BILLINGS — They came in droves, from the Blackfeet reservation and elsewhere in Montana, and from places like Colorado, Indiana and North Carolina.
Twenty-two members of the Montana-rooted Wetzel family, as guests of the Washington Commanders, arrived at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., on the morning of Sept. 15 for a long-awaited and hard-fought moment of recognition for its patriarch — the late Walter "Blackie" Wetzel — and his contributions to the NFL franchise as the designer of an iconic logo the team had worn for nearly 50 years.
When the Wetzels saw the tribute the Commanders had created in Blackie's honor, fulfillment and gratification took hold.
"I'll tell you, it hit so hard when we came upon the display. There wasn't a dry eye in the group of us," Ryan Wetzel told MTN Sports. "My uncle Petse, at 83 years old, still lives on the ranch where my grandfather raised him, to see him with tears in his eyes ... it's been a long time coming for our family, and it was very, very moving for the Commanders to do something like that."
The story has become very well-publicized in recent years: In the early 1970s, Blackie Wetzel designed what became a classic side-profile Indian-head logo that the Washington franchise — then known as the Redskins — used as its primary marker, including on its helmets.
The tribute, which is on the club level at Northwest Stadium, recognizes Blackie's offering.
Pictures of Blackie with president John F. Kennedy and other political figures with whom he worked on Capitol Hill to advance indigenous causes are included. A pedestal with a bronze helmet adorned with Wetzel's warrior logo is also on display.
A large mural with some of the Commanders' Super Bowl-winning legends graces the wall, all wearing the logo, such as quarterbacks Doug Williams and Joe Theismann and running back John Riggins.
A plaque, which boasts the warrior-head logo at the top, reads:
Worn by Super Bowl-winning teams and fans across the globe, this iconic logo, designed by Walters "Blackie" Wetzel, represented our organization for nearly half a century.
A member of the Blackfeet Nation, Wetzel was a fervent advocate for Indigenous communities, serving in roles as Chairman of the Blackfeet Tribe and President of the National Congress of American Indians during his life.
After a 1971 meeting with the team about the decades-old "R" logo, Wetzel designed this logo to symbolize and pay tribute to Indigenous populations and to honor the many values embodied by this country's first peoples, including strength, pride, courage, and service.
"That plaque said enough to fully acknowledge him and his contribution to the organization," Ryan Wetzel said. "And who he was was a fervent leader who was all about Indian Country and the betterment of Native American people."
The logo, as Ryan Wetzel said, is a rendition of "the Great American Indian warrior," and Blackie Wetzel had said in interviews that it was a composite and not modeled after one individual. The team employed that logo for 48 seasons, from 1972 to 2019.
Intended as a symbol of strength, the logo was retired along with the more controversial and questionable Redskins nickname in 2020 after years of public pressure and amid the backdrop of the 2020 George Floyd protests.
"There has been that association with the name, and unfortunately when they retired the name the logo went with it when it never should have been that way," said Ryan Wetzel, who is the personal representative of the estate of Blackie Wetzel.
"The logo was never the issue. We had family on this trip that were completely opposed to the name, but they were there for Blackie and his logo."
The Wetzel family had long been hoping for Blackie to be recognized for his contribution to the franchise, but also for his work as a Native American leader and advocate of indigenous causes.
That effort ramped up in the wake of the team rebranding as the Commanders prior to the 2022 season. (The franchise was known generically as the Washington Football Team in both 2020 and 2021.)
When discussions by the Wetzels, primarily Blackie's son and Ryan's dad Don, a legend in Montana sports, with previous team owner Daniel Snyder went nowhere, the family felt like it wasn't being heard.
But with new ownership in place, headed up by American investor Josh Harris, more positive and fruitful conversations have taken place. The display the Commanders unveiled Sept. 15 ahead of their game against the New York Giants is proof of that.
Don Wetzel, a legendary Cut Bank and University of Montana athlete, Browning coach and co-founder of the Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame, died in 2023 and didn't see this piece of his objective come to fruition.
"Grandpa Blackie would have been so thrilled," Ryan Wetzel said. "And to think about my dad and his efforts and everything that he had done leading up to it, this was extremely important to him. He would have been all smiles with his big blue eyes lit up going, 'Hell yeah. We did it.'"
They did it, but the work isn't over. Ryan Wetzel has said that the ultimate goal is for his family and the Commanders to come to an agreement that will bring the logo back to life in greater ways than the tribute to Blackie.
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) has thrown his hat in the ring, and has held up H.R. 4984 — the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act — a bill that would transfer administration of the still-standing stadium and its land from the National Park Service to the District of Columbia.
The site is potentially a space for a new D.C. stadium, and Daines, the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, has said "(t)he failure to properly honor the pride and history embodied by the iconic logo must be made right by both the new team ownership and the NFL."
Whether the logo will ever make it back on the field in some sort of throwback capacity remains to be seen, but Ryan Wetzel hopes it can somehow be used to continue Blackie's legacy of advocating for Native causes.
One key step took place when earlier this month Commanders senior adviser Jason Wright (formerly the team's president) and VP of public affairs Kirtan Mehta, as well as NFL executive Brendon Plack, made a two-day visit to Hamilton to further open communication with the Wetzel family, and to continue discussions for an acceptable resolution
"Our hope is somehow that the Commanders, the Wetzel family, the NFL ... we partner, we somehow work together and create something that can inspire Native kids on the reservation to be the next Walter 'Blackie' Wetzel, whether it be a foundation of some sort or some type of service or program that can be an initiation to helping these kids get off the reservation and further their education," Ryan Wetzel said.
"And the Commanders are open to it. They're willing to listen. They're willing to pay attention to this important topic.
"Let's build a bridge and honor the past. Maybe bring your logo back. We can collaborate in an effort to help Indian people, as my grandfather always wanted."
