In a response dated three days later and published in The Washington Post, Robert Brave Heart and George Winzenburg, executive vice president and president, respectively, of the Red Cloud Indian School in South Dakota, declared: “As an organization, Red Cloud Indian School has never — and will never — endorse the use of the name ‘Redskins.’ ” They urged Snyder to “engage in further discussion with Native groups across the country and, ultimately, to move toward changing the name, once and for all.”

That discussion can be a short one. The team should be renamed for the great leader who is buried on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a short walk from the school named after him. Such a move would not only ease tension between American Indians and the NFL, but naming the team after Red Cloud would also signify strength, intelligence and perseverance — qualities any NFL team would be proud to project.

Having grown up on the intense rivalries of the NFC East, we agree with Snyder that the team’s tradition and past glories are a big part of “who we are” and “where we came from.” Which is why we would hate to see his Washington franchise saddled with a generic animal, mineral, geological or meteorological appellation.