Leaders from the Dallas-Fort Worth Native American community want Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo organizers to take accountability for what they say was an offensive misrepresentation of Native culture in one of this year’s events.
A stock show spokesman, however, said the man at the center of the controversy was an outside participant and not specifically invited to represent Native Americans.
What happened at the All Western Parade?
Cheyenne Goss, an ambassador and committee member with the American Indian Heritage Day in Texas organization, was surprised and angered when she saw a photo and video footage of a man in Native American clothing riding a horse in the All Western Parade in downtown Fort Worth on Jan. 17, which marked the opening of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.
In a photo posted to an Instagram gallery that was liked by Visit Fort Worth, the city’s tourism bureau, the man in question appears to be wearing makeup to darken his complexion. In a video aired by KXAS-TV, the same man is seen letting out a whoop from atop his horse. He also appears to be wearing prosthetic teeth that protrude in a cartoonish manner.
Goss called the makeup “scary,” and said the depiction “has nothing to do with Native culture.” Furthermore, Goss alleged the man isn’t Native. She said local Native American groups were legitimately represented in the parade, but the man in the makeup was, according to Goss, part of a Mexican charro group…