Washington's NFL team announces 'Commanders' as its new mascot

Washington has some new Commanders in town.

The NFL team announced its new name on Wednesday, 18 months after fresh pressure from sponsors helped persuade the once-storied franchise to drop its old «Redskins» moniker, following decades of criticism that it was offensive to Native Americans.

And the organisation has committed to avoiding Native American imagery in its rebrand after being called the Washington Football Team for the past two seasons.

Washington is the latest American major professional team to abandon its name because it was linked to Native Americans, and it was considered one of the most egregious.

Suzan Shown Harjo — who is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee — called the change «an amazing and a giant step in the maturation of America».

The 76-year-old Ms Harjo has been advocating for sports teams to drop Native imagery and mascots since the 1960s.

«That's sort of our place in the world, Native people's place in the world, to help the rest of the country come to grips with its past and to understand how to move on,» Ms Harjo said.

«And, I hope, how to do it with grace.»

While Major League Baseball's Cleveland Guardians have changed their name, the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, NHL's Chicago Blackhawks and baseball's Atlanta Braves have said they are not planning to make a change.

That doesn't sit well with IllumiNative — a Native American woman-led, social justice organisation — although founder and executive director Crystal Echo Hawk praised the move by the Commanders.

«Native mascots are inaccurate and stereotypical depictions of Native culture,» the Pawnee woman said in a statement.

«They do not honour or celebrate Native peoples but are, rather, a tool of white supremacy created to dehumanise and objectify us.

»Researc