The NFL's Washington Football Team has dropped its slur of a team nickname. The Cleveland Indians are becoming the Guardians. High schools are rethinking their warrior mascots. But in Atlanta, the Braves have only doubled down on their long-criticized "Tomahawk chop"—in which fans gesture with their arms while yelling a war chant, led by a neon tomahawk displayed past the outfield. Under pressure last summer, the Braves said they'd review the tradition, CNN reports. Nothing has changed. The practice will be nationally displayed starting Friday night when the World Series moves to Atlanta.
With the Braves taking the national stage for the first time in 22 years, Native American groups and others are renewing their calls for the team to eliminate the practice they call dehumanizing. "It's incredibly frustrating," said Crystal Echo Hawk, CEO of IllumiNative, an advocacy group. "It's just really mind-boggling to watch Atlanta really dig in on this." Baseball has supported the Braves. Commissioner Rob Manfred said this week that teams are marketed locally and have to appeal to their fans. "The Native American community in that region is wholly supportive of the Braves' program, " he said, per the Washington Post. "For me, that's kind of the end of the story."
Some groups contested Manfred's claim, including the National Congress of American Indians. The organization also asked Fox Sports to play down fans making the gesture during games, per CBS. The NCAI mentioned the team's name and the tomahawk on uniforms, as well as the chop, all of which it said are "are meant to depict and caricature not just one tribal community but all Native people." The Atlanta Indigenous Peoples Association also contradicted Manfred, saying that while many members support the team, the imagery and gesture offend them. The group said it's never been invited to any Braves discussions on the issue.
story continues below
The chop took hold in 1991 and was not without opposition then. "We've had a few complaints that the tomahawk is demeaning to Native Americans," the team's PR director said at the time. "But we consider it a proud expression of unification and family." There were protests during the World Series that year in Minneapolis when the Braves played there. "Native people are not mascots," the NCAI said it has told the team repeatedly. In such displays, a leader of the Atlanta group said, "we are represented as artifacts, people that aren't really real." Laura Cummings Balgari added that "we are living, breathing, evolving people just like any other group of people, and we'd like to be recognized as that." (More tomahawk chop stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
