For the past twenty-five to thirty years, the
Native American1 symbols
and imagery associated with the Cleveland Indians - the franchise name
itself and the franchise's logo, Chief Wahoo - have been sources of
controversy when challenged as manifestations of racism.2
Although Cleveland has occasionally tempered its representation of certain
"Indian" aspects of the organization, as seen in the elimination
of the tepee once located in center field and the retirement of the famous
neon Chief Wahoo sign that was mounted for many years at the entrance to
the stadium, protests registered over the years by numerous American
Indian groups (Banks, 1993; Shepard, 1993; "Still Not the Real
Indians", 1995), have failed to fundamentally weaken the connection
between an "Indian" identity, the franchise, Cleveland fans, and
others tied to the Cleveland and/or baseball communities.3
In December of 1996, one of the most recent
controversies surrounding Chief Wahoo emanated from a work of public art
created by Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds.4
The billboard,
which juxtaposed a likeness of Chief Wahoo with the phrase "Smile for
Racism", was nearly banned by the commissioning agency (the Cleveland
Institute of Art) because of a perception that the message was offensive.
The billboard was finally displayed in the city of Cleveland after it was
determined that the school was contractually obligated to do so (Litt,
1996a; Litt, 1996b; Litt, 1997).
Although many existing American Indian
organizations deem the Cleveland logo to be objectionable and have asked
on repeated occasions for it to be replaced, there is enormous public
ambivalence and confusion about the racial implications of the Native
imagery so intertwined with Cleveland baseball. The substance of the
inquiry that follows is an attempt to locate, in part or in whole, the
source of the confusion created when the public is confronted with the
question of whether Chief Wahoo is racist or not.
In previous scholarly treatments of racism
and Native American imagery in sport, researchers have adopted several
different sociological and anthropological approaches to the subject
(Davis, 1993; Franks, 1982; Pewewardy, 1991). In this paper, critical
theory is used to examine how perceptions of historical accuracy impact on
the legitimation of Cleveland's claim regarding the origination of their
nickname (Coakley, 1996)5 they
exist" (p. 36). Special attention is directed toward the construction
of the Cleveland story, which attributes the 1915 selection of the term
"Indians" to a fan's wish to honor Native American baseball
legend, Louis Francis Sockalexis. Cleveland's professed organizational
intent to honor Sockalexis is tested in light of documented findings.
Data reviewed for this paper included the
Cleveland organization's own account of how they acquired their name along
with past and present renderings and antecedents of the story in newspaper
articles, media guides, team yearbooks, discussions on the internet, and
baseball histories from 1897 to 1997. Working chronologically, the threads
of fact circulating through the Louis Francis Sockalexis story, as
represented by the Cleveland baseball franchise, were traced over a one
hundred year period beginning with Sockalexis' appearance on the
professional scene in 1897.
By necessity, the act of tracing Cleveland's
historical claim that Sockalexis serves as the lasting inspiration and
raison d'etre for the franchise's well-known and much publicized
"Indian" identity conjures up the very essence of what makes the
past accessible in the present. As noted historian David Lowenthal (1995)
points out, we come to know the past through people and things remembered,
tradition passed on from one generation to the next, and stories told and
retold.
Under scrutiny, the Cleveland claim mirrors
the access points to the past that Lowenthal (1995) mentions. According to
the franchise, the "Indians" name is intended to trigger a
memory of the legendary Sockalexis, a memory sustained through the
reproduction of the story in the organization's official publications such
as the Cleveland Indians Media Guide and magazine called The
1997 Indians Game Face Magazine. Furthermore, there can be little
doubt that the club's "Indian" identity has been absorbed into
the collective consciousness of a considerable portion of the Cleveland
populace, forming a shared tradition and common rallying point for many
Clevelanders.
The Cleveland claim, however, also
illustrates the perils associated with venturing into the past. Renditions
of the past, as Carnes (1995) notes, are likely to be imperfect because
lived experience can never be identically duplicated or replicated by
other people in other ages. Additionally, the process of retrieving the
past is subject to the limitations of the retrievers themselves, whose
reading of the past is influenced by their own experiences and views of
the world. As a consequence, the past is a place that can be illuminated
and discovered through history and memory but it is also "in large
measure a past of our own creation, molded by selective erosion, oblivion,
and invention" (Lowenthal, 1995, inside cover page).
With the past thus conceptualized, the
analytical approach to Cleveland's historical claim was advised by an
awareness that some portion of the Sockalexis story may have suffered
erosion over the years; been obfuscated by oversight or calculated
selectivity; and/or, contained an element of invention. Following from
that awareness, two broad research questions were posed, specifically:
a. from whose historical vantage point has
the Sockalexis story been told?
b. what does the history of Native imagery in
advertising reveal about the genesis of the franchise's name and logo?
