Super Bowl LVII (that's "57,sex slave training videos" FYI) won't be decked out in only green and red, or sporting just its usual American flag motifs. Held at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, located just slightly northwest of Phoenix, this year's marquee art is a tribute to the Indigenous communities that have woven history and culture across the Arizona landscape, designed by the first Chicana, Native American artist commissioned by the NFL for the big game, Lucinda "La Morena" Hinojos. 

Even further, this year was the first time the league issued a formal Indigenous land acknowledgmentahead of the game.

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The marquee design commissioned by the league from Hinojos, a visual artist and cultural organizer, is featured as part of an "array of design activations" for the upcoming sporting event, including the Super Bowl's tickets, out-of-home (OOH) displays, and other public installations around Arizona. You'll spot Hinojos' design in the back of press room videos, too, tucked inside the brightly-colored "LVII" logo behind players.

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"This is going to be in a space where there's people from all over — Native, non-Native, brown, white, African American, Black, Asian — and that's what's beautiful to me," Hinojos said in a promotional video for the announcement. "For me to be the first brown, Indigenous woman to do this is pretty crazy."

Hinojos will also design an exclusive football design, available for purchase, and take part in the NFL's largest mural ever created, a collaboration with Indige Design Collab, Cahokia SocialTech and ArtSpace,and Native American artists Randy Barton (Diné / Navajo), Anitra "Yukue" Molina (Yaqui), and Carrie "CC" Curley (San Carlos Apache). 

The collaboration was intended to "unite and shed light on underrepresented communities of color in Arizona," according to the NFL announcement. 

Hinojos was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and is influenced by her familial connections to Mexico and the Pascua Yaqui, Chiricahua Apache, White Mountain Apache, and Pima (Akimel O'Odham) Tribes. Her street art name, "La Morena," reclaims an unkind Spanish moniker thrown at her as a child for having darker skin. 

In an interview with Well + Good, Hinojos said it was all of this history that led her to create art with deep ties to her cultures. "There was a cultural assimilation that happened to the generation before mine — our moms, our dads, our grandparents. Their culture was oppressed, and now my generation is craving that cultural identity."

The Super Bowl artwork incorporates the culture and history of Arizona, from the reflection of the state's White Tank Mountains to the presence of Indigenous Fancy Shawland Azteca dancers. 

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Artists work on the SuperBowl LVII mural. Credit: Christian Petersen / Getty Images

It's another creative form of land acknowledgementahead of the crowd of thousands the Super Bowl will draw to Glendale. Of the 574 federally recognized Native nationsin the United States, 22 currently are rooted in Arizona. The cities of Glendale and Phoenix take up parts of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the Yavapai Nation, and Gila River Indian Community, known as ancestral land to the O’Odham and Piipaash people. The state, like most North American land, has thousands of years of Indigenous history informing a unique local culture, and its proximity to Central America and Mexican influences has created a distinctly Southwestern identity. 

The collaboration and Hinojos' artwork are history-making for the league, as a tangible way for her and other onlookers from long-underrepresented communities to shape the sport's tarnished perception with visibly identifiable impact.

Of course, it's also a slightly ironic "step forward," as Super Bowl LVII brings together the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, one of the few teams that have retained a name with Native American ties.  

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Originally known as the Dallas Texans, the team relocated to Kansas City in 1963 and ceremoniously changed their name to the "Chiefs," an unfortunately-named nod to Kansas City mayor H. Roe Bartle, who sported the nickname "Chief Lone Bear" while working for the Boy Scouts. 

Following decades of culturally insensitive fan and team imagery rooted in Indigenous stereotypes, the team began a partnership with the American Indian Community Working Group in 2014to "educate them on the key issues facing Indian Country, to evaluate club practices and traditions including the game-day presentation, and to offer guidance and direction on ways the club could better honor American Indian culture."

The result: a banning of culturally inappropriate images like headdresses, face paint, and fan chants, as well as the incorporation of Indigenous practices and people in game day elements, like the ceremonial Blessing of the Drum and the Four Directions, the team explained. 

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But for all of these changes, the working group still doubled down on the team's name, and the in-house conversations could only do so much to course-correct a deeply entrenched fan culture, which still invites spectators to participate in the outdated "tomahawk chop."

Only a few years later, activists rejuvenated a critical look at the presence of offensive Indigenous stereotypes— known as the #NotYourMascot and #PeopleNotMascotsmovements — across all sports. And for the most part, it could be called a success. Teams leading major leagues, not just the NFL, continued eradicating traces of racist depictions in their franchise materials, including the Cleveland "Indians'" name change to the "Guardians"in 2021 and the Washington football team's rebrand to the Washington "Commanders"in 2022. 

The Chiefs weren't one of them, though. That same year, a group of Indigenous leaders and activists protestedoutside of the Kansas City team base, known as Arrowhead Stadium or "The Sea of Red." (In 2021, it was partially renamed to "GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.") The group continued the call for a name change and the complete removal of Indigenous imagery. 

Kansas City head coach Andy Reid stands in front of the LVII logo featuring Hinojos' art and the Chiefs' arrowhead logo. Credit: Christian Petersen / Getty Images

In 2023, groups are still protesting, including local activist group Arizona to Rally Against Native Mascots, which will be organizing outside the Super Bowl festivities this week. In a press releaseissued ahead of a Feb. 9 protest outside State Farm Arena, the organization wrote: 

For years these Native communities have protested at home and away games and have put in years of resources and sweat equity to urge the franchise to do away with Native appropriation. Still, the franchise continues to stonewall Native people. As the Kansas City team has tried to ignore away Native advocates, they've brought support from certain Native tribes and people in order to justify Native appropriation… The Kansas City team was able to fly under the radar. But Native people have not forgotten. Az Rally urges everyone to stand in solidarity with Native people's #NotYourMascot movement…

What years of Indigenous activism and subsequent reform have proved is that change is much more simple, and less harmful to the brand, than one might be fooled into believing. The Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians both saw boosts in merchandise sales following their franchise rebrands, and the NFL raked in more than $18 billion in revenuein 2022, speaking to the continued potential for profit while prioritizing cultural sensitivity.

The league's need for reform to protect players, address claims of racism related to team ownership and hiring practices, and to support sustained advocacy for communities of color leaves plenty of room for progress. But the collaboration between Hinojos and the NFL is still something to celebrate, representing a long-awaited step toward meaningful inclusion, a recognition of the Indigenous lands that so many mega stadiums are built on and profit from, and a subtle nod to the gratitude owed to marginalized communities that have helped shape America's cultural identity, including our most cherished pastimes.

Topics Social Good Super Bowl Identities