White House official reportedly gets in brawl with Native American student wearing Redskins jersey

A fan wearing a Redskins team jersey is accusing a White House official of beating him up.

(Image credit: oug Pensinger/Allsport/Getty Images)

published 18 August 2016

A Native American college student and the executive director of the White House Initiative of American Indian and Alaska Native Education allegedly got into a brawl at a pow-wow in Washington, D.C., over the student's Redskins jersey, News 9 reports. While the men's accounts of who started the incident differ entirely, both agree that punches were thrown.

Barrett Dahl, of Oklahoma, is a member of the Choctaw, Sac, and Fox Nations, and "says he wore the Redskins shirt because he was in Washington, D.C., and because he sees it as a sense of cultural pride," News 9 reports. Dahl, who is autistic, alleges that White House official William Mendoza approached him at the pow-wow and said, "You're a 'weetard' for not understanding 'Redskins' is offensive."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.