Chief Wahoo Next To Get Tomahawked? Washington Redskins Continue To Fight

Chief Wahoo has been the Cleveland Indians’ mascot since 1947 – not quite as long as the Washington Redskins embattled mascot, but still a long time.. The current version that graces the Indians’ baseball caps is a slightly modified version that has been in use since 1951. Now, it looks like activists excited over recent victories in the American bureaucracy against the Washington Redskins have taken the tomahawk to Chief Wahoo and intend to scalp him in the court system, too.

As if it isn’t bad enough that the Cleveland Indians are six games back in the weak American League Central, led by the Detroit Tigers – who have no chance of winning the World Series, either.

In case you missed it – or just want to refresh yourself on the details – there is an Inquisitr article on the attacks by U.S. Senators and the U.S. Patent Office on the Washington Redskins, whom even the extremely liberal ACLU says have a right to their mascot and trademarks.

According to an NBC report, Chiricahua Apache Robert Roche, had this to say about Chief Wahoo:

“It’s been offensive since day one. We are not mascots. My children are not mascots. We are people.”

Of course, Chief Wahoo is clearly not a representation of an Apache, nor was it ever intended to be, as Apache did not historically wear feathered headbands – and there’s the little fact that many mascots are designed after people. This isn’t unique to Native Americans (though the related attention seeking lawsuits seem to be mostly limited to them and – even more-so – liberal whites who claim to represent their interests).

The report also says that Roche and the group he represents – People Not Mascots – intends to challenge the Cleveland Indians’ rights to continue to use the Chief Wahoo mascot in federal court next month. The lawsuit is expected to be filed by the end of July.

Here’s the thing: Teams don’t choose mascots (generally speaking) in an attempt to be offensive or disparaging. In most cases – and it would certainly appear to be true in the cases of the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo and the Washington Redskins – mascots are chosen out of respect for whatever is behind the image that is going to represent the team. That’s why nobody in the history of sports has ever named a team “The Politicians,” “The Activists,” or “The Lawyers.”

This is beyond silly, and the Chief Wahoo debate only takes it to new levels of silliness. Yes, Chief Wahoo is admittedly a caricature. So are most mascots. The Minnesota Vikings mascot has a horned helm – something historical Vikings would never have worn. It doesn’t matter. It’s a caricature. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish mascot is wearing a green suit and look like a leprechaun – something no Irishman would do (except maybe on St. Patty’s Day). It doesn’t matter. It’s a caricature. The same can be said for more mascots than we would ever be able to list.

The term “Indians,” is not really a correct term to refer to Native Americans, since it was misapplied by Christopher Columbus, who thought he had reached India (in a related report, researchers recently found the wreckage of Columbus’ flagship). Even still, the term stuck and the vast majority of people who use it are not being disrespectful to Native Americans by calling them “Indians.”

While we’re on the subject, the term “redskins” wasn’t designed to be offensive, either. Despite the widespread myth that the term “redskin” originated as a racial slur, scholarly historical work like this paper from the University of Pennsylvania on the etymology of the term suggests that the name originated with Native Americans and was used for a long time by white, red and other-skinned people before anyone decided it was a slur.

The Cleveland Indians didn’t design Chief Wahoo to offend Native Americans and their purpose in continuing to use the mascot isn’t for that purpose, either. They wouldn’t have named their team “Indians” if they didn’t have some measure of respect for them. Yes, the United States fought against Indians. We also fought the Germans, and we don’t see any teams being named “The Nazis” or “The Kaisers.”

Bottom line: Let’s leave the Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians and Chief Wahoo alone and let the U.S. government get back to doing something that actually matters. If the mascot offends you, don’t buy the tickets or the merchandise, but c’mon. Do you really think we ought to be wasting millions of taxpayer dollars and government time fighting against Chief Wahoo?

[Image via Bing]