Man… bring back the war chant. And I say this as a person who thought retiring the Chief was the right move. But calling music racist or dishonorable is absurd.
If playing a song that has its stylings in Native American culture is “cultural appropriation,” then so is playing jazz unless you are African American, yodeling unless you’re Austrian or Swiss, or listening to the theme from Titanic unless you’re Irish. And don’t even think of playing country music unless you were born south of the Mason-Dixon line.
The point is… all music has its roots in specific cultures and to say playing a particular song is racist solely on the basis that it borrows or resembles music associated with a certain culture is not only absurd, it’s stupid. If that’s the case, ALL music is off limits to all people except those whose culture created it.
There is not a SINGLE living human being that is not a Cultural Appropriator....... lol. It's WHAT WE DO!!!! Technically, anybody who eats Mexican food, who is not Mexican is a Cultural Appropriator!!!! Appropriating the things we like such as food, music, language, hairstyles, tatoos, footwear, clothing, religions, medicine, etc. ad infinitum..... is what humans do!!!! It's basically an homage to the people/culture that created it!
I've always HATED that somewhere along the way that the term has become a negative.... It should be CELEBRATED! It's how we take the greatest things from all cultures and incorporate them into our own way of life.
Aside from my brief diatribe..... I know I've read somewhere that the 'War Chant' wasn't originally even a Native American thing?!?!?!? I know we've all been trained to think that. Please correct me If I'm wrong.