The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since 1994, they have played at Progressive Field. Since their establishment as a Major League franchise in 1901, the team has won 10 Central division titles, six American League pennants, and two World Series championships,. The team's World Series championship drought since 1948 is the longest active among all 30 current Major League teams. The team's name references the Guardians of Traffic, eight monolithic 1932 Art Deco sculptures by Henry Hering on the city's Hope Memorial Bridge, which is adjacent to Progressive Field. The team's mascot is named "Slider." The team's spring training facility is at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona.
Redskin is a slang term for Native Americans in the United States and First Nations in Canada. The term redskin underwent pejoration through the 19th to early 20th centuries and in contemporary dictionaries of American English it is labeled as offensive, disparaging, or insulting.
Charlene Teters is a Native American artist, educator, and lecturer. Her paintings and art installations have been featured in over 21 major exhibitions, commissions, and collections. She is a member of the Spokane Tribe, and her Spokane name is Slum Tah. She was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, near the Spokane Indian Reservation.
Oberlin High School is a public high school in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the only high school in the Oberlin City Schools district.
Chief Wahoo was a logo used by the Cleveland Indians, a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1951 to 2018.
Since the 1960s, the issue of Native American and First Nations names and images being used by sports teams as mascots has been the subject of increasing public controversy in the United States and Canada. This has been a period of rising Indigenous civil rights movements, and Native Americans and their supporters object to the use of images and names in a manner and context they consider derogatory. They have conducted numerous protests and tried to educate the public on this issue.
The Washington Redskins name controversy involved the name and logo previously used by the Washington Commanders, a National Football League (NFL) franchise located in the Washington metropolitan area. In the 1960s, the team's longtime name—the Redskins—and the associated logo began to draw criticism from Native American groups and individuals. The topic, part of the larger Native American mascot controversy, began receiving widespread public attention in the 1990s. In 2020, the team responded to economic pressure in the wake of widespread recognition of systemic racism by retiring the name and logo. For 18 months, the team called itself the "Washington Football Team" as it sought a new name that would leave behind references to Native Americans. The new name, Commanders, was announced on February 2, 2022.
Robert Roche, also known as Bob Roche and Rob Roche, is an activist for Native American civil rights. He is perhaps best known for being one of several prominent American Indians to spearhead the movement against the use of Native American imagery as sports mascots.
Philip Yenyo is a Native American civil rights activist. He is one of several prominent activists to spearhead the movement against the use of Native American imagery as sports mascots.
Sports teams named Redskins are part of the larger controversy regarding the use of Native American names, images and symbols by non-native sports teams. Teams of this name have received particular public attention because the term redskin is now generally regarded as disparaging and offensive.
The Cleveland Indians name and logo controversy referred to the controversy surrounding the club name and logo previously used by Major League Baseball's Cleveland Guardians, an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio.
The use of terms and images referring to Native Americans/First Nations as the name or mascot for a sports team is a topic of public controversy in the United States and in Canada, arising as part of the Native American/First Nations civil rights movements. Since the 1960s, there have been a number of protests and other actions by Native Americans and others targeting the more prominent use of such names and images by professional franchises such as the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins. However, discourse surrounding mascot usage by elementary, middle, and high schools has been prominent, as these entities are subject to public legislation and community input.
The Chicago Blackhawks name and logo controversy refers to the controversy surrounding the name and logo of the Chicago Blackhawks, a National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. The use of terms and images referring to Native Americans/First Nations as the name or mascot for a sports team without permissions from or consultations with local Indigenous communities, is a topic of public controversy in the United States and Canada. Since the 1960s, as part of the indigenous civil rights movements, there have been a number of protests and other actions by Native Americans and their supporters targeting the more prominent use of such names and images by professional franchises such as the Cleveland Guardians formerly known as the "Indians" of Major League Baseball (MLB) ; the Washington Commanders formerly known as the "Redskins" of the National Football League (NFL), the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and MLB's Atlanta Braves, the latter two attracting criticism of "the tomahawk chop" often performed by their fans. Like other teams with tribal mascots, there are calls from Indigenous activists and organizations to change the Blackhawks' name and logo and eliminate tribal mascots and imagery throughout sports.
The Kansas City Chiefs were the last professional team in the United States to adopt a name or logo referencing Native Americans, although indirectly. When the Dallas Texans (AFL) relocated in 1963 they became the Chiefs in honor of Kansas City mayor Harold Roe Bartle who was instrumental in bringing the Texans to Kansas City, Missouri. Bartle earned his nickname as founder of a Boy Scouts honor camping society, Tribe of Mic-O-Say, in which he was "Chief" Lone Bear.
The Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop and name controversy involves the name and tomahawk chop tradition by the Atlanta Braves, an American Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. Native Americans have been questioning the Braves' mascot choices since the 1970s. Native American objections to the tomahawk chop received much attention during the 1990s and have continued through 2020. The Atlanta Braves and their fans continue their overwhelming support of the team name and chop tradition.
Indigenous activists in Cleveland, Ohio, have advocated Indigenous issues and rights since the early 1900s. After the removal of the last American Indians from their traditional territory in Ohio in 1842, Cleveland, and the greater Cuyahoga County, had an almost nonexistent Indigenous population. However, in the early 1900s, an Osaukee man named Chief Thunderwater engaged in activism, protesting the displacement of the Erie Street Cemetery and creating the Supreme Council of Indian Nations, which advocated for Indigenous peoples' right to cross the United States–Canada border in the Supreme Court Case, McCandless v. United States. Later in the century, the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 moved a variety of Native Americans from their different reservations in the West into Ohio, specifically metropolitan areas like Cleveland. With the resurgent population came a wave of activism, as the Cleveland American Indian center was created and the national American Indian Movement established a chapter in the city in 1970. Annual mascot protests in Cleveland began in 1972, with local groups AIM and the Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance participating. An important Ohio Supreme Court case, Bellecourt v. City of Cleveland, protected protestors first amendment rights in court. The Cleveland Indians ended the use of their old mascot, Chief Wahoo, in 2019 and in 2020 announced that they would consider changing their team name, in response to ongoing protests. In July 2021, the Cleveland baseball team announced their new name: The Cleveland Guardians. Mascot protests also extend to local schools in the Cleveland area, where the Oberlin School District ended their use of Indians as their mascot.