History From Whose
Vantage Point?
In a description of the resistance found in
the United States to the notion that team mascots, logos, nicknames, and
trademarks are insensitive to Native peoples, sport sociologist Lawrence
Wenner (1993) hypothesized that the root cause of that resistance may
reside in sport followers' generalized attachment to and affection for
tradition and history. As Wenner said, "If you come right down to it,
all of this derives from the fact that sport is just generally big on
history. Sports and their history are our refuge from the trials and
tribulations of everyday life" (p. 1).
An awareness of the political cache to be
derived from a historical claim is revealed directly in a press release
published by Cleveland as a means of explaining the origin of their name
and logo. The press release points out that there is "historical
significance to how the Cleveland baseball franchise became the
'Indians'" ("Name/Logo Issue", November 15, 1995) 6
As a collective entity, owners, managers,
sportswriters, publicists, television broadcasters, marketers, players,
and consumers serve in the dual capacity of sport history makers and sport
history reenactors, thus forming the context and subtext out of which
mediated sport images reflecting prevailing cultural conceptualizations of
Native Americans emerge. As such, this group of sport history makers
assumes a role similar to the one defined for historians by Michael Kammen
(1991), wherein those seeking to represent history become the
"ordained custodians of memory" who "arouse and arrange our
memories to suit our psychic need" (p. 9).
Indeed, whereas Cleveland recognizes that a
historical perspective is necessary in order to facilitate an appreciation
for their use of the "Indians" name and associated imagery, the
controversy surrounding these images raises a question about the
historical vantage point taken by the Cleveland organization. In Kammen's
(1991) work on the transformation of tradition in history, he noted that
with regard to "major episodes in the history of white-Indian
relations ... the truth was simply repressed - sometimes deliberately and
sometimes by apparent inadvertence" (pps. 184-188).
Heap of Birds (1992), in a critique of
Eastern, Western, and Non-Western theoretical frameworks, wrote,
"From the point upon this earth on which I stand, in the Cheyenne
Nation and from a modern place called Oklahoma, the following questions
are posed: East of what? West of what?" He went on to caution that
Euro-male centered perspectives, if considered as the only critical points
of reference, represented a paragon of distortion that required
alternative responses in order to fully describe the world.
Sociologist Laurel Davis (1993) entertains a
parallel consideration in her exploration of the roots of resistance to
Native American mascots in general. In an attempt to explain the sometimes
vehement reaction to the elimination of Native American imagery in sport,
Davis departs first from the observation that many people in the United
States have formed a national and personal identity around the distorted
and problematic notion that the conquering of the West was accomplished
through the heroic and glorious efforts of men whose ancestry was
primarily European-American.
She further asserts that central to this myth
is the tendency to think of Native Americans in stereotypical ways. In
sport, the stereotype of the revered although summarily conquered Indian
warrior is a dominant figure. As a case in point, the literal
manifestation of this mythology can be seen within the confrontations
between two professional football teams, namely the Dallas Cowboys and the
Washington Redskins. Davis argues that challenges to symbols such as the
"Redskins" and the "Indians" inherently challenge
modern day sensibilities and identities borne out of this Western
mythology, thus fueling resistance to their elimination.
Historian Laurence Hauptman, in his 1995 book
on the misconceptions surrounding Native American Indians and their
histories, observed that much of the contemporary understanding Americans
have about Native Americans can be captured in the expression "One
false assumption...and logic does the rest" (p. xi)7
In effect, Hauptman argues that Americans frequently construct their
nation's history through misinterpretation, omission, and invented
tradition. As a consequence, the history of the United States most
familiar to Americans perpetually casts Indians in the role of obstacles
to progress rather than a complex and diversified group of people who
occupied the land ultimately seized under the guise of Manifest Destiny.
In discussing the impact of sport caricatures
in particular, Hauptman (1995) wrote that "False images of the
'Indian', whether demeaning or not, are usually simplistic and generally
classify the great diversity of Native America into a single entity,
obscuring the textures as well as the complexities of the past or present,
whether because of convenience, economics, or other reasons" (p. 81).
A History Lesson
In the press release distributed by the
Cleveland ball club to explain the origin of their nickname, the public
relations staff asserts that "Any discussion specific to the
Cleveland Indians ... must begin with a history lesson"
("Name/Logo Issue," November 15, 1995). History lessons,
however, can impart a myriad of understandings depending on the manner in
which they are framed.
