With the
Cleveland Indians poised to get back to the World Series for the first time in
twenty years, and perhaps the opportunity to compete for their first World
Series title in nearly seventy years, the controversy surrounding the team’s
name and logo is bound to receive more national attention than usual.
No, it’s not
the “Cleveland” part that is problematic (they have recovered well since the Cuyahoga River fire of 1969),
it’s the nickname, “Indians.” Critics
suggest that it is racist, insensitive, or improper cultural
appropriation. Proponents contend that
the name honors its namesakes and carries more than a century’s worth of tradition of
innocent goodwill.
Some people refer
back to how the name was chosen to justify their position on the issue. The Cliff’s Notes version of the origin story
is that in 1915 the team needed a new name after the departure of its longtime
star player and manager, Napoleon “Nap” Lajoie.
They had been primarily known as the “Cleveland Naps” during his
tenure. As the result of a contest to
find the best name, they settled on the name, “Indians,” in honor of a former
star player who was believed to have been the first Native American to play in
the major leagues.
The actual origin,
however, may not be determinative in judging the continued appropriateness of
the name. An innocent beginning might have
negative consequences and a negative start may be forgotten or forgiven over
time, or lose its original negativity as circumstances change. But in either case, it is necessary to know
the facts in order to have (educated) opinions about the facts.
Joe Posnanski’s
article, Cleveland Indians: The Name is a good place to start. Posnanski, a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan
and a national columnist for NBC Sports, went into his assignment assuming that
the origin-story was mostly hooey, but came out of it believing that contained
more than a kernel of truth. There was
no contest, and the announcement of the new name did not set out their reasons
for selecting the name. But it turns out that Cleveland’s National League team
had actually been called the “Indians” in 1897, the same year in which they
signed a highly touted Native-American player.
It therefore seemed plausible that the name “Indians” could have been
(at least in part) an effort to honor a former star player, or at least to a
team that may have been named in his honor.
Boston Post, May 19, 1895, page 13. |
Posnanski,
however, may have missed something.
There is
strong circumstantial evidence that the decision to name the team the “Indians”
in 1915 was in fact an intentional nostalgic nod to the name of the city’s
earlier team. There is also clear evidence
that Cleveland’s teams were called “Indians” as early as 1895 – two
years before they signed their first Indian player, which opens a whole new can
of worms.
Tebeau’s Indians
On March 10,
1897, Cleveland’s National League baseball team, the Spiders, caught a hot
young prospect in its web – Louis Francis Sockalexis, a highly touted college
phenom who batted .444, while scoring 38 runs in 26 games, for Holy Cross in
1896, and who famously threw a baseball 379 feet during Field Day at Holy Cross
in October 1896.
Sockalexis
was a Penobscot Indian from Maine and was believed at the time to be the first
American-Indian player to sign a major league contract:
Indian
Outfielder.
Cleveland, O., March 10. –
Manager Tebeau, of the Cleveland team, went to South Bend, Ind., yesterday on a
little scouting expedition, and the result was that he signed Sockalexis, to
the player whom several teams have been trying to land for some time. . . .
Sockalexis is said to be a fine outfielder and a wonderful batter. He is a full blooded Indian.
St. Paul Globe (Minnesota), March 11,
1897, page 7.
Two days
later, the Spiders’ President, Frank De Haas Robinson, renamed his team
“Tebeau’s Indians” (Oliver
“Patsy” Tebeau was Cleveland’s first-baseman and manager):
New York, March 12. – . . . “In
the future,” said Mr. Robinson, “the Clevelands will be
known as Tebeau’s Indians. For
the life of me I do not see how they were ever called the ‘Spiders,’ for
certain it is they never crept.”
The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (West
Virginia), March 13, 1897, page 3.
Sockalexis
enjoyed immediate success in the major leagues.
He hit well and was a great fielder, particularly known for his long,
accurate throws from the outfield:
Red Man
Sockalexis, of the Cleveland Club.
This is bounding Sockalexis,
Fielder of the Mighty Clevelands.
Like the catapult in action,
For the plate he throws the
baseball,
Till the rooters, blithely
rooting,
Shout until they shake the
bleachers.
