http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=26446

Filmmaker screens attack on Tribe's Chief Wahoo

2006-11-02

By Bryant Greening
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter

Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians seemingly have more opponents
than the rest of their American League foes. Ohio University's
Multicultural Programs hosted a filmmaker Tuesday night who explained the
negative effects the baseball team's name and mascot have on society.

Dennis Atkins, a native of Cleveland, screened his documentary, "WaWHO?
Nothing is Sacred," to a half-full Baker Center Ballroom audience. The film
featured numerous American Indian and human-rights activists aiming to rid
the baseball club of what they argued is a racist name and logo.

Atkins, himself of American Indian descent, began the presentation by
explaining the objective of the film. "(I wanted) to give a voice to the
invincible people," he said. "American Indians felt no one would listen to
them."

The filmmaker said that until his wife mentioned it to him a few years ago,
he had not been concerned with the issues concerning the Cleveland Indians
mascot. "I never really thought about Chief Wahoo," Atkins said. "But it
took me about five seconds of looking at it to realize (the protesters)
were right."

Atkins said Chief Wahoo, the team's logo, presents the American Indian as
subhuman. The image, a red-skinned, cartoon-like figure with an oversized
smile and a red feather in his hair, has been despised by the
Native-American culture for decades.

"American Indians are angry," Atkins said. "They really feel it's
institutional racism, and it's why nobody cares about them."

According to "The Baseball Reliquary" Web site, the Cleveland ballclub,
"The Naps," renamed themselves the Indians in 1915, two years after the
death of Louis Sockalexis, the first known Native American to play in the
Major Leagues. Defenders of the team's name and logo say they honor
Sockalexis.

Many anti-Chief Wahoo activists in the documentary also maintained that the
Cleveland baseball team's name and mascot perpetuate an accepted racism
against American Indians.

Ellen Baird, who was featured in the documentary, said the name and mascot
promote an unfair stereotype.

Pointing specifically to Chief Wahoo, she said the logo mocks Native
American culture, as the mascot's red eagle feather is typically awarded to
a person wounded in war. "A baseball game is not a war," she said. "You
don't hear this because of the institutional racism."

Joseph Meisner, who has helped support the American Indian movement in
Cleveland as a legal aide, said most people who defend the baseball team's
name and logo don't understand what it represents.

Atkins said he agreed with Meisner and added that most people who support
Chief Wahoo argue that the name and logo actually honor American Indian
culture. "Ignorance is used as an insult, but really it just means you
don't know," he said. "A lot of society is just ignorant."

David Adams, who appeared in "WaWHO?," said white American culture cannot
comprehend the idea that Native Americans would be degraded by images like
the red-skinned caricature.

"Many (fans) will tell you that they are honoring American Indians every
time they put on their hat," Adams said. "They simply don't get it."

On an Internet message board, in response to a May 7, 2006 Associated Press
article about a Cleveland Girl Scout troop advocating for the elimination
of Chief Wahoo, some respondents seemed to confirm Adams' charges. One
respondent sarcastically called for the elimination of "The Simpsons"'
Homer Simpson, because the character, the person said, pokes fun at white,
working-class males.

The documentary also showed baseball fans dancing and yelling outside
Jacobs Field, the Cleveland Indians' stadium, seemingly mocking Native
Americans. Many American Indian advocates in the film said this would not
be accepted if another minority group were the target of such ridicule.

Russell Means, an American Indian activist featured in the documentary,
said he and others, including Meisner, sued the Cleveland Indians in 1972.
The lawsuit, which called for the renaming of the club and elimination of
Chief Wahoo as mascot, was settled out of court.

Means said that as a result of his part in the suit, Cleveland Indians fans
sent him hate mail, some calling for the "ethnic cleansing" of American
Indians.

The activist said he could not understand how a game could generate so much
hate. "I've never attacked his home," Means said. "We (simply) long to be
treated as human beings."

Atkins said people are often too passionate about sports. "Sports fans
identify so strongly with teams that it's like you're attacking them
personally" when advocates ask for names and mascots to be changed, he
said.

In the end, Atkins and most of the people in the documentary said money is
the ultimate factor in officials not eliminating the Cleveland Indians'
name and mascot. One source in the documentary estimated that the club
makes over $20 million a year from the Chief Wahoo symbol.

Atkins said the documentary is not intended to attack baseball or the
Cleveland Indians' organization, but rather to educate and advocate for
change. "(To date), nothing has changed," he said. "It's an issue of
corporations. It's an issue of special interests."

Means was the most radical advocate in the film and extremely critical of
the Indians baseball club. "You're never going to win a World Series,
period. It's your karma," he said. "I've put a curse on you. I announced it
with a lawsuit."