Photos: Professional sports teams that use Native American imagery or nicknames
With the building pressure on the NFL's Washington Redskins to change the nickname that many believe is inappropriate, we take a look at the history of that situation, the logos involved and other pro sports teams that have Native American imagery or nicknames.
NFL - Washington Redskins
This hot-button topic has transcended the sports world and spilled into the mainstream. Unlike other teams, the term "redskin" is considered by many to be a racial slur against Native Americans. This isn't the first time pressure has been levied against owner Dan Snyder and the team. More than 2,000 Native Americans protested outside the Metrodome in Minneapolis in January 1992, when Washington faced the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl. The name wasn't changed then. More recently, though, high-profile NFL reporters such as Sports Illustrated's Peter King and USA Today's Christine Brennan have decided not to use the nickname when covering the team. Entire publications, such as the Kansas City Star, the Journal Star (Lincoln, Neb.) and the Portland (Maine) Press Herald have chosen to not use the nickname. President Barack Obama stated he would consider changing the name if he was owner. Snyder argues that the presence of Native Americans in the team's history and a study done by the Annenberg Public Policy Center that polled nearly 1,000 self-identified Native Americans across the lower 48 states that found 90 percent of Native Americans do not find the team offensive is proof enough that he is justified in continuing to use "Redskins".
NFL - Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs first switched their logo from the above-shown man in a feathered headdress running with a football superimposed over a drawing of the state of Missouri to the current arrowhead logo in 1971. Then, in 1989, the team switched its mascot, a Pinto horse ridden by a man in a feathered headdress, to the current mascot, K.C. Wolf. The organization has kept the name "Chiefs" through it all.
NHL - Chicago Blackhawks
The NHL team's logo is the above-shown Native American face in profile. The team name came from the team's founder's military unit, which was named Blackhawk Division after Black Hawk, a Native American chief of the Sauk American Indian Tribe. Despite the logo and name, the Blackhawks do not see nearly the same level of protest that the Redskins do.
MLB - Atlanta Braves
For most of its existence up to 1990 (except from 1921-28 and 1941-44 as the Boston Braves), the organization featured a Native American face as part of the logo. Since 1990, the team has exclusively used the logo featuring the team nickname and a tomahawk (that actually was used first as a secondary logo in the late 1940s during the Boston Braves era). The team also had a Native American-themed mascot named Chief Noc-a-Homa. It was intended to be a play-on-words of the phrase "knock a homer". That mascot was retired in 1986 because of disagreements about pay and missed employment dates.
MLB - Cleveland Indians
The team started out with a large capital "C" as it's logo in 1915 but switched to a Native American face in 1928. That primary logo changed in style through the years but has been the one pictured above, nicknamed "Chief Wahoo", since 1980. In the last couple of years, though, the Indians have moved away from the face in favor of the word "Indians", a capital "I" and most recently, another capital "C" that is used on team hats. There has been no official reason given despite that, aside from the Redskins, the Indians have taken the most heat for the caricature of the Chief Wahoo face. Chief Wahoo still appears on the sleeve of the Indians jersey and on the team's web site.
NBA - Golden State Warriors
The team started as Philadelphia Warriors in 1946 and moved to San Francisco area in 1962. From then until 1971, the team was called the San Francisco Warriors. The team moved fully away from Native American imagery in 1969.
Canadian Football League - Edmonton Eskimos
The team's nickname is Native American in nature, but it has never used any imagery of such. The mascot is a polar bear named Nanook, as seen in the above logo that was used for one season (1996-97).
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