“Sockalexis, Sockalexis,
Sock it to them, Sockalexis!”
R. K.
Munkittick, New York Journal, May 5,
1897, page 10.
The crowd here is wild over
Sockalexis. His every move is the signal
for a mighty whoop and his appearance at the plate is heralded with a wider
applause than ever Buffalo Bill received, even when he was recounting some of his
most thrilling exploits against the redskins on the plains.
Sockalexis! Sockalexis!
Lo, the mighty Sockalexis,
Every time he hits the ball
There’s a cyclone down in
Texas.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 12, 1897, page
4.
But his
success was short-lived, fizzling out after three seasons, hampered by
alcoholism, injury and illness.
The Spiders’
fortunes followed their young star’s fate.
Although they had been perennial contenders for several years with a
line-up that included Denton “Cyclone” Young – “Cy” Young (the namesake of the
annual award for best pitcher in the league), the team folded at the end of the
1899 season after setting records for futility that may never be broken. In a maneuver lifted straight from the Cleveland Indians movie, Major League, the owners, who had
recently purchased the National League’s St. Louis franchise, sent all of their
best players to St. Louis, leaving the faltering Sockalexis and other cast-offs
to wither on the vine. They didn’t
disappoint. They finished with 20 wins
and 134 losses – including an unbelievable 101 losses on the road.
With the
passing of Cleveland’s National League team, the names “Spiders” and “Indians” fell
largely (but not entirely) into disuse until they were both resurrected in 1915. Following a meeting of baseball writers and
team officials of Cleveland’s two professional baseball teams (American League
and American Association), they announced new-old names for both teams – the “Spiders”
and the “Indians”:
Cleveland
“Indians.”
Cleveland, January 17. – The
Cleveland American league baseball team will hereafter be known as the “Indians” . . . .
It was also decided at the meeting to agree on “Spiders”
as a name for the Cleveland American association team.
Altoona Tribune (Pennsylvania), January
18, 1915, page 6.
If the
original Spiders were renamed “Indians” in honor of Sockalexis, and the Naps were
renamed “Indians,” in honor of Sockalexis (or at least in honor of a team named
in his honor), then it would seem clear that the Cleveland Indians were named
(ultimately) in honor of the Native-American player Louis Sockalexis.
But truth is
stranger than fiction.
The timing
of Frank Robinson’s decision in 1897 to formally dub his team “Tebeau’s Indians,”
coming two days after signing the first Native-American player in the league,
strongly suggests that the name change was in his honor. But it does seem odd that a major league team
would change its identity for a new player before he had even practiced with
the team, no matter how successful he had been in college and in various local
leagues in New England. It
makes perfect sense, however, in light of the fact that the team had already been known as “Tebeau’s Indians” (at least on occasion) for during the two previous seasons:
The Orioles have played good,
steady ball, and as their pitchers were in good shape until the shank of the
season, they have gained the honor, though not without having a close finish
with “Patsy” Tebeau’s Indians.
The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee),
September 30, 1895, page 6.
“Patsy” Tebeau’s Indians
appear to be able to give the Orioles a game for the Temple Cup.
The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee),
October 3, 1895, page 4.
The Spiders were also referred to as “Tebeau's Braves” in February 1897, one month before signing Sockalexis:
The Spiders were also referred to as “Tebeau's Braves” in February 1897, one month before signing Sockalexis:
The Baltimore Sun, February 23, 1897, page 6. |
Perhaps
Robinson always liked the name “Indians” and disliked Spiders. Perhaps he took advantage of the recent
signing an Indian player to advocate for a name change, at a time when the name
would have taken on a whole new meaning.
Perhaps the name change – or new emphasis – was in honor of Sockalexis
at some level, even if it was not the only reason.
It’s a whole
‘nuther question as to why they were called “Tebeau’s Indians” in 1895. Although I have not been able to find an
explanation for the name, there may be a clue in the personal nickname of one of
their star players – “Chief” Zimmer.
