For some, Cleveland Indians' mascot, logo stir ire

Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 20, 2007 at midnight

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The Cleveland Indians' shot at the World Series is reopening old wounds for many American Indians and human rights activists, who say the team's nickname and logo perpetuate stereotypes.

But a team spokesman said Friday people need to understand the history behind the nickname and the logo is an "individual perception issue."

"We understand that there is a percentage of native Americans who dislike our logo, as there is a percentage of non-Native Americans who dislike our logo," said Bob DiBiasio, the team's vice president of public relations. "But there is also a large percentage, a vast majority of people, who do not feel it's offensive and think of it strictly as a logo for a baseball team."

Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, is among the group that loathes the logo. "It's the most blatantly offensive of all the symbols I've seen of native Americans," he said.

Lapchick said he learned that team names could be offensive when his father coached the St. John's University Redmen basketball team and an American Indian told his dad that he was proud of his record but embarrassed that he would coach a team called the Redmen.

DiBiasio said the Cleveland Indians mean no offense. He said that the team's nickname "fosters the legacy" of Louis Francis Sockalexis, the first American Indian to play major league baseball.

Regardless, the logo is offensive, said Jeff Harjo, executive director of the Native American Journalists Association.

"To me, it just degrades a whole race of people," he said.

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