Jerry Summers
The recent surprise announcement that the only opposition to the current “Chief Conductor” on the proposed “Choo Choo Express” in the next mayoral race and future in our booming municipality has on April 15, 2024 decided to forego politics to pledge her influence to her “tribe” raises the question of what is a tribe in past and current societies?
A tribe is defined in various ways and with different positive/negative meanings and connotations. One definition is “a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious or blood ties with a common culture and dialect with typically having a recognized leader.” Through December 20 2019, a total of 574 tribes had been recognized in the Federal Registry, with the last one being the small tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana.
The prior 573 tribes were named by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as “the Indian entities recognized and eligible to receive services from the United States” (2018).
In the sports fields, the Cleveland Guardians (Indians), Washington Commanders (Redskins), and Atlanta Braves (still Braves) also presents examples of conflicting situations. As previously stated in chattanoogan.com (July 10, 2023) the last name of the Cleveland baseball team prior to 2014 was given as an honor, allegedly out of respect for a Native American who was widely respected in the Ohio city.
The 1954 American League championship “Indians” team included a starting pitching staff of Mike Garcia (Hispanic), Bob Lemon (White), Bob Feller (White farm boy), and Early Wynn (Scot-Irish and Native American). On the squad also was Larry Doby the first African American player in the American League who ironically integrated that division on July 5, 1947, 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson broke the color line for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Washington football team name may have been changed because of some alleged charges of racism placed against prior ownership and for other reasons. The reluctance of the Atlanta baseball team to change its name is a different topic in itself and will continue to receive criticism but probably not as much from Cherokee and Murphy, North Carolina, and Atlanta citizens (fans). Chief Noka Homa, his teepee, Indian Princess companion, and the tomahawk chop are now gone. (Should the name of the first mentioned town in the Great Smokies also be changed?)
The name controversy has even entered high school athletics. It was announced on income tax deadline day of April 15, 2024, the nickname that the Nokomis High School team (Redskins) has used since around 1920 is now facing a vote in the state legislature in Springfield, Illinois to eliminate the squads use of the name in not only the giant metropolitan venue of 2100 citizens but would also do away with the school's mascot moniker in every public K through 12 public school in the state using a Native American logo as mascot.
The bigger problem is that the name of the “Land of Lincoln” is derived from the Native American tribe, the “Illiniwek” which was comprised of twelve smaller tribes including Cahokia, Peoria, and Kaskaskia.
To add more intrigue to the issue the meaning of the Indian work is “men” or “warriors”.
The projected love fest of the national party having its convention in the “Windy City” in the summer of 2024 may exceed the grandeur of 1968 if the issue of changing the name of the “fighting Illini” state should arise.
(Chicago’s original pseudonym that came from the Algonquian tribe is another issue.)
The selection of the name did not arise out of the alleged mistreatment of members of a native tribe, but was allegedly based on a mythological figure featured in a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem. Ironically, Longfellow was an abolitionist and wrote poems on slavery (1842) where he allegedly portrayed Native Americans as “noble savages”, which in 2024 qualifies the creator of “Song of Hiawatha” as a racist.
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You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com