A Chief and His Indians
Charles
Louis Zimmer was baseball’s original “Iron Man.” Zimmer caught 125 straight games in his first
season with Cleveland, and in 1897 caught Cy Young’s first career no-hitter. Zimmer was Young’s catcher in Cleveland for
eight years, and they even played amateur baseball and indoor baseball together
on occasion during the off-season.
As he told
the story, “Chief” Zimmer received the nickname “Chief” while playing for the
Poughkeepsie Indians in 1886, based on his position as manager of a particularly
fast team:
In 1886, he joined
Poughkeepsie as captain and manager.
Here he got his lifetime nickname “Chief.” He always explained, “Since we were fleet of foot, we were called the Indians. As I was the head man
of the Indians somebody began to call me ‘Chief.’ It stuck.”
The Sporting News, 1949 (photocopy
displayed on thedeadballera.com).
Was Tebeau,
the head man of the Spiders, considered a “Chief” – and his players “Indians? It is speculative, perhaps, but not
impossible. The manager-Chief/players-Indians
metaphor was used on several occasions with several teams.
In 1891, perhaps inspired by the nickname of one of baseball’s
bigger-than-life characters, George “Chief” Borchers [i],
a writer in San Francisco strung together a series of Indian-related metaphors:
Colonel Thomas Posthumous
Robinson, B. B. D., has been struggling all season to collect together a tribe of Indians competent to suitably enjoy the Oakland reservation.
To do so he has already imported nearly half a hundred from the various
preserves of the country, and completed the list last week with Shea from the Seattle tribe and Chief Borchers of the
Spokanes. The chief was looked upon as the prize catch of the year,
but his work at present has not been up to the winning standard.
The Morning Call (San Francisco, California),
October 24, 1891, page 2.
George “Chief” Borchers, San Francisco Call, September 4, 1898, page 10. |
In 1896, Cleveland’s
“Patsy” Tebeau was described as the “Chief Spider” or “Chief”:
After winning two creditable
victories from Brooklyn, Washington yesterday floated westward to Spiderville
and bumped plumb against a thirteen-strand web, which had been erected for that
express purpose by Chief Spider Tebeau and his
horde of hustling insects. . . . Spider Wilson was delegated by Chief Tebeau to weave a special assortment of curved
strands about the struggling Senators, while Jake Boyd endeavored to counteract
the effort.
Evening Star (Washington DC), May 5,
1896, page 8.
In
1896, “Patsy” Tebeau’s brother
George, the manager of Cleveland’s farm team in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was
also portrayed as the “Chief” of his baseball team in a in a prosaic account of a game between Fort Wayne and
Newcastle that pushed the Chief/Indian metaphor to its logical limits:
[I]t was Big Chief Ganzel, of the Newcastle tribe, and behind
him, in single file, trudged his little and silent band
of braves. The big chief did not
stop until he had reached the open ground then, as he shaded his eyes with his
ponderous hands, he silently surveyed the horizon. Seemingly satisfied, he uttered a guttural
“ugh,” and the rest of the band came from the forest into the bright sunlight
of the prairie and silently, as before, followed their chief across the dead
and seared turf towards the setting sun.
Away off to the west,
unobserved by the painted warriors, a brave,
with feathers in his hair, his battle ax in his hand and bow and arrow slung
across his broad shoulders, stood scanning the eastern slopes. . . . With a low
whistle, as the cooing of a dove, there arose, as from the earth, eight
warriors, dressed as their chief, and sprang to his side. With a few words of command the chief sprang
to the front, and, silently as the wind and as swiftly as a frightened deer,
the band approached the coming marauders.
It was Chief Tebeau and those that followed were
his braves, tried and true. . . .
Big Chief Ganzel’s eagle eye
discovered the approaching Colts and with the eagerness of a panther he and his
associates sprang forward. The two bands
met on the shady banks of the historic Maumee.
The battle lasted one hour and fifty minutes, and then Big Chief Ganzel
withdrew his men from the field. . . . [F]rom present appearances the big chief
will be driven back to his eastern hunting grounds with his brow broken and his scalp left dangling on the centre pole of Chief Tebeau’s
tepee.
The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
(Indiana), September 4, 1896, page 1.
