Cleveland Indians: Is It Time to Retire the Chief Wahoo Logo?

Once again, Cleveland’s Chief Wahoo logo is the subject of controversy.

The ongoing debate on whether the Cleveland Indians should continue to use the Chief Wahoo logo was once again a point of discussion recently. When Major League Baseball announced that Cleveland’s Progressive Field would host the 2019 All-Star Game, the Chief Wahoo logo was part of the conversation. The commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred, has met multiple times with Paul Dolan, owner of the Cleveland Indians, to discuss the controversial subject of the Chief Wahoo logo. Despite their repeated conversations nothing substantive has been decided regarding the logo.

After the meeting, Manfred said, “I think that Paul has been fantastic about engaging in conversations. I want those conversations to continue, and I think we’ll produce a result that will be good for the Indians and good for baseball. What exactly that is, I don’t want to speculate right now.” He did not set a timetable for a solution.

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The smiling, red-faced logo is considered by many to be racially insensitive and offensive. Protestors regularly attend the team’s home opener every year to bring negative exposure to what they consider to be an offensive logo. This is not a new development. Native Americans have been protesting the Chief Wahoo Logo and the name “Indians” since the 1970s. The team has usually defended the logo by claiming it is not intended to offend anyone, but rather to honor Native Americans. They also say Cleveland fans strongly support the continued use of the name and the logo.

In the early 1990s, the team considered replacing the logo when they moved to Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field), but ultimately did not. In 2013, they replaced the logo on the team’s primary cap with a block “C”, but the logo continued to appear on the team’s uniform and sleeves and their home baseball cap.

Last spring, the team announced that they would demote the Chief Wahoo logo to secondary status. Ownership said at the time, “(We have) no plans to get rid of Chief Wahoo. It is part of our history and legacy. We do have empathy for those who take issue with it. We have minimized the use of it and we’ll continue to do what we think is appropriate.” Despite claiming to demote Chief Wahoo to secondary status, when Cleveland made the playoffs last year Chief Wahoo was front-and-center on their baseball caps.

When Cleveland then advanced to the World Series against the Cubs, the Chief Wahoo logo was ubiquitous. Along with the logo, many Cleveland fans painted their faces and wore headdresses, or had their kids painted up. There were also plenty of fans holding signs that showed a flexing Chief Wahoo with, “Not in my tepee” and other phrases. In a time when no one would consider going to a baseball game in blackface, there were Cleveland fans who went to the game in red-face and headdresses.

Both the name “Indians” and the Chief Wahoo logo have murky origin stories. The team claims that the “Indians” name is to honor a player named Louis Sockalexis who played for the team in the late nineteenth century. Sockalexis played three years with the Cleveland Spiders team that existed in the National League at the time. He was very good his first year with the team, hitting .338/.385/.460, but then played just 28 games over the next two years. Naming a team after a guy who had one good year seems like a stretch. They might as well call the team the Cleveland Charboneaus, for the 1980 AL Rookie of the Year (Joe Charboneau) who was good for one year, then awful for two more.

The Cleveland Spiders are most famous for going 20-134 in 1999. They played 42 games at home and 112 on the road. They were outscored by 724 runs that season and had a 24-game losing streak at one point. Then they were gone. The team was mercifully contracted.

Two years later, Cleveland got a new franchise in the American League. In their first year they were called the Blues. The next year they were the Bronchos. The great Napoleon Lajoie joined the team in 1902 and the team was called the Cleveland Naps for the next 12 years.

Lajoie left the team after the 1914 season, which just so happened to be the year the “Miracle” Boston Braves went from worst-to-first in the National League and surprisingly won the World Series. In January of 1915, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published an article announcing the team would be known as the “Indians” to honor Sockalexis. This myth endured for more than 80 years until a 1998 article by Ellen J. Staurowsky suggested the “Indians” name was actually just the team taking advantage of the popularity of the Boston Braves and naming their team something Indian-related.

The Chief Wahoo logo also has a mythical origin story (baseball seems to like their mythical origin stories, such as Abner Doubleday supposedly inventing the game). The accepted story is that owner Bill Veeck hired a 17-year-old kid named Walter Goldbach to design a character of an Indian in 1947. Veeck said that “it was the last thing on my mind [to] offend someone.”

The truth is that a similar caricature had been used frequently for at least 15 years before Veeck asked Goldbach to design the image. The Cleveland Plain Dealer had images of a stereotypical Indian complete with a knife and hatchet on its sports pages in the early 1930s. It became known as “The Little Indian” and was used in conjunction with the recaps of the previous day’s game. “The Little Indian” was drawn by Fred George Reinert and there’s no doubting the resemblance to Chief Wahoo, although Reinert himself said it was misnamed. “He’s a brave. He only has one feather. Chiefs have full headdresses.”

The first appearance of the name “Chief Wahoo” happened in 1950. It was used as a nickname for pitcher Allie Reynolds, who was pitching for the Yankees at the time, but who had begun his career with Cleveland and spent five years with the club. He had been a fan favorite before being traded to the Yankees and was still well-liked when he returned as a visiting player.

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The name “Indians” and the Chief Wahoo logo do not have a pleasant history, despite what the team might say currently. These origin stories help justify their continued existence. The logo is also popular with many fans, as can be seen by the numerous items of apparel around Cleveland that feature it. In a world that seems to be increasingly divided, both sides of this issue have strong feelings. It’s not likely that the name “Indians” will go away anytime soon, but the Chief Wahoo logo may have a tougher time sticking around.