For example, Cleveland frames the story in a
simple question and answer format. The question - what is the origin of
the nickname? The answer - the name was selected in 1915 to honor Louis
Francis Sockalexis. By providing a singular explanation for their use of
Native imagery within the frame presented, the story described takes on a
character of "their" story, "Cleveland's story". In
effect, the story is presented as if the organization existed in isolation
and had no connection to other forces outside of it.
By extending and expanding the historical
frame to include late 19th and early 20th century America, and viewing the
Cleveland baseball franchise as one of many corporate entities that
appropriated Native imagery during that time, insight is gained about the
meaning of the images used and the subsequent implications posed by their
use today. In effect, as a corporate entity, Cleveland was not alone in
1915, or now, in it's use of Native imagery.
As a genre of commodified symbols, the
collection of Blackhawks, Braves, Chiefs, Chieftains, Indians, Moccasins,
Mohawks, Redmen, Redskins, Savages, Seminoles, and Warriors that dot the
sport landscape are part of a much larger group of signifiers that have
been used since the late 1890s to inspire brand name recognition and
product loyalty among consumers.8 Pipe smokers light up with 'Red Chief'
tobacco" (p. 17). Rosemary Coombe (1996), in her analysis of embodied
trademarks, noted that in the late 19th century the requirements of mass
production and mass commodification called for the use of identifying
marks or labels that had the capacity to attract consumers to products
while simultaneously instilling a level of consumer trust.
Characteristic of the era, "The
discourse of commerce, advertising, and the law of trademark projected
images of barbarism, conquest, and servitude to construct the subject
positions of mass consumer and American citizen" (Coombe, 1996, p.
210). As a result, trademarks that featured a number of aboriginal groups,
such as "African-Americans, Indian peoples, and Hispanic and mestizo
subjects, as well as 'tribal' groups colonized by U.S. imperial expansion
(e.g., Filipinos, Hawaiians, and Eskimos)..." (Coombe, 1996, p. 210)
became infused into consumer culture. In effect, through the production,
packaging, and purchasing of material goods American consumer culture
became a screen onto which signs of otherness that legitimated
civilization over savagery and progress over primitivism were inscribed.
The location of the moment when these images
became intertwined with mass-mediated consumer capitalism (i.e., late
1890s) has the potential to offer important perspective relative to the
cultural baggage they inevitably carry with them and pass on from one
generation to the next. The practice of choosing Native American images as
distinguishing markings for products originated in a time when Native
Americans were equated with animals as seen in the common expression of
the day - No Dogs. No Indians. - and represented to the American public in
such social forms of entertainment as Wild West Shows and Worlds Fair
exhibitions (Leiby, 1994).
The selective cultural amnesia, denial, or
ignorance evidenced regarding this point of origination for Native
American symbols in sport, as well as other products, may be accounted for
in part, by what Taussig referred to as the potential mimetic faculty of
turn of the century trademarks. According to Taussig's (1993) definition,
"the mimetic faculty has the ability to copy, imitate, to yield into,
and become other in such a way that the copy draws power from and
influences the original" (p. xiii). In applying Taussig's concept of
mimesis to Native American trademarks, Coombe (1996) emphasized that an
imitative quality, one which allowed for the representation to gain power
from the represented, was not the only principle at work. Imitation was
joined to a principle of contact, whereby the image becomes owned and
overtaken when the body of the perceived is brought in touch with the
perceiver.
In effect, with each representation of a
trademark fashioned and shaped to adhere to a dominant view of what
Indians are perceived to be like, as seen consistently in feathered,
war-painted, fighting sport images, the act of imitation draws power away
from the original while perpetually altering the original in the process
(i.e., creating distance between the real Indian and the manufactured
replica of an Indian stereotype). In the process, the replica, already
degenerative in and of itself, serves to simultaneously undermine the very
people it mimics.
In contemporary times, this mimetic process
of imitation, contact, and ownership can be seen in sport in a variety of
ways. When teams with names like Braves, Indians, Warriors, and Blackhawks
play, spectators engage in an array of obvious imitative/contact/ownership
behaviors ranging from the donning of headdresses, wearing of "war
paint", singing of "war chants", and chopping of tomahawks
(Leiby, 1994; Rosenstein, 1997; Specktor, 1993). Less active imitations,
but no less blatant, are the clothes in which fans wrap themselves and
accoutrements with which they mark their belongings. From the eight-year
old fan photographed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1993
resplendent in Chief Wahoo sweatshirt, handmade "Indians" sign,
and sunglasses decorated with Chief Wahoo stickers to the garden where
scarecrows have been replaced with Cleveland logos, fans imitate, embody,
and literally own "Indian" things.9
To follow the logic of the theory of mimesis
to its final conclusion, imitation eventually is an outgrowth of literal
economic, political, and ideological ownership. In a commentary on the
messages of ownership and power embedded in Native American imagery such
as Chief Illiniwek at the University of Illinois, Charlene Teters, a
Spokane Indian activist remarked, "I see the mascot as a symbolic
display of our leadership. That we control you. We own you"
(Rosenstein, 1997, video).