Fort Wayne won the game 16-2.
Fort Wayne won the game 16-2.
Similarly, major league teams in Boston, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were known by the Native-American nickname, “Braves” at various times during the 1890s and early 1900s. In each of those cases, the name may have been related, in part, to the manager's nickname, “Buck”, which was then a common term for a Native-American man, similar to the word “squaw” for females. See my article, Tammany Hall, Buck Buckenberger and the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company - why Washington and Atlanta are Redskins and Braves.
Interestingly, the name “Tebeau’s
Indians” followed “Patsy” Tebeau and his “Indians” to St. Louis in 1899, even
though Sockalexis stayed in Cleveland and “Chief” Zimmer moved on to the Louisville
Colonels:
The Times (Richmond, Virginia), May 6, 1899, page 2. |
The Evening Times (Washington DC), September 26, 1899, page 6. |
The Evening Times (Washington DC), June 23, 1900, page 6. |
It is unclear whether sportswriters simply continued calling Tebeau’s team “Indians” out
of habit, or whether Tebeau or the team's owner actively encouraged writers to use
the same name.
Cleveland Americans
With
“Tebeau’s Indians” finding new life in St. Louis, Cleveland filled the void
with a franchise in the newly-formed American League. The new team was commonly referred to in the
press as, “the Cleveland American League team” or simply, “the Clevelands,” as
was typical for many teams during the period.
They also went by a series of nicknames; the “Lake Shores,” the “Blue
Birds” and the “Blues”:
St. Louis Republic (Missouri), April 23, 1902, page 7. |
During the
early years of the new franchise, they were also regularly referred to as the
“Spiders,” in a nod to the name previously closely associated with Cleveland
baseball:
Minneapolis Journal, June 25, 1901, page 12. |
Washington Times (Washington DC), June 20, 1902, page 4. |
During the
long tenure of their manager Napoleon
“Nap” Lajoie, who joined the team in 1902, the Cleveland Americans were
most commonly known as the Cleveland “Naps”, until he left the team following
the 1914 season.
During
spring training of 1907, however, some writer (or writers) called them the “Indians”:
Hot Springs, Ark., March 3. –
. . . Bernhard, Joss, Hess and Rhoades, of the
Cleveland Indians, are expected to arrive tomorrow.
Detroit Free
Press, March 4, 1907, page 6.
Big Ball Players Arrive.
Hot Springs, March 4. –
(Special.) – League ball players are arriving from the North and East almost
daily to go into training. . . . Several members of the
Cleveland Indians are due to reach here this afternoon.
Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock,
Arkansas), March 4, 1907, page 1.
Coincidentally
(or not, perhaps), one of Cleveland’s catchers that year was a Wyandotte Indian
from Ontario:
Clarke, the
Cleveland catcher, is a Wyandotte Indian, and Phyle, who has just
joined the Giants, is of Sioux descent.
Bruce, a clever pitcher formerly with the Athletics, is an Indian.
The Marion Daily Mirror (Marion, Ohio),
August 22, 1907, page 6.
“Nig” Clarke |
Jay Justin “Nig” Clarke
played six seasons in Cleveland (1905-1911).
He also claimed to have hit eight of the nineteen homeruns hit in a wild
Texas minor league game between Corsicanna and Texarkana, on July 14, 1902. But although he was known to be an Indian, or
at least part-Indian, there was not as much hype about his
heritage as there had been for Sockalexis a decade earlier. It is unclear whether his presence on the
team had any direct connection to the renewed use of “Indians” that spring.
Baseball was
not the only sport associated with the name “Indians” in Cleveland:
Amherst, O., Nov. 24. – Seven
hundred fans, the largest number that ever attended a football
game in Amherst, saw the Lorain Crescents literally mop Brandt’s park
with the Cleveland Indians, Sunday
afternoon. The final score was: Lorain
Crescents 34, Cleveland 0.
The Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio),
November 24, 1913, page 5.
(Wow,
Cleveland loses 34-0 – the name changes, but the score remains the same (ouch!).)
