This Chief Wahoo battle flag is on Progressive Field in Chicago. Chief Wahoo is looking at retirement after 70 years of being the mascot for Cleveland Indians baseball.
CLEVELAND-Major League Baseball has announced that the league's Cleveland franchise will retire the team's Chief Wahoo mascot and logo in 2019.
The mascot will remain on uniform sleeves and caps in 2018, but will be removed from these items and its field presence starting in the 2019 season.
After lengthy discussions between team owner Paul Dolan and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, the Indians are retiring the big-toothed, smiling, red-faced caricature.
"Major League Baseball is committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion throughout the game," said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. "Over the past year, we encouraged dialogue with the Indians organization about the club's use of the Chief Wahoo logo. During our constructive conversations, Paul Dolan made clear that there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the logo and its place in the history of the team.
"Nonetheless, the club ultimately agreed that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball."
The American League team will continue to wear the Wahoo logo on its uniform sleeves and caps in 2018, and the club will still sell merchandise featuring the mascot. The Indians will maintain control of the Chief Wahoo trademark. In order to do so, it will still have a limited retail presence. No retail presence would open the door for another party to seize control of the mark and profit from it.
The Wahoo logo first appeared in 1938 as a sleeve patch on the Indians' home uniforms. Wahoo first appeared on the team's caps in 1954 and was used on the front of the jersey from 1963–'69. From 1986 through 2010, Wahoo was the hat logo, but in 2011 the Indians replaced it with a block "C" on the road caps. The Indians introduced a block "C'' insignia on some of their caps and have removed signs with the Wahoo logo in and around Progressive Field, the team's downtown ballpark.
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) applauds the decision to retire Chief Wahoo. "[This] announcement marks an important turning point for Indian Country and the harmful legacy of Indian mascots," said NCAI President Jefferson Keel. "These mascots reduce all Native people into a single outdated stereotype that harms the way Native people, especially youth, view themselves. [This] news is a big step in the right direction, but much work remains, and NCAI will press on with this struggle until every single one of these harmful mascots is gone from the sports landscape."
The organization noted that nearly 1,000 Native-themed mascots remain in sports at all levels (nearly 1,000 remain today), but they applauded the
MLB for setting the example for how professional sports leagues can and should respect Native people.
The NFL's Washington Redskins have come under similar fire to change their logo and nickname but so far have resisted. Last year, a Supreme Court ruling in another case cleared the way for Washington to preserve the trademark on its logo.