An end result of imitation, contact, and
ownership by a group unaware of or insensitive to the Native American
meanings of the symbols involved is the systematic distortion and
destruction of the Native Americans' symbols themselves. What is owned,
either materially or intellectually, is not the original or even a
reasonable facsimile.
As a consequence, things sacred to Indians,
such as the wearing of eagle feathers, religious chanting, and dancing
assume qualities of the dispossessors, who regard these things as fun and
harmless activities to be engaged in en masse at the ball park (Banks,
1993; Rosenstein, 1997). Thus, as the symbols metamorphose from the
religious to the frivolous, the collective acts of imitation create
symbolism that has an Indian facade but a racialized/ethnocentric value
structure and meaning.
The accumulated effect of this metamorphosis
is the delivery of limiting impressions of Native peoples as fictional,
near mythic fighting figures or exotics whose customs and practices become
viewed as comical or quaint rather than deserving of reverence. This
impression expands exponentially through the sheer amount and magnitude of
exposure these images receive. In a 1995 review of sport organizations
(not including community leagues) in the United States that use Native
American symbols, mascots, logos, or nicknames, 1500 high schools, 14 AAA
minor league baseball teams, 73 colleges and universities, 50 junior
colleges, and 5 professional sport franchises were identified (Connolly,
Corbellini, & Grant, 1996). Some sense of the exposure viewers receive
to Native American imagery while watching televised sporting events is
revealed in the fact that during Game 3 of the 1995 World Series featuring
the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves, Native American imagery
associated with the Cleveland team alone appeared on screen or was
mentioned verbally over 650 times in a four hour broadcast (author, frame
by frame analysis, 1996).
Native imagery permeates and punctuates the
very atmosphere of the sporting world. With frequency, the auditory,
tactile, and visual senses of viewers and spectators, participants and
bystanders, come in direct contact with Native signifiers and symbols.
This condition of Native imagery being transmitted through the air, worn
our backs, and embedded in our language is something Bordewich (1996)
refers to as cultural saturation.
In a commentary about the American public's
general lack of awareness with respect to matters pertaining to Native
Americans, Bordewich (1996) observed that, "... it is almost as if a
culture that is literally saturated with allusions to fictional Indians
had no interest in living Indians at all" (p. 17). It is this very
point of saturation that Coombe (1996) considers when she concluded that
"The generic Indian body of mass media advertising will be much
harder to remove, so ubiquitous has it become and so invisible and unheard
the real referents" (p. 218).
Invisible and Unheard
Referents - The Case of the Cleveland Indians
An examination of the origin of the Cleveland
Indians name provides an illuminating case in point with regard to
invisible and unheard referents. On the surface, the official story of how
Cleveland came to be known as the "Indians" begins in 1914. The
team at that time was called the "Naps", a direct reference to
Cleveland's legendary second basemen, Napoleon Lajoie. In that year, when
Lajoie was traded from Cleveland to Philadelphia (Edwards, February 7,
1915; Edwards, February 11, 1915; Evans, February 7, 1915), the need arose
to rename the franchise (Lewis, 1949).
According to a Cleveland press release, the
renaming of the franchise was conducted through a contest run by a local
newspaper, the winning entry being 'Indians', "...in honor of Louis
Francis Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian from Old Towne, Maine ..."
("Name/Logo Issue, November 15, 1995). In another Cleveland
publication, the 1997 Indians Media Guide, an unidentified fan is
credited with suggesting "Indians" as a posthumous tribute to
Louis Sockalexis, the first American Indian ever to play in the major
leagues.
A critical analysis of the story as presented
by the Cleveland organization via press releases, media guides, and
yearbook entries (all of which report essentially the same thing) beg a
series of questions. The referenced newspaper contest itself gives rise to
several queries. What was the name of the newspaper that played such a
crucial role in renaming the team? Why was only one newspaper rather than
the four that existed at the time included in the renaming process? 10
Would the exclusion of the other papers from the contest not
have alienated supporters and writers from those papers? Additionally, in
a time when the United States continued to implement governmental policy
which stripped Native Americans of their culture and their freedom how
likely would it have been that Sockalexis' ethnic background would have
been viewed as something to be honored?11
(Sheppard, 1993).