In 1911, a
cryptic comment in a report about negotiations to host the following year’s
convention of the International Typographer’s Union uses the name “Indians” to
refer to negotiators from Cleveland, although the intent of the allusion, or
its relevance to Cleveland’s team names, is unclear:
The Ottawa boosters went to
‘Frisco via U. S. lines in order to head off the Cleveland
Indians who are after the Houston scouts for the 1912 convention.
Vancouver Daily World (British Columbia,
Canada), August 12, 1911, page 15.
The “Naps”
were once again called “Indians” during spring training in 1914, just nine
months before the formal announcement of the team’s new name:
Last Year [Walter] Johnson
pitched 12 shutout games, blanking every club in the league except the Cleveland Indians.
Wichita Daily Eagle (Kansas), March 15,
1914 page 7.
The Cleveland
Indians will have a field day in Athens, Ga., just before they break
camp.
Norwich Bulletin (Norwich, Connecticut),
March 17, 1914, page 3.
There seems
to be a straight line between the signing of Sockalexis, the decision to
emphasize the name “Tebeau’s Indians,” and the nostalgic reminiscence of the
old Spiders’ two nicknames which resulted in a new emphasis on the name
“Indians” in 1915. The connection is not
perfect or exclusive, however, as “Tebeau’s Indians” pre-dates Sockalexis’
signing and “Indians” disappears from the printed record for big chunks of
time.
There may
have been other factors. One theory, for
example, suggests that Cleveland selected the name “Indians” in imitation of
the Boston Braves, in the afterglow of their miracle turnaround and World
Series victory in 1914. After sitting in
last place on July 4th, Boston turned things around to win the
pennant by more than 10 games, before beating the Philadelphia Athletics 4
games to 0 in the World Series.
The theory is that they wanted a name associated with winning and “Indians” was the next best thing after the “Braves.” I do not know who first espoused the theory, but it may have been influenced by a cartoon that appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer the day after announcing the name change in 1915. A Native-American character carrying a large baseball bat – a “Heap Big Stick” – appears next to text suggesting precisely that:
The theory is that they wanted a name associated with winning and “Indians” was the next best thing after the “Braves.” I do not know who first espoused the theory, but it may have been influenced by a cartoon that appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer the day after announcing the name change in 1915. A Native-American character carrying a large baseball bat – a “Heap Big Stick” – appears next to text suggesting precisely that:
If the nature of the name has
anything to do with pennant chances they should cop the flag [(win the
pennant)] – for instance, look at the Boston “Braves.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 1915 (as displayed on
joeposnanski.com).
But
Cleveland was referred to as the “Cleveland Indians” during spring training in
1914 and 1907, and were “Tebeau’s Indians” a decade or so earlier. So while Boston’s miracle season may have
been one final factor in renaming the team, the fact that they resurrected the
old “Spiders” name the same day suggests that the primary impulse was nostalgia
and not imitation.
And, in any
case, even if the Braves’ example associated winning with Indians, there were
other, perhaps more compelling reasons in 1915 to associate the name “Indians” with
athleticism, good baseball and winning.
American-Indians in Sport
Although
American-Indians in high-profile sports were a novelty when Louis
Sockalexis broke into the league, they were prominent, highly visible, and wildly popular by 1915:
No nation since the gaseous
nebula became a planet called earth has produced, in proportion to his
percentage of people, more famed and gallant athletes than the American Indian
and he is not confined to any one realm of sport.
The Washington Times (Washington DC),
November 2, 1910, page 16.
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah), February 9, 1913, page 32. |
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah), February 9, 1913, page 32. |
Wilkes-Barre Record (Pennsylvania), June 27, 1914, page 30. |
Chief Bender
of the Philadelphia Athletics helped lead his team to five American League
pennants in ten years from 1905 through 1914.
He pitched three complete games in the 1911 World Series, winning
two. He led the American League in ERA
for three seasons, and he finished his career with a .625 winning percentage
(212-127) and a career earned run average of 2.46.
Chief Meyers of the New
York Giants was the primary catcher for hall-of-fame pitcher Christie Mathews
for several years. In 1912, Meyers
batted .358, with an on-base percentage of .441, and placed third in league MVP
voting.
