Cleveland’s baseball team will remove “Indians” from their names, according to multiple reports, when President Donald Trump was dismissed as “rejecting work culture”.
Native American groups and some sections of the team’s fan base have argued the name has been racially insensitive for years. The move, first reported by the New York Times and later confirmed by ESPN, is expected to be officially announced in the coming days. Washington’s NFL team decided to stop using a name believed to be an archery treasure against Native American people earlier this year and is now known simply as the Washington Football Team. Cleveland can follow a similar convention while the team comes up with a new name.
Sources confirm that @nytmike and @ DavidWaldstein report that the Cleveland Indians will drop their nickname. While it’s unclear what they’re going to replace it with, the Indians – who have been so called for more than a century and nearly 17,000 games – won’t be anymore.
– Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 14, 2020
The New York Times reports that Cleveland will keep its current name for the 2021 season before cutting “Indians” in 2022. The team dropped its Chief Wahoo logo, the grinning red-faced cartoon that has been in use since 1947, from its uniforms in 2018, following decades of complaints that it was racist.
But Trump couldn’t see the racist connection and tweeted: “Oh no! What’s happening? This is not good news, even for “Indians”. Cancel culture at work! “
In July, the team said they are considering changing their name after the police murder of George Floyd, which sparked a widespread debate about racism in America. “We are committed to having a positive impact on our community and we take responsibility for promoting social justice and equality. Our organization fully recognizes that our team name is one of the most visible ways we can connect with the community, ”the team said in a July statement. The team’s manager Terry Francona said he believed it was time to deviate from the name.
Cleveland was known as Lake Shores, Bluebirds, Broncos, and Naps before it got its current nickname in 1915.
Three other major league teams using Native American names, MLB’s Atlanta Braves, NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, and NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, have no plans to change their branding. The latter team says they have no intention of changing their name as they honor a historical figure, Black Hawk, who was a preeminent figure in Illinois history.
Dozens of college and high school teams are named for Native American tribes in their area. In 2005, the NCAA governing body for college sports looked at the use of Native American names. Some teams stopped using Native American names and iconography that were deemed offensive, while others that were approved by the local tribes continued to do so.
Perhaps the most famous example is the Florida State Seminoles. The Tribal Council approved the use of the name as well as other traditions of the FSU teams.
