Washington • An alliance of American Indian activists launched several online Web pages disguised as legitimate news outlets Wednesday, falsely claiming the Washington Redskins have bowed to political pressure and changed their controversial team nickname to the Redhawks.
"This morning, the Redskins organization was made aware of fraudulent websites about our team name," Tony Wyllie, the Redskins' senior vice president of communications, said in a statement sent via email. "The name of the team is the Washington Redskins and will remain that for the future."
The elaborate campaign included at least five pages and a Twitter account and the links were widely shared on social media.
One of the pages — washingtonredhawks.com — closely resembles the Redskins' official website, but features a burgundy and gold logo of a hawk head, not the familiar Redskins' logo.
"The updated 'Washington Redhawks' was inspired by team owner Dan Snyder's deep admiration for Native Americans," reads a news story on the fake team site. "It is a symbol of everything we stand for: strength, courage, pride, and respect — the same values we know guide Native Americans and which are embedded throughout their rich history as the original Americans."
Wyllie said the matter has been forwarded to the league office. A spokesman for the NFL did not immediately return a request for comment.
The other pages resemble the news sites of The Washington Post, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Bleacher Report and feature fake news stories related to the supposed name change, citing names of real people including activists, politicians, fans, Redskins Coach Jay Gruden and the team owner.
"As 2017 was marked by cities across the U.S. taking down Confederate monuments, Washington D.C. is losing a symbol many have long declared racist, and, no, it is not made of bronze," read a story posted on a site designed to resemble ESPN's.
The group behind the campaign calls itself Rising Hearts and in a statement Thursday said it was comprised of members of several tribes and included "hundreds of collaborators for this coordinated digital action."
The group said it planned to hold a news conference on Thursday in Washington, D.C., and a rally on Sunday at FedEx Field, where the Redskins will host the Arizona Cardinals.
"We created this action to show the NFL and the Washington Football franchise how easy, popular and powerful changing the name could be," Rebecca Nagle, one of the campaign's organizers, said in a statement. "What we're asking for changes only four letters. Just four letters! Certainly the harm that the mascot does in Native Americans outweighs the very, very minor changes the franchise would need to make."
Snyder has called the team nickname a "badge of honor" and has vowed to never change it. But the name has been a divisive issue for several years, invigorating fans, activists, members of the media and politicians. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, has spoken against it, and in 2013 the city council passed a resolution urging the team to change the name, calling it "racist and derogatory."
A 2016 Washington Post poll found that 90 percent of Native American respondents in all 50 states and the District said they were not bothered by the Redskins' name.
Until Wednesday's online campaign, efforts to push for a name change had been mostly quiet in recent months. In June, the Justice Department decided to back out of the legal fight over the name, following the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of an Asian American band that called itself the Slants, which signaled to many that the Redskins would prevail over any efforts to cancel the team's trademarks because the name is disparaging to Native Americans.