page_title: Native American mascot controversy
section_title: Cleveland Indians
hierarchical_section_title: Native American mascot controversy / Trends / Professional teams / Cleveland Indians
caption_attribution_description: Omar Vizquel, with the Cleveland Indians
context_page_description: The use of terms and images referring to Native Americans and First Nations as the name or mascot for a sports team is a topic of public controversy in the United States and Canada. Since the 1960s, as part of the indigenous civil rights movements, there have been a number of protests and other actions by Native Americans and their supporters. The protests target the prominent use of such names and images by professional franchises such as the Cleveland Indians; and the Washington Football Team. Changes, such as the retirement of Native American names and mascots in a wide array of schools, has been a steady trend since the 1970s.
  The issue is often discussed in the media only in terms of the offensiveness of certain terms, images, and performances to individuals of Native American heritage, which tends to reduce the problem to one of feelings and personal opinions. This prevents a more comprehensive understanding of the history and context of the use of Native American names and images, and the reasons why sports teams should eliminate such practices.
context_section_description: The Cleveland Indians acknowledged on July 3, 2020 that they are ready to discuss changing their team name in the wake of news that the Washington Redskins would be reviewing theirs.
  Starting in the 2019 season, the Chief Wahoo logo will not appear on uniforms nor on stadium signs, although it will still be licensed for team merchandise within the Cleveland area. Local groups say they will continue to advocate for a change of the team name, and object to the continued sale outside the stadium of merchandise with the Wahoo image.
  Chief Wahoo is part of an exhibit at the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia maintained by Ferris State University in Michigan. For Dr. David Pilgrim, a sociology professor at Ferris State and an expert in racial imagery, the symbol is a "red Sambo" that hardly differs from the caricatures of blacks popular in the Jim Crow era in which Wahoo was created, when such depictions of minority races were popularly used to inflame prejudice and justify discriminatory laws and behavior. Pilgrim explains how the exaggerated features serve their discriminatory purpose by emphasizing the differences of the depicted race, thereby reinforcing the idea that the caricatured race is inferior.
caption: Former Cleveland Indians player Venezuelan Omar Vizquel wearing a baseball cap showing the image of Chief Wahoo
exif: {"Image Tag 0x5100": "0"}