in the 1970s, according to Car & Driver.
Kristin Starnes, a spokesperson for Jeep’s parent company, the Amsterdam-based Stellantis, said in a statement that the vehicle name was carefully selected “and nurtured over the years to honor and celebrate Native American people for their nobility, prowess and pride”.
She did not say whether the company was considering renaming the vehicles and did not immediately reply to an email requesting that information.
Hoskin says the best way to honor the Tahlequah, Oklahoma-based tribe is to learn more about its history.
“The best way to honor us is to learn about our sovereign government, our role in this country, our history, culture and language and have meaningful dialogue with federally recognized tribes on cultural appropriateness,” Hoskin said.
The controversy comes amid a national reckoning over the use of Native American names and images, particularly in sports.
After years of resistance and under pressure from corporate sponsors, the NFL’s Washington DC franchise announced last year that it was dropping its “Redskins” nickname and Indian head logo and would go by the name Washington Football Team until a permanent replacement was chosen. Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians also announced last year that it would change its name.
Hoskin made reference to such changes in his statement to Car & Driver.
“I think we’re in a day and age in this country where it’s time for both corporations and team sports to retire the use of Native American names, images and mascots from their products, team jerseys and sports in general,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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pound sand and get over it!!!!!!!!!!!
It is an English word. Maybe they should stop using it.
How’s about we tell jeep KEEP the name, or lose our business!
It’s the English pronunciation of their Tribal Name.
jeep also made a “Comanche” pickup at one time.
As a life long cowboy, I demand that they stop using the name, “Wrangler” also, sure I used to own one but I think I was offended all of the 11 years while I was driving it, I just didn’t know I was!
Then there is the “Wagoneer”, it looks nothing like a wagon, I know, I had a wagon as a kid, no resemblance at all!
As one who has sat in a seat with 8-in-hand a couple of times, I agree.
I agree with them. The car should be named after the forgotten tribes that the Cherokee displaced and enslaved.
Next the chief will demand royalties to be paid to the tribe for use of its name. When encountered by Spanish explorers in the mid-16th century, the Cherokee possessed a variety of stone implements, including knives, axes, and chisels. Maybe Jeep should rename their high-tech Cherokee wagons the “Chiseler” after the current ungrateful chief.
What next. Demanding the US military stop naming helos Apachies??
What’s wrong with these idiots. Are they so weak and feminine that mere words offered them. Maybe Jeep should rename it the Cowboy….Maybe the White man……Hasn’t that Chief got something better do in this stupid upside time?
“Sometimes being a b***h is all a woman has to hang onto!” – Delores Claiborne
IN a word. YES
In two words – HELL YES.
That’s how they’ve been raised, and indoctrinated for 30+ years…
I’ve been married to a native American for 34 years and personally know about 30 Native Americans… not one of them could care less. This is just the opinion of one jackass. It’s funny how even in the Native American tribes …just like the morons in washington have leaders that think they speak for everyone on social matters.
Probably cause those who Voted them INTO those positions, think likewise?
Raised on a Ranch in Wyoming, I WOULD BE OFFENDED, and ‘jeep’ is NOT READY to play COWBOYS and jeeps….
Rename it to the Andrew Jackson and have a logo of a Cherokee being shot by Andy. lol
Aren’t they are foreign country? So what do they have to say about anything we do. F’ em.
1835
“A census this year shows 93 percent of the Cherokee are farmers who till their land. The number of slaves in the Cherokee Nation has increased to 1,592. More than seven percent (7.4%) of Cherokee families own slaves, a greater percentage than across the South, where about 5% of families own slaves.” Hmmmmm, no firm gorund to stand on when it comes to political correctness lecturing whites.
Well, if they owned slaves, then they should be responsible for reparations to the descendants, so let the liberals in Washington introduce a bill for Native American reparations who were enslaved by their own. I do believe that there is at least one native american in congress/house of representatives.
THEY ARE NOT WHITE, so it mattes not if they ‘owned slaves’.. They will never ever, be forced to pay reparations.
Good point mike. SINCE THEY ARE based in Amsterdam, WHAT Exactly does the Chereokee nation have, for pull??
Probably a large part of North Carolina, and the ONLY CASINOS in that State as well.
So.. There’s plenty of other states that have casinos..
Someone please provide Hoskin with a pacifier.
Has he bothered to get a trademark?
And even that will not work all that much since it has been
in wide use before the trademark was used.
The only thing American Indians have to do with vehicles is making wring harnesses.
Hell, most of them didn’t even have horses TILL WHITES BROUGHT THEM to the new world.. So let’s tell the natives, STOP USING Horses.. Oh and casinos, which are a Purely western invention. And cell phones, electricity, toilets, proper plumbing, plastics, natural gas etc..
I DEMAND you stop using the term “Native Americans”!
There WERE no “Native” Americans!
We’re told the first inhabitants migrated here from Asia, so YOU are MIGRANTS!
Apparently the Eskimo snow walls were not built high enough to keep them out.
I disagree… what about Big Foot?
Actually, the first inhabitants of this continent were from Africa. It was calmer than the Pacific and the distances shorter. They lived here until the Mongols from Asia crossed the Aleutian Bridge, I’m guessing, around 500BC. They pushed the African migrants down South America. There are a few sad colonies around Tierra del Fuego now still. The Asian “native Americans” were lucky to survive too engaging in constant wars capturing slaves when possible.
Let’s rename it the Jeep “Native Americans loved to cut the unborn children out of pregnant white women and bash their heads against trees”..
As long as it’s electric that just harmlessly plugs into the wall and does not use evil global warming fossil fuel … that name should be just fine, z-man37.
