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Native American leaders used a meeting at the White House on Tuesday to thank President Barack Obama for wading into the controversy over the Washington Washington Football Team team name and voicing his concern that the nickname was offensive.

Ray Halbritter of the Oneida Nation, which has led efforts to get the National Football League team to change its name, thanked the president for speaking out. Other tribal leaders responded with applause during the meeting in the Roosevelt Room.

In an October interview with The Associated Press, Obama said that if he owned the Washington Football Team he would consider changing the name. He said that while fans get attached to nicknames, nostalgia isn’t a good enough reason to keep a name that offends “a sizable group of people.”

“I don’t know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real legitimate concerns that people have about these things,” Obama said in the interview.

The president’s comments sparked increased debate over the controversy and won him praise from Native American groups.

(Associated Press)

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