Native American association tells Indy's minor league baseball team to keep 'Indians' name

INDIANAPOLIS — The Native American Guardian's Association, which successfully fought for the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Blackhawks to keep their names and opposed the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians changing their "Redskins" and "Indians" nicknames, is in a fight for another team — this time in Indianapolis.

The city's minor league baseball team has been named the "Indians" since 1902, but more than two years ago the franchise created a committee to research the appropriateness of the team's name. It came as other sports organizations with ties to Native American culture were doing the same.

Many sports teams using names and mascots invoking Native Americans have been called out for racism. NAGA disagrees.

"I have talked personally to the president of the Indians and told him, 'Please do not change.' We have encouraged the team to retain the Indians name and logo," said Tony Henson, who is of Cherokee descent and on the leadership team at NAGA. "Use it as an opportunity to educate about Native Americans, the vast majority of whom share this position."

Indianapolis' minor league baseball team told IndyStar last week that "research continues" and "no decision has been made" on the name. When told that NAGA supported the "Indians" name remaining, the team said it had no further comment at this time.

NAGA is a not-for-profit founded in 2014 and headquartered in Devils Lake, North Dakota. Its leadership team is made up of full-blooded Native Americans, including one member who is a tribal chief. All the board members of NAGA have some Native ancestry. According to NAGA, it advocates "for greater recognition of Native American heritage through the high profile venues of sports and other public platforms."

Carolina A. Castoreno told IndyStar in an e-mail she has "concerns" with NAGA's involvement in the "Indians" name discussion. Castoreno is the executive director of the American Indian Center of Indiana, who has been consulted by the "Indians" and is against the team's use of the name.

"This is something that, in Native circles, has always been brought up,” Castoreno told IndyStar in 2021. “This has always been a topic of conversation about needing to end all types of mascotry and imagery when it comes to sports teams and American Indian images.”

'It's an extremist cancel culture'

On Sunday, IndyStar had a conference call with members of NAGA's leadership team to learn why they believe the "Indians" should keep their name.

Henson said it can be summed up in the organization's motto. "Educate. Not Eradicate."

"This movement is really activism, not so much Indian activism," he said. "The vast majority of Indian people, of Native Americans, don’t care about this issue but support keeping these names."

Henson said the push to remove Native American names and logos is part of an "extremist cancel culture" and he doesn't want his culture taken away. NAGA encourages and supports sports teams, from high school to the professional level, to carry on the history of American Indians in a tasteful way.

"We oppose mascots of a cartoonish (sort) that are clearly out of bounds. We are the first to call that out," he said. "But respectful representation, we want that. And Indian people, the rank and file, agree."

NAGA points to polls that have been conducted the past two decades, including one by The Associated Press in 2016 that found nine of 10 Native Americans weren't offended by the Washington "Redskins" name, before it was changed to the Commanders.

Another poll conducted by the Washington Post found more than 80% of Native Americans wouldn’t be offended if someone who was not a Native American called them "Redskins."

IndyStar ran an unofficial Twitter poll that found of more than 1,400 respondents, 58% believe the "Indians" should keep their name.

"The problem is that the average American believes Native Americans are vehemently opposed to nicknames (such as Indians or Braves)," Henson said. "That is simply not the case."

'If it causes racism, why do we call ourselves that?'

There is another minor league baseball team in the U.S. nicknamed the Indians, the Spokane Indians in Washington State. The team has kept its name and collaborated with the Spokane Tribe of Indians to honor the local indigenous population.

"They came and listened to the elders, and that is what really developed the relationship over time," Carol Evans, the chairwoman of the Spokane Tribal Council, told the New York Times in 2020, “and it has grown like a family partnership unit, where we have a lot of respect for one another."

Suzan Shown Harjo, an advocate for Native American rights who has led the fight against indigenous team names and mascots in sports for decades, told the New York Times, "no matter the good intent, the name should still be changed."

“There is no such thing as respectable treatment of any mascot or team name that has a Native theme in sports,” she said. “There is just no such thing, no matter how you package it.”

Eunice Davidson doesn't understand that thinking. As the first president and a founding member of NAGA, a full-blood Dakota Sioux and an enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Tribe from North Dakota, she has been called "racist," by her own people. She has been told she is a "fake Indian."

None of that makes sense to her, Davidson told IndyStar. She said the Spirit Lake reservation is proud of its ancestry and "we are still here because of them today." She wants her ancestry to live on.

Davidson wrote a book "Aren't We Sioux Enough," which tells the story of the University of North Dakota and its Fighting Sioux controversy.

Davidson's son is a teacher at Four Winds High School in North Dakota, nicknamed the Indians, which recently won a Class B state tournament in basketball. It is a public school on the reservation.

Many other schools on reservations carry the names Indians, Warriors, Braves, Redskins and Blackhawks, Davidson said.

"Now you tell me if it causes racism, if it's derogatory, if it causes so many things," she said. "Why do we call ourselves that?"

Note to readers: The Indianapolis Star refers to the city’s minor league baseball team as “Indianapolis minor league baseball team” to avoid inappropriate use of cultural terms.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Native American association tells Indianapolis "Indians" to keep name