The Cleveland Indians will have a new team name in the near future. According to ESPN, the organization is planning to drop the nickname “Indians” after using it for 105 years. The move is being made to shed its Native American imagery as it’s considered to be racist.
Cleveland is expected to announce a change this week. The franchise has not settled on a new nickname, and it’s unclear if they will drop the name immediately or will transition into a new name following the 2021 Major League Baseball season, which begins in March. This has been a years-long process, as Cleveland abandoned its Chief Wahoo logo in 2018.
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“This is the culmination of decades of work,” the Oneida Nation of New York, which led the Change the Mascot Movement, told ESPN in a statement. “Groups like the National Congress of American Indians passed resolutions for decades on this, social science has made clear these names are harmful and Cleveland got out in front of it and they’re leading, and rather than having this hanging over their heads, they’re charting a new path.”
Back in July, Cleveland released a statement about the nickname amid the racial injustice protests going on around the country. “We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality,” the team stated. “Our organization fully recognizes our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community. We have had ongoing discussions organizationally on these issues. The recent social unrest in our community and our country has only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice.”
Cleveland announced it planned to look at the Indians’ nickname after NFL’s Washington franchise dropped its nickname and changed it to Washington Football Team. Cleveland adopted the Indians nickname in 1915 after being called the Naps. The team was also called the Bluebirds, Lake Shores Broncos, and Rustlers in its history.
With the nickname Indians, Cleveland has played upward of 17,000 games and has won two World Series, with the last being in 1948. When it comes to a new team name, Dayn Perry of CBS Sports suggested a few names including Spiders, Naps, Fells, Rockers, Crows, Blue Sox, Cuyahogas, Great Lakes, Unions and Castles.
