On Tuesday and Wednesday nights in Ohio, the Cleveland Indians — with their blatantly racist mascot, Chief Wahoo, emblazoned on hats, shirts, signs, and even the faces of some fans —played against the Chicago Cubs in the first two games of the 2016 World Series.
On Thursday, heavily-armed law enforcement officers began to forcefully remove Dakota Access pipeline protesters from their camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. The predominately Native American group has been protesting the construction of the 1,172-mile, $3.75 billion oil pipeline that they say will run through sacred Native American sites and threaten its water supply.
“We need our state and federal governments to bring justice and peace to our lands, not the force of armored vehicles,” Dave Archambault, the tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said in a statement.
The scene about an hour ago on Hwy 1806 as policr attempt to force Oceti Sakowin Sioux tribes to allow DAPL on their treaty land. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/wG4SXXrKAE
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) October 27, 2016
These events may sound unrelated, but, unfortunately, they’re not. The cycle of Native American belittlement, bigotry, and oppression has been in motion since Christopher Columbus arrived.
Not only are Native Americans today suffering from poverty levels nearly twice as high as the rest of the nation and desperately clinging to the land and clean water that they do have, but they also lag significantly behind the rest of the country when it comes to education, employment opportunities, health care, and access to food.
And yet, in 2016, we somehow still live in a society that allows dehumanizing, discriminatory caricatures of Native Americans (not to mention racist slurs) to be worn with pride by our most celebrated athletes and sports teams, while actual Native Americans are suffering.
As a 2014 study from the Center for American Progress shows, the prevalence of these mascots and nicknames directly impacts the way everyone perceives Native Americans — even Native Americans themselves.
It also reveals that the presence of [American Indian/American Native] mascots directly results in lower self-esteem and mental health for AI/AN adolescents and young adults. And just as importantly, studies show that these mascots undermine the educational experience of all students, particularly those with little or no contact with indigenous and AI/AN people. In other words, these stereotypical representations are too often understood as factual representations and thus “contribute to the development of cultural biases and prejudices.
In other words, seeing Native Americans constantly represented as less-than-human in our culture causes us to treat them as less-than-human with our policies.
And, one thing is for sure this October: The Cleveland Indians and their fans are making sure we see Chief Wahoo everywhere during this World Series.
Chief Wahoo was born from an Indians logo redesign back in 1947, and has been the subject of protests and legal challenges from Native American groups since the 1970s.
But in recent years, particularly with the headlines generated by the ongoing legal battle over the Washington NFL team’s racist name, the criticisms have intensified.
At the start of their season, team owner Paul Dolan said that it would no longer use Chief Wahoo as the team’s primary logo, instead using the Block C. While Dolan said he would not be getting rid of the mascot because “it is a part of our history and legacy,” he said the club was minimizing the use of it because they “do have empathy for those who take issue with it.”
However, Wahoo has been omnipresent in the playoffs — the team has worn caps with that logo during games, and fans have come to the field dressed in full redface, waving enormous signs featuring Wahoo front and center. Most Cleveland fans still adore their mascot: Last year, the cap with Chief Wahoo was the top selling Indians cap.
As Lindsey Adler wrote for Deadspin, Dolan’s claim that the team would use Wahoo sparingly out of empathy makes its prevalence this postseason even more jarring:
The Indians can’t deny that the depiction of Chief Wahoo fosters disrespect of Native Americans — in fact, their claim that they would deemphasize the logo tacitly acknowledged as much. This isn’t an abstract thing; you can see it at their park, where Indians fans show up to games in redface and headdresses. Would any MLB team let in a large group of fans who showed up in blackface, thrusting their Stubhub QRC codes at the ticket-takers? Probably not; the Indians, though, hardly have the moral high ground when they’re selling redface imagery at shops and kiosks all over the park.
Cleveland and its fans cling emphatically to the notion that Chief Wahoo is not only harmless, but a beacon of joy, a symbol of their nostalgia, even a tribute to Native Americans. They look on the red-faced caricature with pride as their team battles for its first World Series victory in 68 years.
But sports are just a game, and Chief Wahoo is merely (destructive and disparaging) fiction. One person’s nostalgia shouldn’t take precedent over another person’s humanity.
This elder in ceremonial garb held a prayer for everyone gathered on Highway 1806 and was arrested shortly after. #NoDAPL pic.twitter.com/XrL6jqSRFS
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) October 27, 2016
There are signs that change is happening — culturally and legally. The movement to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day is gaining steam, and there is currently a case in the Supreme Court that might force teams with derogatory names or mascots to make a change for trademark reasons. And MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says he will meet with Cleveland about the Chief Wahoo logo after the World Series —which would be more promising if it wasn’t for the fact that earlier this month MLB released a statement saying it “will defend Cleveland’s right to use their [sic] name that has been in existence for more than 100 years.”
But, for the sake of Native Americans, changes must come sooner rather than later.
Just this Thursday, an elections chief in Nevada denied accommodations to the nine Native American tribes that have to make a 200 mile round-trip drive just to vote, effectively disenfranchising them.
And about 1,500 miles away in North Dakota, Native American protesters were faced with more than 200 police in riot gear with armed vehicles who allegedly used pepper spray, rubber bullets, bean bags, and stun guns to push the primarily peaceful protesters off the land — land that is owned by the pipeline company, but which the Standing Rock tribe says belongs to them. Over 117 protesters have been arrested just this week, and there is no sign the conflict is going to end soon.
“We won’t step down from this fight,” Archambault said. “As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings.”