How about the Jeep “Squaw” instead? (jerks!)
“I think we’re in a day and age in this country where it’s time for both corporations and team sports to retire the use of Native American names, images and mascots from their products, team jerseys and sports in general,”
Centuries upon centuries of taking names from brave (no pun intended) and powerful creatures, peoples and ideas to create pride in your representative players chokes in The Land Of The Free.
I used to be fond of the idea of simply using numbers for everything. But then Sequential Equality reared it’s ugly head.
Everybody wants to be #1. To not be #1 is to be branded #2 automatically.
Also every ball player would prefer to be the star pitcher or Quarterback or Power Forward….. All lower position titles should be eliminated out of concern for fairness and feelings.
It may not be workable but even suggesting arranging teams by “colors” brings it’s own set of troubles right out of the gate. Clearly some darker colors are of higher value than others.
It may be required that we eliminate all sports if this cannot be solved with equal outcome for all. The pain is just too great.
Another simple fix might be to require all tribes to field their own team and trademark/copyright their tribe name.
Or just have the Democrats select the next five Superbowl winners….from the pool of mascot offenders. Maybe a five-way tie for Champion!!
That should shut them up until the team pride wears off.
Don’t give these dolts, any ideas!
They could use the dominion / scammatic voting machines to pick the winners. Everyone’s forgetting the 28th bill of rights : We have right to not be offended.
And these days, that ‘right’, seems to override every other right IN the constitution.
I do not see how the name Cherokee on the Jeep is offensive to anyone. Secondly, Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr, you are certainly a politically correct Democrat. Real men do not need safe spaces with dolls and tinker toys!
THat is cause you are a SANE white person (most likely).. So being sane, things like a mere name are NOT offensive to you..
When is this nonsense going to stop? With people getting their knickers in a knot, thongs in a wad, noses bent out of joint, or waking up just to find some way to be offended, what about the states, cities, counties, and other vehicles that have tribal names? Is there going to be a push to have those names changed also? Somebody need to get a life!
SINCE people keep CAVING INTO their nonsense, it imo, WILL never stop.. TILL WE STAND UP TO THEM and keep telling them “CRY ME A RIVER”>
There are those that have nothing better to do than to look for things to be offended by. You absolutely cannot bend over for them. There are tons of things with names that have been used for something else. It’s a name. There is a Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant in TX. Oh sorry, I just gave away another thing to be offended by.
You can really upset them by voiding all the treaties and take back America’s Land, and kick them back in to the real World. They Lost the War.
American Indians were killing, raping, scalping and enslaving each other LONG before the advent of the White man. The fact that our tribe was better armed, better trained, much better mounted, better at feeding, clothing and housing people is not any reason to be be ashamed. Winning is only bad if you chose to live the life of losing. Enter the Democrats whose hate and envy of anything or anyone more successful than their equal distribution of poverty and failure, drives them socially insane. The Bufflao were going extinct long before Buffalo Bill came on the scene. The Native Americans had rounded up escaped wild Spanish stallions for mobility about 100 years before Bill showed up, and once on horseback had already culled the herds down from 20 million to about 1,000,000 by the late 1800s. White guys just finished the job to make way for much tastier cattle. Rewriting Amrican history for political blackmail is the modern day trail of tears.
ANd facts like that, is WHY PROPER american history is not taught.. So folks don’t FIND THOSE facts out.
Much ado about nothing. Just rename it the Jeep SUV or Jeep Grand SUV, like was done for the Washington Football Team – problem solved. Now on to a new crisis of offense!!
If only. We are on the “everything is a grievance trail”. Everything requires re-naming and then re-naming again. Rinse and repeat.
Can anyone with a brain figure these goofballs out? The “chief” should be proud that a rugged vehicle is named “Cherokee” just like a tough football team (or basketball,etc) is named Redskins, Warriors, etc. The censors here wouldn’t let me print the names that people shouldn’t want used– one being a synonym for “odd.”
This reminds me of the Christmas controversy years ago. Some religious leaders started complaining that Christmas was becoming too commercialized. In time stores moved from having Christmas sales and Christmas decorations to having holiday sales and holiday decorations. Some of the same people who had complained about Christmas being commercialized then started complaining that stores had replaced Christmas with holiday.
The same may hold true for the Indians. Some are complaining about Indian names and likenesses being used in a variety of products and teams. Will these same people complain once society has completely purged any reference to Indians? Will they complain that they and their heritage have been banished from society?
I certainly wouldn’t be shocked if they did.
Maybe they can rename it the Jeep Settler or some other name which recognizes those who endured hardships to settle our great nation.
I am now driving my second Jeep Cherokee. It’s a great car, and for me it will always be a Cherokee. The Injuns should be honored, not offended.
Other than that, they need to remember that they lost the war. Anything they have now is due to the magnanimity of the their “white eyes” conquerors. There have been and are places in the world where those on the losing side have not been so fortunate.
“Hoskin says the best way to honor the Tahlequah, Oklahoma-based tribe is to learn more about its history.”
Hoskins needs to take his own advice. The word “Oklahoma” is from the Choctaw language and translates to “red people”. Jeep should respond saying they will rename their vehicle AFTER the state of Oklahoma is renamed, and Oklahoma City is renamed.
Don’t give them the idea to demand that the city and state be forced to change their name..
I also think Christian mascot names are soon to be in the crosshairs of the righteous. NO Saints, LA Angels etc but also sneaking in this conversation are the Cardinals which are all over HS, college and Pro sports. Usually a bird but there is the Catholic college of CARDINALS in the Vatican…… get ready.
Well, Chuck, if you go about removing your name from everything, pretty soon everyone will forget that you even exist. So, how does that honor your heritage??