Indians to get rid of "Chief Wahoo" logo
In a press release last week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that the MLB has reached an agreement with the Cleveland Indians to remove the controversial “Chief Wahoo” logo from their uniforms by the start of the 2019 season. Chief Wahoo, which is been a staple on the Cleveland Indians uniform since 1932, has long been under fire for being deemed by some as offensive to Native American culture. According to CBS Sports, Chief Wahoo has made an appearance on the Cleveland Indians uniforms every year since 1986, with intermittent periods of usage dating back to its inception. While Cleveland has replaced Chief Wahoo on some of its uniforms with the block letter ‘C’, the organization has never shifted completely away from utilizing their icon.
The debate over the logo has been ongoing for decades, but what brought the debate back to the foreground was commissioner Manfred's comments in 2016. The Cleveland Indians had just made the World Series for the first time since 1997, and before Game 2 of the World Series, Manfred went on the ESPN radio show Mike & Mike in the Morning. He stated in a live interview that he felt the logo was inappropriate and intended to discuss the future of the logo with the Cleveland Indians. Also, during the Cleveland Indians postseason run, they played the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS. During this time, there was a lawsuit, which was later thrown out, filed by an activist seeking to have the games not shown in Canada, as they deemed the logo unfit for TV. More pressure was put on the organization when Cleveland won the bid to host the All Star Game at Progressive Field in 2019.
Fans of the Indians organization have been very split on this decision. Some have gone as far as to create petitions to keep Chief Wahoo as the team's primary logo, while others, including many Native American organizations, have said that the ban is not enough. The Cleveland Indians will still be allowed to use the current logo for all 162 games of the 2018 MLB season, in addition to spring training and any postseason run that the Indians may make. The Indians will also have to continue to use the logo in some sense, as per U.S. Trademark Law. The Indians will have to both renew the trademark on Chief Wahoo every 10 years and within three years, utilize the logo in a “...bona fide use of such mark made in the ordinary course of trade, and not made merely to reserve a right in a mark,” as stated in the Lanham Trademark Act. If they fail to meet either of these two requirements, the logo will fall into public domain again and will be free for anyone to trademark and profit off of. How the Indians will fulfill the second of these requirements remains to be unseen, in addition to what the new logo will be in 2019.
The lasting effects of this logo change are yet to be seen. Many professional sports organizations still utilize logos that feature Native Americans very prominently. In the MLB, the Atlanta Braves still use the name “Braves” and a stone hammer as their main logo. In the NHL, the Chicago Blackhawks still use a portrait of a Native American as their primary logo. In the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs still use an arrowhead as both their logo and the name for their stadium, but the largest source of contention has been the Washington Redskins. The Redskins use a portrait of a Native American, much like the Blackhawks, but the combination of the logo with the name, which is considered to be demeaning to Native Americans, has put the organization in hot water. Many have called on the NFL to force the Redskins to change their name, but that was an unprecedented measure, until now. Commissioner Roger Goodell has stated that the NFL will not force the Redskins to change their name, citing a Washington Post poll conducted in 2016 that showed nine of 10 Native Americans do not believe the Redskins’ name or logo is offensive. Goodell has vocally stood by the owner of the Redskins in the decision to not change the name, and now the law also is on the side of the Redskins. A law that allowed copyrights and trademarks to be revoked if they were deemed offensive was struck down by the US Supreme Court in June 2017. No other professional sports organizations have expressed intentions of modifying their current names or logos, and despite the adamant stand of the NFL to not change the Redskins logo, the Indians’ decision may motivate other organizations to consider doing so.
