Time for A Change?

For more than 100 years, Cleveland’s professional baseball team was known as the Indians. But that recently changed. The team changed its name to the Guardians in November 2021. Cleveland isn’t the only team making a switch. Beginning in 2020, Washington, D.C.’s pro football team also changed its name. They are now called the Washington Commanders.

Teams and schools have argued that Native American team names honor Native nations. But many Native people have been protesting for decades, saying the names are harmful to their communities.

“Sports teams are supposed to inspire,” says author Vincent Schilling, who is Akwesasne (ah-kwuh-SAHS-nee) Mohawk. “But these teams ignore the suffering of Native people even though they have been told the pain the names cause.”

There are more than 500 Native American nations in the U.S., each with its own unique history and traditions. Schilling and countless others argue that team names like Indians, Chiefs, and Braves wrongly suggest that all Native people belong to one big group and are all alike.

“It’s like saying all Americans look like Uncle Sam and wear red, white, and blue stripes,” says Schilling.

Other names, experts say, are even more painful. Until recently, the Washington Commanders were called the Redskins. This is considered a racist insult and a cruel way to describe Native Americans.

Critics say that Native team names are only part of the problem. Some team mascots and logos show characters wearing war paint or carrying weapons. Native people say this stereotype makes their people seem violent or angry.

The way that fans dress and behave can also be disrespectful. One of the most controversial fan traditions is called the tomahawk chop. Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Braves wave their arms back and forth in a chopping motion while chanting what might sound like a Native song. It’s not, Schilling explains.

“This action has never been done by a Native American nation,” he says. “I’m a Mohawk whose ancestors were forced to not speak their own language. A crowd of tens of thousands singing a fake song is more painful than you can imagine.”

As some pro sports teams make name changes, people are calling for others to change too. More than 1,600 teams across the U.S.—from pro leagues to elementary schools—still have Native names.

Leah Salgado, from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, works for IllumiNative. The group works to make sure all Native peoples are accurately represented.

“It’s good that some names are changing, but all should be gone,” Salgado says. “We all want to be treated with respect.”