The Washington Redskins are no more. Are the Atlanta Braves, who were shamed into getting rid of “Chief Noc-A-Homa”, next to be drawn into the controversy as to whether the use of such terms is degrading, disrespectful and must be obliterated and removed from further use?
How can the Indian race continue to be ridiculed and shamed by the continual flagrant public display of such a vile and degrading term?
Little has been said about a movement in the Ohio City on the banks of Lake Erie because the motto was chosen in recognition and to honor a native American!
Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian, was so respected as a baseball player in the 1890s that the city of Cleveland named the baseball team, the “Indians” in his honor, in 1914, one year after his death.
The term Cleveland Indians was selected to salute and commemorate Louis and to give public recognition to what he meant to the community and the Ohioans baseball team!
Will the Green Bay Packers (by vegetarians) St. Louis Cardinals (bird lovers) Detroit Lions (big game hunters), and Georgia Bulldogs (Humane Societies) and endless others be the next to go into oblivion?
(Excerpts from “The Little Book of Answers” – Author – Doug Lennox – (2003) – MJF Books – New York, NY 1001.)