In a review of sport sections of the Cleveland
Leader, the Cleveland News, the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
and the Cleveland Press from September, 1914 through March, 1915
the version of the story behind the renaming of the franchise differs
markedly with the one presented by the Cleveland organization today. In
early January of 1915, as the professional baseball community geared up
for the spring season, Cleveland sportswriters were taking note of the
departure of well-liked and much-admired marquee player, Napoleon Lajoie,
while simultaneously recognizing the necessity to rename the team.
On January 6th, stories appeared in the Cleveland
Plain Dealer and the Cleveland Press reporting the intention of
Charley Somers, president of the team, to convene a conference of baseball
writers for the purpose of selecting a new name. Dubbed the
"nomenclature committee" by a Plain Dealer columnist
known by the pen name of "The Second Cook" (January 9, 1915),
the committee would meet nine days after Somers' proposed process had been
announced and a name identified at that time.
In the intervening days between Somers'
announcement and the January 15th meeting of the sportswriters, banter
appeared in the papers regarding the renaming of the franchise12.
The erroneous idea that a contest had been conducted to rename the
team may stem from a headline in the Cleveland Press which reads
"Fans Will Help Select New Nickname for the Naps" (January 7,
1915, p. 14). Electing to solicit suggestions from the fans to rename the
"Napless-Naps", the sports editor from the Press
explained that "Nicknames suggested will be submitted to the
committee." In response to the invitation, fans reportedly submitted
fifty seven recommendations for consideration ("57 Varieties of Names
for Naps," January 12, 1915, p. 12).
Any link between the Press
solicitation of fan suggestions and the eventual selection of the
"Indians" name is difficult to discern from the accounts
presented and appears improbable. The assertion that a fan recommended
"Indians" to honor Louis Francis Sockalexis, although not
impossible, has no evidentiary foundation in the articles chronicling fan
or writer preferences. In three stories from the Press in which the
results of the fan response were listed, "Indians" does not
appear ("Fan Offers Scraps As Team Name," January 9, 1915;
"Favors Old Nickname," January 11, 1915; "57 Varieties of
Names of Naps," January 12, 1915).
In the January 17th edition of the Plain
Dealer, a large cartoon featuring several figures in stereotypical
Indian attire and headdress along with the caption "Ki Yi Wangh Woop!
Their Indians!" was printed (Blosser, January 17, 1915). A short
story situated below the cartoon reporting the outcome of the baseball
writers meeting to select the new name, noted that "The title of
Indians was their [baseball writers] choice, it having been one of the
names applied to the old National league club of Cleveland many years
ago" (January 17, 1915, Part Three, Page One).
Two aspects of the story are particularly
salient. First, Sockalexis is not mentioned in the stories recounting the
selection of the name. Second, the Plain Dealer reported that the
nickname was "but temporarily bestowed" until such time as the
team could "earn some other cognomen which may be more
appropriate" ("Baseball Writers Select...", January 17,
1915, Part Three, Page One). This statement does not support the notion
that the name was intended to permanently pertain to the team let alone
permanently honor a figure who did not warrant mention at the time the
selection was announced.
The revelation that a fan's fond reminiscence
of Sockalexis was not the driving force behind the adoption of the
"Indians" name relieves Cleveland's story of its cloak of
authority, revealing in its stead several problems. Perhaps nowhere is the
problematic of this discovery revealed more sharply than when Cleveland
asserts in their publications that "the memory of Louis Francis
Sockalexis was not forgotten in 1914 and that he continues to be
remembered today" ("Name/Logo Issue," November 15, 1995; 1997
Cleveland Indians Media Guide).
In 1992, Native American scholar and author
Michael Dorris wrote that Native imagery in sport obscured reality by
serving as "opaque curtains, solid walls of white noise." When
considered through the lens Dorris describes, the tidiness of Cleveland's
explanation for the origin of their name masks not only their own
motivations. It also masks the complexity of who Sockalexis was and the
texture of his experience as an Indian playing in the major leagues in the
late 1890s. One might speculate that if Cleveland really intended to
"acknowledge and foster the legacy of Louis Francis Sockalexis"
as they claim ("Name/Logo Issue," November 15, 1995), this part
of the story is what they would seek to tell. Noticeably, apart from
Sockalexis' status as the first American Indian to play professional
baseball, Cleveland publications offer very little insight into who
Sockalexis was or what his experience as a player was like.
