Professional Teams
The Golden State Warriors retain the name but eliminated Native American imagery in 1971. Since that time, their logos have emphasized the state of California, with their current primary logo depicting the new eastern span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The warrior depicted on secondary logos of that team is a generic, lightning-wielding figure. The Edmonton Eskimos is also exceptional, given that their only stereotypical element appears to be the name of one of their mascots, Nanook, a polar bear.
Some teams have made limited changes in recent years. In 1989 the Kansas City Chiefs switched from Warpaint, a Pinto horse ridden by a man in a feathered headdress, to their current mascot K. C. Wolf. In 2009 the horse returned, but ridden by a cheerleader. The NHL's Chicago Blackhawks use an anthropomorphic hawk as their mascot character although a Native American's profile appears on their jerseys and the team was named in honor of the team's founder's military unit, which was named the "Blackhawk Division" after Black Hawk, a Native American chief.
However the other professional teams continue to utilize Native American names and mascots as they always have.
The Atlanta Braves remains the home of the tomahawk chop (although it began at FSU). However, the mascot Chief Noc-A-Homa has been replaced.
The Cleveland Indians have replaced Chief Wahoo with a block letter "C" or script "I" in many situations, but the logo remains on their home caps. Perhaps this is a limited response to protests by Native Americans and others, which have gone on for more than twenty years.
The appropriateness of the Washington Redskins name and logo, which is a picture of a Native American, has been debated since it was officially registered in 1967. There have been a few instances of media refusing to use the name in sports reporting. Kansas City Star policy on Washington NFL team's name as stated by the editor: "I see no compelling reason for any publisher to reprint an egregiously offensive term as a casual matter of course." The Journal Star in Lincoln, Nebraska and the Portland Press Herald in Maine took the same position. The team's unofficial mascot is Zema Williams (Chief Zee), an African-American man who began attending games in 1978 wearing an Indian costume including feathered headdress and rubber tomahawk. Other fans attend in costume, and are also celebrated by the team.
The name debate heated up in 1992, when Washington made it to the Super Bowl against the Buffalo Bills. The game was held in Minnesota, which has the nation’s largest Native American population. Prior to the game, more than 2,000 Native Americans stood outside the stadium and protested with signs that read, “we are not mascots,” and, “promote sports not racism.” The American Indian Movement along with the National Congress of American Indians sponsored the protest. Shortly afterwards, the court case to cancel the trademarks used by the team began. The team continues to receive attention as the more egregious example. A bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives on March 20, 2013 to void any use of the name as a trademark. The primary sponsor, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D., D.C.), stated she supports the local team but not the name. In April 2013 a member of the DC City Counsel, David Grosso proposed a non-binding resolution to change the name because the current name is “a derogatory, racist name.”
Further information: Washington Redskins mascot controversyRead more about this topic: Native American Mascot Controversy
Famous quotes containing the words professional and/or teams:
“So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profundity very similar to the reputation for sanctity possessed by theologians.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not “studying a profession,” for he does not postpone his life, but lives already.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)