WASHINGTON – The Washington Redskins are not the only professional sports team with a Native American nickname that many regard as offensive. As the NFL team’s ownership fights to keep the name, other teams may see change on the horizon.
In late 2013 the National Congress of American Indians published a report calling out Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves, the National Hockey League’s Chicago Blackhawks, and the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs along with the Redskins for allegedly offensive names, mascots and/or traditions.
“All of the teams with any sort of Native references are racist,” said Suzan Harjo, president of the Washington-based Morning Star Institute in an interview.
Some fans might say that there are more important issues, such as player safety, but to those who view these names and traditions as offensive believe it’s serious business.
But where did these names come from in the first place and where is the controversy headed?
Some organizations are gradually moving away from Native imagery.
The Atlanta Braves team history says the team adopted the nickname Braves while in Boston after more than 20 years as the Boston “Beaneaters” and a short stint as the Boston “Doves.” More recently, ahead of the 2013 season, the Atlanta Braves backed away from a “screaming Indian” logo on the team’s batting practice hats, which caused a firestorm of ire after ESPN columnist Paul Lukas broke the news of its planned use in in December 2012.
The NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs were originally the old American Football League’s Dallas Texans. According to the organization’s history, the team moved to Kansas City after concluding the Dallas market could not support both the Texans and the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. The team was christened the “Chiefs” “in part to honor Kansas City Mayor H. Roe Bartle, nicknamed “Chief.”
“Chief” is not an Indian word, but Harjo says the context is problematic. The Chiefs formerly used “Warpaint” a horse ridden by a headdress-clad rider as the team’s mascot, before switching to K.C. Wolf in 1989. In 2009 as part of celebrations of the AFL’s 50th anniversary, Warpaint was brought back but this time with a cheerleader and not a man in American Indian styled regalia. Once again, the team transitioned, in part, away from what could be seen as a Native reference.
The NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks say the team name came from original owner Major Frederic McLaughlin’s experience in World War I. McLaughlin’s division called themselves Black Hawks to honor a Sauk Indian chief that fought alongside the British in the War of 1812. Both Harjo and the NCAI include the Blackhawks among the problematic franchises.
Then, of course, there’s the Cleveland Indians. Recently the block letter “C” on the cap replaced Chief Wahoo—a red skinned cartoon—as the team’s primary logo. But it doesn’t take much more than a Google image search to find Chief Wahoo in both his modern and more exaggerated form.
All of these names and symbols – for different reasons, perhaps – have the potential to offend.
To varying degrees the National Congress of American Indians credits teams like the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians for taking steps to alter or downplay offensive logos. While the Indians have been scaling back Chief Wahoo, the Braves retired the Chief Noc-A-Homa mascot in the late 1980s.
The scrapped Braves cap from 2013, paired with the use of other Native-referencing icons is seen by the NCAI as a sign of “unwillingness to completely disavow their business from their brands for financial reasons.”
Some teams with histories of questionable logos have moved away from them. The Golden State Warriors, for example, started out with a logo not much different from Cleveland’s Chief Wahoo.
While the team’s current logo is of a view of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the team’s former mascot had what looked like a feather sticking out of the back of his head. “Warriors could mean returning vets from Iraq and Afghanistan, but it doesn’t, because the context is ‘Native,’” said Harjo.
Still, even teams without Native-referencing themes have begun taking steps to influence fan behavior. Earlier this season, at a Native American Heritage Night San Francisco Giants game, two Indians were detained after an incident with another group passing around a headdress. Since then, news broke that the Giants were considering adopting policies to restrict the presence of insensitive clothing.
A year ago during another wave of anti-Redskins nickname activity, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell replied to a letter sent to Dan Snyder from some members of Congress.
“For the team’s millions of fans and customers, who represent one of America’s most ethnically and geographically diverse fan bases, the name is a unifying force that stands for strength, courage, pride and respect,” Goodell said. More recently Goodell has said he’s paying attention to the movement and understands the perspective.
Teams are increasingly moving away from Native American themes. In some cases, organizations are shifting from questionable mascots or imagery. In other cases, teams with no reference to Native culture are considering rules to deal with exuberant fans’ actions.
Where it goes may depend on how the Washington Redskins situation plays out. Success might encourage activists to try to clean up other teams.