I am calling for the Cleveland Indians to retain their franchise's name and identity. I invite all, including those who may disagree, to consider my reasoning:

Words and symbols have literal meanings, but they also acquire meaning by association. It is for that reason that the word 'Indians', having been in use for 105 years, and Chief Wahoo logo, in use for over 70, resonate with so many. The team name and its symbol, rather than directly referencing an American Indian, have come to be inextricably linked to baseball in Cleveland. Some of the greatest to have ever played baseball in Cleveland, players without whom the story of professional baseball cannot be told, are enshrined in Cooperstown as Cleveland Indians. 'Indians' is a team name that connects the triumph of the 1948 Indians with both the joy and heartbreak of the 1995, 1997, and 2016 Indians.

In the down seasons when wins are hard to come by and championships are a distant memory, knowledge that Bob Feller, Larry Doby and Lou Boudreau won it all as Cleveland Indians provides a sense of pride and optimism. Knowing that a name once stood for greatness births an expectation that it may one day arrive again. Players and successes come and go, but the identity remains constant. 

What's more, the Cleveland Indians remain an indispensable part of the sport's long struggle to live up to our nation's declarative statement, that all men are created equal. What Jackie Robinson did for the color barrier with the Dodgers in the National League, Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, and Frank Robinson did with the Cleveland Indians in the American League. They are Cleveland Indians. They helped make the franchise, and the sport, what it is today. It is an honor for Dodgers players and fans to don the jersey of Jackie Robinson. So too should it be an honor for Indians players and fans to don the jersey worn by these pioneers in civil rights and athletics. 

Many come upon baseball fandom through our fathers who inherited it from their fathers. But that love of the game, passed down for generations, isn't a simply a love for Major League Baseball. It's a love for Cleveland Indians baseball, for the red white and blue uniforms with Chief Wahoo on the sleeve and cap. 

If the Indians decide to change the name, will it still be the same franchise? Hardly. The retired numbers adorning Progressive Field's right field wall are not those of Guardians, Spiders or Blues, or any other proposed re-brand. They're Indians. It's not simply that you're a fan of baseball as played in the city of Cleveland, it's that you're a fan of a specific team, a fandom which links scores of great players and connects grandparents with parents, and parents with children. It is for many of these same reasons that Cleveland fans so passionately lobbied for the restoration of the Browns name and history when they could've started with a blank slate.

Indians' fans love for their team and their mascot does not come from a place of hate. Chief Wahoo is a Cleveland institution whose instantly recognizable visage immediately brings to mind a bevy of positive feelings associated with fans' beloved team. Legendary Indians owner Bill Veeck intended for Wahoo to “convey a spirit of pure joy and unbridled enthusiasm". The Chief is "a classic specimen of a golden age of American commercial art, born in the heart of the American Century," who "doesn't hint at any bigoted subtext". Does that sound like a malicious caricature intended to spread harmful stereotypes, or a cheerful cartoon character symbolic of summer nights spent at old Cleveland Stadium?

So what do American Indians make of Chief Wahoo and the Cleveland Indians' franchise, you ask? A 2019 poll on American Indian names and mascots in sport conducted by the Washington Post found that among 500 Native Americans, "68% were not offended by the Washington Redskins' name". A 2016 survey by the same paper concluded that "nine in ten Native Americans" claimed not to be bothered by the Washington Redskins' name. Of course, the Washington Redskins are not the subject of this petition, but the results are nonetheless relevant.

If American Indians are this unconcerned by the Washington Redskins' name and iconography, then it follows that neither the Cleveland Indians' name nor Chief Wahoo bother the vast majority of American Indians. In fact, during the Indians' 1997 pennant-winning season, the New York Times ran a letter from one of its readers where a Montana sporting goods store owner noted Chief Wahoo's great popularity among the area's American Indian residents. 

A 2020 study by researchers from Stanford University claimed that American Indian mascots and team names "simultaneously bring to mind positive associations and reminders of the limited ways in which American Indians are seen by mainstream society". This limited or negative portrayal, they argue, causes some American Indians psychological distress. Above all else, Chief Wahoo and the Indians represent a beloved team and its players. To the extent that the team name or logo represent anything about American Indians, they show "a manly warrior who remains stoic to the bitter end," a portrayal "combining a couple of attributes neither of which is wholly negative". Such portrayals are limited, to be sure, but can hardly be said to perpetuate a lack of empathy towards American Indians. Proving an explicit link between Chief Wahoo, the Indians, and negative outcomes for American Indians, would require a demonstrable pattern of detailed examples illustrating how either the name or mascot result in negative outcomes for American Indians. Rather than proving the existence of such a link, this most recent survey merely suggests that some, not all, associate the name and logo with negative stereotypes. This, of course, is an opinion, and not one shared by a majority of American Indians (per the results of the two Washington Post surveys) or Cleveland Indians fans. Most importantly, retiring Chief Wahoo and the Cleveland Indians "won't make American Indians more comfortable or prosperous. It would please the tastemakers, that’s all — those who think Wahoo undignified".

If anything, Chief Wahoo and the Cleveland Indians are uniquely suited to address the problem these researchers have claimed to identify. If, in fact, a lack of common knowledge about American Indians affects the self-esteem of some Indian youths, then it stands to reason that the team ought to use their name and logo's association with that group in order to better educate the public, a precedent set by the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks, who have engaged in community outreach efforts in conjunction with local and national American Indian groups. By making visible strides towards highlighting the American Indian community of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, an area in which countless roads, streets, rivers and other geographic features owe their names to American Indians, the overwhelmingly positive associations felt by fans of the franchise can be more equitably distributed through necessary social activism. 

Baseball is more than just a game. When you take a seat at Progressive Field, the past, present and future collide. The legendary names displayed high above right field recall 105 seasons of great players who wore the same team name on their jersey, and logo on their cap, as those on the diamond tonight. Your parents and grandparents, seated to your right and left, rooted passionately for those great players, just as you root for the players on the field right now. That passion is what has brought all of you to the same place. And those players on the field and in the dugout have one goal in mind: win the World Series. It's been over 70 years since the world heard the words "the Cleveland Indians have won the World Series", but game after game, summer after summer, you hold out hope that those same words will be heard once again.

Cleveland Indians, I implore you: do the right thing. Retain the proud history of the Cleveland Indians while using the franchise's brand to call attention to the area's American Indians through education and charitable contributions.  

 

 

Works Consulted:

2016 poll: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/new-poll-finds-9-in-10-native-americans-arent-offended-by-redskins-name/2016/05/18/3ea11cfa-161a-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html

2019 poll: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/08/10/poll-of-native-americans-view-of-redskins-name-finds-proud-most-common-answer/

2020 study: http://www.indianmascots.com/fryberg--web-psychological_.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2ehhmavZAaQNDPGzW2yEp0OnTou6jMyOQkM2xzilmiApAwOM_-JZIrmjM

Boston Globe article: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/09/18/arguable-defense-chief-wahoo/agFYQzzIKywlqttXRx6fQJ/story.html

National Review article: https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/03/chief-wahoos-long-game-nicholas-frankovich/

New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/18/opinion/l-indians-team-logo-gives-no-racial-offense-674460.html