A Brief Biography - Louis
Francis Sockalexis
A fair sketch of the ebb and flow of
Sockalexis' life, with references to his family background, his path to
the pros, and his life after baseball can be pieced together from several
standard biographies. Sockalexis was born into what has been described as
an athletic family. Louis was the cousin of Andrew Sockalexis, a marathon
runner who competed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Unlike so many other
Indian children of the late 1800s who were removed from their homes and
sent to live in off-reservation boarding schools, Sockalexis was educated
in Catholic schools in and around Old Town, Maine, the place of his birth.
While in Catholic school, Sockalexis distinguished himself in skating,
track, and baseball (Cohen, 1995; Ward & Burns, 1994; Oxendine, 1988;
Wellman, 1974).
Upon completing his schooling in Maine,
Sockalexis went on to college at Holy Cross and Notre Dame. At Holy Cross,
he immediately became a star pitcher and outfielder, pitching three
no-hitters and recording .436 and .444 batting averages in the 1895 and
1896 seasons respectively (Oxendine, 1988; Seymour, 1960; Ward &
Burns, 1994).
His remarkable success in college baseball
drew the attention of Patsy Tebeau, the manager of the Cleveland Spiders,
who eventually signed Sockalexis to his first professional contract. At
the outset of his professional baseball career, Sockalexis appeared to be
on target to fulfill the enormous promise the famous manager of the New
York Giants, John McGraw had seen in him. McGraw described Sockalexis as
the greatest natural talent he had ever encountered in the game (Hauptman,
1994; Oxendine, 1988; Ward & Burns, 1994).13
For the first three months of the season,
Sockalexis acquitted himself well, being described as fleet-footed in the
outfield and a marvelous adversary at the plate. Prior to suffering an
injury in July of 1897 and suspensions for drunkenness that would prevent
him from playing for two months of that first season, Sockalexis had a
.413 hitting percentage (Voigt, 1983). Despite missing a significant
portion of the season, Sockalexis stole 16 bases and finished with a
respectable .338 batting average. Sockalexis went on to play sporadically
for the Spiders in 1898 and 1899 before ending his major league baseball
career (Hauptman, 1995).
Although some aspects of Sockalexis' career
as a professional baseball player are well documented and supported by a
degree of consensus among biographers, a review of what has been written
about Sockalexis reveals that his life and identity are inextricably tied
to an image manufactured by sportswriters in their coverage of the
Cleveland ball club, particularly during the 1897 season. In contemporary
terms, the media hype surrounding Sockalexis makes the task of searching
for Sockalexis that much more difficult and riskier. To study Sockalexis
is to study the Sockalexis created by the franchise, the fans, and the
media at the time.14 Importantly,
Salsinger (n.d.) addresses this critical dynamic when he wrote that
"While they [sportswriters] spoke in superlatives when his name was
mentioned, none seemed to know a great deal about him."
Sockalexis' arrival in Cleveland was welcomed
by sportswriters grown weary of trying to produce interesting and exciting
prose about a Spider team plagued not only by a mediocre record in 1914
but an uninspiring nickname to boot. The Sporting Life reporter,
Elmer Bates, wrote on March 22, 1897, just days after Sockalexis arrived
in town:
There is no feature of the signing of
Sockalexis more gratifying than the fact that his presence on the team
will result in relegating to obscurity the title of 'Spiders,' by which
the team has been handicapped for several seasons, to give place to the
more significant name 'Indians' (p. 3).
Bates' counterpart at the Sporting News,
Charles W. Mears, also had a sense for the possibilities Sockalexis'
heritage afforded as a novel marketing and reporting angle. Less than two
weeks after the start of the season, Mears (April 19, 1897) remarked upon
the local interest generated in various cities about Sockalexis from press
coverage featuring him. Noting that the 'Red Man' was the best advertised
player in the business, Mears speculated that record numbers of fans would
attend games simply to satisfy their curiosity about the strong and
powerful Indian player.
Traced to its earliest origins, the
appropriation of Native imagery by the Cleveland Spiders and sport
journalists was not an attempt to honor Sockalexis or Native Americans in
general. In 1897, usage was simply a spontaneous occurrence rooted in the
practice of the times that had expedient motives at core. Stakeholders in
the business of baseball (i.e., the press and the owners) aware of the
interest that might be generated, cultivated his Indian image for the
purpose of selling tickets as well as newspapers (Hauptman, 1995). Readers
and fans were hooked as a result of devices such as references to
Sockalexis as "Chief" and fictional stories about Sockalexis
relinquishing his reported familial obligation as chief of his tribe in
order to play baseball (Hauptman, 1995; Phillips, 1991).15
Tapping into a public consciousness that
still remembered the Indian Wars of the 1870s, metaphorical references to
White-Indian relations were frequent.16
An unlikely tale about Sockalexis being a relative of Sitting Bull
appeared in one story (Bates, April 17, 1897). A much touted confrontation
between heavy hitting Sockalexis and renowned New York Giants pitcher,
Amos Rusie, relied on the 1876 battle at the Little Big Horn to increase
literary appeal. The potential submission of the "Redskin" at
the hands of the white player Rusie inspired reminiscences of Buffalo
Bill's "first scalp for Custer" and Cody's killing of Yellow
Hand after the Last Stand (Salisbury, 1989). This type of staged
attraction replicated elements found in Wild West Shows where reenactments
of White-Indian battles took place (Oxendine, 1988).
