As the Cleveland Indians returned to the World Series for the first time in 19 years this week, new protests are being voiced over the team’s name and the Chief Wahoo logo, a depiction some consider a highly offensive caricature.
Opposition to the name and the logo was renewed during the American League Championship Series in Toronto when Douglas Cardinal, an indigenous Canadian activist, sought a last-minute court injunction to prevent the team from using uniforms depicting the Indians’ name or the Chief Wahoo logo while in Toronto. Judge Tom McEwan declined the petition, but a Native American advocacy group in Cleveland was taking note.
Along with its planned protests outside all World Series games in Cleveland, the group is thinking about Cardinal’s legal strategy, according to The New York Times.
“I really loved the way he went about bringing forth the case, that it is a human rights violation in opposition to Canadian laws on human rights,” Philip Yenyo, the executive director of the American Indian Movement of Ohio, is quoted as saying. “We never thought about that before. I believe it could be something we can pursue ourselves.”
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.