Did you know that there are over 500 Native American tribes in the United States of America. About 2,100 sports teams contain Native American names and logos. Since 2005 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) told 18 teams to change their names or logo because it is offensive to native americans and they don’t like being called indians or redskins. From my point of view, sports teams should change their names because they can be offensive to Native Americans because it makes look like savages. Many Native Americans don’t like the team names because it makes it look like they all have the same culture even though there is many different cultures of Native Americans.

Many of the team logos make the Indians look like savages. In fact many Indians were rarely at war or violent. People don’t want to accept the fact that the Redskins name is racist and offends many Native Americans. Nine out of 10 Native Americans think the Redskins name is racist because it makes them look like savages and violent people.  In 2017 California governor Jerry Brown banned any school to have the name or logo of the Redskins.

The team names make Indians look like one culture of people. The cartoon like logos make them all look the same. For example, the Chief’s logo of Chief Wahoo has a painted face and feathers. Not all Indian tribes painted their faces or wore feathers. One thing fans do is that they go to baseball games and they go to the game with feathers even though not a lot of tribes do that. There are 500 plus different Indian tribes in the United States and they are all very different.

The Seminoles are at FSU (Florida State University) because the Native American tribe the seminoles said they can use their name as the school name and logo. The Seminoles the tribe says represents bravery and courage. Also, San Diego State University there has been multiple petitions to get rid of their name and logo and mascot of the Aztecs. Surprisingly in the year 2000 about 95% of people voted to keep the name and mascot of the Aztecs. I think the mascot is fine. It shows the culture of the Aztecs and doesn’t make them look like a cartoon or savage.

Did you know that most protests for the Cleveland Indians happen on opening day?  In 2019, the Cleveland Indians are changing their logo, Chief Wahoo. They’ve had this logo since 1947.  I think it is good that they are changing their logo because they are hosting the All Star Game the year they are getting rid of their logo. That makes me think they are honoring tribes. So, in conclusion those are my reasons I think that they should change the names and logos. But then again, some teams say that they will never ever change their team names because it is an important part of team history. It seems to me that all teams should change their names if it’s offensive.

Photo credit: https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/no-more-wahoo-cleveland-indians-to-discontinue-chief-wahoo-logo-in-2019-L7uHOdUyT0CFjXVK4hnHKw/