It's about the misconception of us, the Native Americans, and it devalues us and how we're perceived in that way, or used as mascots. The Redskins and stuff like that. The Braves issued a statement in response to Helsley's comments, according to the Post-Dispatch:. Helsley and have worked to honor and respect the Native American community through the years.
Our organization has sought to embrace all people and highlight the many cultures in Braves Country. We will continue to evaluate how we activate elements of our brand, as well as the in-game experience, and look forward to a continued dialogue with those in the Native American community once the season comes to an end. The Post-Dispatch reported that fans were encouraged to do the chant ahead of Game 2 and that the foam tomahawks were still out in force.
When the series returned to Atlanta for Game 5, however, the tomahawks were removed from the seats, according to a later report from the Post-Dispatch. The Braves did not have to worry as much about the tomahawk chop returning to Truist Field in as fans were not allowed in the ballpark during the regular season during the COVID pandemic.
It did return at the start of the season, however. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , the Braves encouraged the chop to return during the season opener. The report stated that the team displayed digital images of the chop and prompted the fans to make the chant during pivotal moments of the game.
The display has continued throughout the postseason, with the gesture drawing attention particularly during Braves games when broadcast cameras have turned to show fans.
Before the start of the World Series, IllumiNative, a Native American-led nonprofit that seeks to provide visibility to native people and challenge narratives around them, said in a statement that the Braves and their fans "continue to use racist imagery, chants and logos that depict Native Americans in a dehumanizing and objectifying manner," according to Native News Online.
This is unacceptable; these actions by the fans, encouraged by the team and its leadership, perpetuate the dehumanization of Native Americans and reinforce stereotyping and prejudice among non-Native people. The Braves organization has caused harm and created an unwelcoming environment for Native peoples. The Braves have done a phenomenal job with the Native American community.
On Wednesday, Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians, issued a statement in response to Manfred's comments, saying the NCAI has made clear with the Braves that "Native people are not mascots and degrading rituals like the 'tomahawk chop' that dehumanize and harm us have no place in American society.
Although the Braves dropped Chief Noc-A-Homa as its mascot in , the team's name originates from a term that is used to describe a Native American warrior. Sundance, a member of the Muskogee tribe, is the director of the Cleveland branch of the American Indian Movement -- one of the organizations that has been urging national and local teams with indigenous names and mascots to change their names for more than 50 years. He told "Good Morning America" that appropriating Native American imagery in sports is "a way for the dominant culture to pretend that atrocities against native peoples did not happen.
And that appropriation is being done by the same culture that marginalized and victimized [us]," he added. The Cleveland branch of the American Indian Movement was one of the groups that was instrumental in advocating for the name change of the Cleveland Indians -- now known as the Cleveland Guardians. This came after Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, said in July that the team would change its name to the Washington Football Team, after FedEx, which has naming rights to the stadium, requested a change.
Sundance previously told ABC News that the movement to remove Native American imagery from sports teams has been going on for decades but gained new momentum over the past year amid nationwide protests and an energized civil rights movement sparked by the police killing of George Floyd. The Indian Removal Act was one of the most contentious pieces of legislation to that point; it passed the House of Representatives by only four votes.
Ninety percent of the people who responded to an AJC poll last year said the team should keep its name. Seventy-five percent said it should keep the chop. Perhaps those people did not ask the original residents of the area. Among Atlanta's offensive caricatures of Native Americans is former mascot Chief Noc-A-Homa, who danced, set off smoke bombs and had a teepee in the left field seats.
The need for change is supported by research. In some places, Native people have reclaimed terms such as Braves and Warriors. But fans of those Braves do not do the tomahawk chop at games. He imagines 50, people in a stadium dressed as Jesus Christ or screaming gibberish in mockery of the national anthem.
He imagines the reaction that would get. Payment suggests another analogy. In the public education system, you learn one unit in third grade, one unit in seventh grade social studies and then you learn a little bit on Thanksgiving, and usually what you learn is horribly inaccurate. And so American Indians are objectified as relics of the past.
This was always wrong. But now that the Washington Football Team and Cleveland have abandoned their racist names, the chop is aggressively, defiantly wrong. Meanwhile, Atlanta officials continue to claim impotence. Officials from another championship-contending franchise have made similar claims. The NFL's Chiefs, who call their version of the racist gesture the Arrowhead chop, have also received complaints from Native American groups and have also rebuffed them by deferring to the fans.
The league has not intervened; to the contrary, commissioner Roger Goodell did the chop during the NFL draft. So Atlanta has a chance to set an example. It no longer distributes foam weapons en masse, but it has much more work to do. Officials should announce that they no longer tolerate that particular brand of bigotry. Nix the graphics and the music. Then start throwing people out of the stadium.
MLB should step in here, too, with fines that could escalate to baseball penalties until Atlanta takes action. If the team starts losing draft picks, it would pretty quickly figure out a way to put a stop to this. In September, the team played a World Cup qualifier in an empty stadium as punishment. The Atlanta organization, meanwhile, leans into racist imagery. There would surely be a financial cost to a rebrand, but the team certainly can afford it.
It was only after the company threatened to pull its funding that team owner Dan Snyder changed the name.
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