Time to Put Chief Wahoo Out to Pasture?

Pretty much everyone in America besides Redskins owner Daniel Snyder agrees the team's nickname is terrible. Washington City Paper's been calling the team the Pigskins since 2012, and scores of journalists and news outlets won't print the team's name. Fifty senators signed a letter urging a name change. Conservatives have turned a Twitter joke into reality, calling for the team to be called the Washington Reagans. Even kids get it: The editors of the newspaper of Neshaminy High School in suburban Philadelphia are in a fight with the administration over the paper's refusal to print the nickname, which the school also uses. A 1991 Chris Rock bit summed it up: "Redskins! That's not nice."

And earlier this month the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office canceled the team's federal trademark after a lawsuit, citing the term as "disparaging to Native Americans." The discussion over the offensiveness of the team name, and the lawsuit's success, has led to another court challenge to an offensive part of the American sports universe: Chief Wahoo.

A group called People Not Mascots is planning to file a federal lawsuit against the Cleveland Indians for its team name and logo. "It's been offensive since day one," the group's Robert Roche, a Chiricahua Apache and longtime opponent of the Indians' team name and logo, told NBC. "We are not mascots. My children are not mascots. We are people."

This isn't the first lawsuit against Chief Wahoo. Oglala Lakota activist Russell Means and the Cleveland Indian Center sued the team in 1972. "That Indian looks like a damn fool, like a clown," Means said. "And we resent being portrayed as either savages or clowns." The case, based on group libel, was settled privately in 1983. The team actually increased the usage of the logo a few years later, putting Chief Wahoo on the team's hats. They've remained since, though the team has taken to wearing the alternate 'C' cap on occasion recently.

The Indians nickname has been around since 1915—the team played as the Naps the decade prior—but Chief Wahoo was designed at the behest of a design firm hired by then-owner Bill Veeck in 1947, the year after he purchased the team. The mascot was originally unnamed; sportswriters gave it the Chief Wahoo moniker. (Gee, thanks.) Chief Wahoo isn't even a chief, apparently: Its designer, Wally Goldbach, explained to Cleveland Magazine that "Chiefs have full headdresses," while Wahoo just has one feather. The mascot's skin was originally white—it was tweaked to red in 1951.

Protests against the Chief Wahoo date to at least 1971. Means and the American Indian Movement protested against the logo (and other, far worse, atrocities committed by those with European ancestry) in Cleveland that year. "We might be 175 years too late," he said. "But we're imposing an immigration law. Go back." (He was more than 175 years too late.) More organized protests began soon after; there has been a protest at every Indians home opener since 1973.

In a protest that went viral at this year's Cleveland home opener, an actual member of the Chiricahua Apache tribe argued with an Indians fan in redface. (This was predicted in a 2002 editorial cartoon.)

Peter Pattakos, who is working on a documentary about the team's name and logo, introduced the redfaced fan to members of AIM protesting that day. The two had a heated discussion, with the fan echoing the sentiment of Indians senior vice president of public affairs, Bob DiBiasio.

"We believe this is an issue of perception," DiBiasio said in 2007. "We think people look at the logo and they think about baseball—they think about C.C. Sabathia, Bob Feller, Larry Doby, and Omar Vizquel. The Wall Street Journal did an editorial about the Jeep Cherokee and concluded that something cannot be demeaned if there is no intent to demean. We still believe the vast majority of our fans like Chief Wahoo."

In some ways, Chief Wahoo—the logo—is worse than the Redskins nickname. Changing the D.C. football team's name would take some effort. It would take infinitesimally little for the Indians to drop the logo and change their caps to the old-style 'C.' It might even have an upside: In 2012, Cleveland Scene wondered if there were a "curse of Chief Wahoo" responsible for Cleveland team's futility. Who knows? The year the Tampa Bay Rays dropped 'Devil' from their nickname, they went to the World Series.

It's not even a good mascot! "That mindless smile is reason enough to change the Indians logo," Cleveland's Terry Pluto wrote in Curse of Rocky Colavito: A Loving Look at a Thirty-Year Slump. "Why can't the franchise have an Indian symbol that looks like a warrior, a man with dignity?" Other pro teams have changed their logos. The Philadelphia Warriors, now in San Francisco, once had a similar offensive Indian caricature. The Blackhawks have a good relationship with the American Indian Center in Chicago. "If you went to a Hawks game 20 years ago, you would see all the costumes and comical stuff," executive director Andrew Johnson said. "You really don't see too much of that today."

The Indians have toned down usage of the logo in recent years—the official team logo is just a 'C', though Chief Wahoo is still on the hats—but won't change it. It sells a lot of Chief Wahoo merchandise. The team's official fan club is even called the Wahoo Club.

"I'm not insensitive to the issue," Wahoo Club president Bob Rosen said. "But our 1,650 members of the Wahoo Club, anytime we have a Wahoo Club item—they buy it up, they love it."

Or: "I'm not insensitive to the issue … but money."

As long as Indians fans keep buying Chief Wahoo merchandise, the logo will probably be sticking around.