Along with cartoons picturing Sockalexis in
feathers and with war club in hand, poems about him and his teammates
being on the warpath (Wellman, 1974; "The War Club", May 4,
1897), and off-the-cuff characterizations of the Indian as a redman,
redskin, and medicine man, Sockalexis was as much a promotional vehicle,
meshing with the 'Show Indian' prototype borne out of the Wild West Show
phenomenon, as he was a ballplayer. Thus presented to the public, fans
responded in tempo to the sentiment at the center of the image.
Spectators for opposing teams were reported
to have showered racial slurs and invectives on the Penobscot Indian
frequently when he stepped to the plate. In a fashion similar to today's
fans, spectators in 1897 imitated what they believed were war whoops and
war dances, performing these when the so-called "Indian's team"
came to town. Observing the disruptive effects of ragging, a practice akin
to present-day forms of taunting, fans berated and demeaned Sockalexis
throughout his abbreviated playing career (Hauptman, 1994; Oxendine, 1988;
Rader, 1983; Voigt, 1983). According to Elmer Bates (May 8, 1897),
"In many cases these demonstrations border on extreme rudeness. In
almost every instance they are calculated to disconcert the
player..." (p. 8).
As a part of baseball's folklore, the
brilliant rise and subsequent fall of Sockalexis was marked by the press's
awareness of his alcohol dependence and inability to play due to an
injury. As his career declined, the angle sportswriters pursued in their
coverage of Sockalexis shifted from that of a splendid baseball player
whose 'Indian-ness' made him a novel presence in the league to that of a
weak man, unable to shake the hold alcohol had over him. This shift in the
story gave form to one of the most dominant and enduring Native American
stereotypes, that of the drunken, lazy, and suspect Indian ("A Wooden
Indian," July 13, 1897, "Sockalexis, Fat and Lazy...",
August 4, 1912).
As the accumulated effects of deteriorating
health, alcoholism, and racism took their toll, Sockalexis' performance on
the baseball diamond diminished considerably. By the end of the 1899
season, Sockalexis was dismissed from the Cleveland Spiders. For a few
years, Sockalexis continued to play baseball in the minor leagues,
eventually drifting into and out of a variety of jobs before his death at
the age of 42.17
The role Sockalexis played in the early
promotional usage of the "Indians" name becomes important in
studying the resurrection of the name in 1915. Although his potential and
prowess as a ballplayer are well-established, the belief that Sockalexis
was honored by the press, the fans, and the ball club deserves to be
examined in light of the documentation available.
According to Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary (1973), an honor is accorded to a person of superior
standing (p. 549). Given the degree of ragging to which he was subjected
and the manner in which he was promoted, the treatment of Sockalexis
amounted to exploitation, not an expression of honor. The presence of
Sockalexis on the roster in 1897 provided an opportunity to mine a set of
cultural images that resonated with the paying public. As seen in the 1915
accounts, when the team faced the mammoth task of moving out of the
basement in league standings while forging a new identity, there was no
need to mention Sockalexis because it was the generic, plural
"Indians" signifier that provided the marketing angle club
president Charley Somers and the sportswriters sought.
Discussion - The Power of A
Historical Claim
In commenting on the dismissal oppressed
groups experience when attempting to rectify long-standing and damaging
stereotypes embodied in the form of trademarks, Coombe (1996) observed
that cultural resistance points to a "...politics of ownership and
protest...that engages intellectual properties in increasingly commodified
public spheres" (p. 202). As a trafficker in intellectual property,
through the vehicles of press releases and media guides, the Cleveland
baseball franchise actively positions itself as the self-proclaimed
protector of an important historical perspective.
As such, does Cleveland, by virtue of its
status as an owner, have the right to distill and distribute a rendition
of history that rings so falsely? By telling and selling this story as it
is presently constructed, Cleveland either advertently or inadvertently
renders a potentially powerful history (i.e., the life and times of Louis
Francis Sockalexis) trivial while feeding a shallow patina of popular
culture that, in turn, replicates images of Indians that lack substance
and complexity. The implications of this dynamic are several.