Jim Thorpe was the World’s
Greatest Athlete (and may still be), finishing fourth in the high jump and
winning the Decathlon and Pentathlon in the 1912 Olympic Games in Sweden. He was a star football, baseball and track
athlete at the Carlisle Indian School, which was then a national power-house
under the guidance of coach “Pop” Warner.
He never really “caught his own punt,” as the legend goes, but he
did score a touchdown off his own punt in a showdown of undefeateds with Pitt
in 1911. Later, he would become the
first President of the NFL and had a higher career major league batting average
than another multi-sport phenom, Bo Jackson (although, to be fair, Bo had
better on-base and slugging percentages).
Other
athletes of note mentioned in the articles included several track athletes,
many football players, and a race-car driver named Tobin de Hymel. Louis Sockalexis’ cousin, Andrew Sockalexis,
won the Boston Marathon in 1912 and finished fourth in the marathon in the 1912
Olympic Games, where he was a teammate of Thorpe's. Andrew’s father applied for an entry in the
1914 Boston Marathon, but was denied because of advanced age – he was 60
years old at the time. Louis Sockalexis’
name was also generally mentioned as one of the greatest Native-American athletes
and trailblazer for those who followed.
Andrew Sockalexis finishing in fourth place at the 1912 Olympics, Den Femte Olympiaden, Stockholm, Jacob Bagges Soners Aktiebolag, 1912, Page 140. |
In early
1915, the Cleveland American League baseball team adopted the new-old name,
“Indians”, at a time when numerous Native-American athletes were enjoying
unprecedented athletic success in baseball, football, track and other sports,,
and were widely celebrated in the national press. The Boston Braves had just capped off one of
the most remarkable turnarounds in baseball history with a World Series
win. The name hearkened back to the
original Cleveland Spiders alternate name, “Tebeau’s Indians.” And one of the most exciting players on the
old “Tebeau’s Indians” team was a Penobscot Indian whose signing in 1897 may
have prompted Cleveland’s management to abandon their old name “Spiders” and
emphasize the less-commonly used alternate name. That player, Louis Sockalexis
died in late 1913, barely one year before the Cleveland Americans officially
became the “Cleveland Indians.”
It may be
impossible to unravel all of the threads of history, or to determine precisely
what may have gone through the heads or influenced the decision making of the
sportswriters and baseball executives who made the name change. But it seems likely that the legacy of Louis
Sockalexis specifically, and the success of Indian athletes generally, could
easily have played some role, whether consciously or subconsciously.
Or perhaps,
it was simply a nostalgic nod to the name of an earlier team regardless of the
origin of the name, as seems to have been the case with renaming Cleveland’s
American Association team as “Spiders.”
If Louis
Sockalexis played some role in making the “Tebeau’s Indians” name popular, then
the name may implicitly be (to some degree) in his honor. But if “Tebeau’s Indians” were only “Indians”
for the reasons similar to those that made “Chief” Zimmer a chief and his
Poughkeepsie nine his “Indians,” then perhaps the name’s ultimate origin is not
so honorable.
But
regardless of its origin, the question remains as to whether its continued use
today is honorable or not. You be the
judge.
Or perhaps
you agree with Joe Posnanski who wrote,“I don’t believe the Indians were named to honor Louis
Sockalexis, not exactly. But I do believe the Indians name, as long as it
exists, could honor him. That choice is ours.”
But regardless of your position on the issue, any name would certainly feel a lot more honorable if they could just win
one more World Series.
Oh, and
about the logo . . . ???
Check out my post, "Patent Medicine and Baseball - Wahoo's Deep Roots in Cleveland".
"Wahoo" Guyon - Cleveland-area catcher (1906-1908). |
Wa-hoo Bitters, manufactured in Toledo, Ohio (1930ish?) |
Chief Wahoo (drawn by Toledo-born Elmer Woggon, 1936) |
[i]
One researcher believes that "Chief" Borchers may have been the inspiration for the character
Burrows in the epic baseball poem, Casey
at the Bat (see, “In Search of
the Historical Casey,” March 3, 2006, posted at mindmumbling.blogspot.com).
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