Racist Native American Sports Logos Visualized Through Time

By Fusion Staff  |  May 14, 2014 | 3:35pm
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Washington NFL team owner, Dan Snyder has been under fire in recent months over his refusal to change the name of his team as well as its accompanying imagery. But, as USA TODAY reports, the Redskins aren’t the only professional sports team with a long history of using stereotypical and often racist imagery in their branding.

Source: USA TODAY

Last year, several news outlets and independent journalists, including USA TODAY columnist, Christine Brennan, announced that they would no longer use the name “Redskins” when referencing the team out of respect to Native American peoples and compelling opposition to the name.

The info-graphic published by USA TODAY highlights a tradition of racism through offensive stereotypes of anonymous Native American caricatures. Featured on the site are the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Chiefs and, of course, the Washington Redskins.

Source: USA TODAY

Though a longtime fan of the Cleveland Indians team, Dennis Brown, is no fan of Chief Wahoo. In an interview with USA TODAY Sports, he said:

“I liked Chief Wahoo as a younger person. As I got older, I sort of evolved from liking it to being ambivalent to becoming opposed. If you have ever seen images with hidden pictures in them, once you see the hidden picture, that’s all you can see. That’s what happened to me with Chief Wahoo. Once you see it for what it really is, you can’t un-see it.”

The night before he left for the Indians’ spring training camp, he “meticulously unstitched the Chief Wahoo emblem on the sleeve of his Cleveland Indians jersey” and tweeted a photo of the missing logo to his followers, according to USA TODAY. Circulation of the photo of the jersey sans Wahoo eventually grew and inspired others to do the same.

Shortly thereafter, an organization made up of concerned Native Americans and their allies called Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry, launched a Twitter campaign to bring attention to stereotypical imagery used in sports.

Using the hashtag #DeChief, Twitter users have been sharing photos of jerseys, hats and even mustard bottles with Chief Wahoo missing. EONM has even demanded that Nike stop selling Cleveland Indians merchandise that features Chief Wahoo.

Related: Why Appropriating Native American Imagery is Wrong

Related: Keith Olbermann Calls Dan Snyder the ‘Worst Person’ in Sports

 
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