The revelation that the Cleveland story lacks
credibility has been reported before in the mainstream press by the Cleveland
Plain Dealer (Aran & Sangiacomo, June 12, 1993) and by other
sources as well. Governed, it seems, by Hauptman's (1995) notion that one
false assumption triggers a particular path of logic that cannot lead to
an accurate conclusion, there is a vital sense for those who wish to
believe Cleveland's story that somewhere within the vast reaches of this
history, Sockalexis was honored when the franchise was named and is
honored today. The constant dissemination of Cleveland's version of the
story through mass mediated sources feeds that vital sense of possibility,
essential to Cleveland's ability to sustain the story because of its
insularity to criticism. Who, for example, could maintain their own
integrity by finding fault or exception with a sincere act of corporate
admiration and regard?
Evidence can be found in arguments made by
advocates who seek to retain the name and logo that they are influenced by
the perceived legitimacy of the Cleveland story. When Russell Means, a
Clevelander and leader in the American Indian Movement, sought an
injunction in 1972 that would have forced the club to discontinue use of
the Chief Wahoo caricature, heated debate ensued around the country
(Schneider, February 5, 1972). Sentiment regarding Means' assertion that
Wahoo was demeaning to Indians reflected that the historical accuracy of
the Cleveland story affected the views of some people. For example, in a
letter to the Sporting News, one baseball fan pointed out that the
controversy stirred by Means' suggestion that the symbol was racist failed
to consider how the Indians came to be named. Citing the history as it was
known to him, the writer concluded: "So, obviously the club had
honorable intentions in choosing 'Indians' as its team nickname"
(Wheat, March 4, 1972).
A similar argument was voiced in 1993, when
controversy over Chief Wahoo again surfaced. Jennifer Boles, one of the
founders of an organization called Save Our Chief, commented,
"The Cleveland Indians name and logo has
a huge history behind them. If the Native American protestors would look
at the history they'd realize they are being honored" (Aran &
Sangiacomo, June 12, 1993, p. 2B).
The impact of the historical claim on the
ways in which people think about the Cleveland name and logo is reflected
not only in the arguments advocates use in rationalizing the imagery. A
palpable sense of history, and its perceived deliverance of fact and
truth, resonates throughout a 1995 discussion about Chief Wahoo on a
Native American internet chat line and information service called Natnet
(http://bioc09.uthscsa.edu/natnet/archive/nl/9504, November 2, 1996).
Among the varied reactions to the Cleveland
name and logo by Native Americans, ranging from outright frustration and
anger to ambivalence and confusion to pride, the threads of the historical
argument wend their way through the discussion. As one Abenaki woman
wrote, "I think it was the first time (and only time) that naming of
a non-Indian entity was done to honor us" (Carol Snow Moon, April 30,
1995). Notably, some entries replicate the language from the Cleveland
press release almost verbatim (Toyoshima, August 4, 1994; Antone, April
28, 1995).
A hazy recollection that honor was intended
in naming the franchise for Sockalexis contributes to one Native writer's
ambivalence. Whereas Native imagery associated with alcohol is clearly
offensive to the writer, the Cleveland name and logo are more difficult to
dismiss as seen in the following reaction:
When I think about 'Crazy Horse Malt
Liquor' and what all they have done it can make me sick, but I must
admit that when I think of the story behind the 'Cleveland Indians' I
have mixed emotions (Derringer, May 1, 1995).
The impact of the perpetuation of the
Cleveland story, protected by a veneer of historical legitimacy, can be
gauged at several levels. On one hand, Cleveland's claim is not without
some debateable degree of socially redeeming quality. One might be
justified in wondering, for instance, if there would be any awareness of
Sockalexis at all if not for the story told by the franchise? However, a
false memory neither honors Sockalexis nor serves the greater interests of
society.
There would be imminent social good to be
gained if Cleveland represented Sockalexis in a manner that genuinely
enhanced the understanding of the public about Native Americans, their
lives and their history. Tellingly, Cleveland fosters the reverse. Through
the manipulation of selected information, the franchise uses a partially
fictionalized "Indian" past for the purposes of silencing the
protests of real Indians in the present. As a consequence, the majority
are empowered to reject the notion that the ball club's name and logo are
racist while ignoring protests from some Native Americans and their
allies.
In the end, the continuing exploitation of
Sockalexis by the franchise, the media, and the fans offers fertile ground
for reflecting about the racialized dimensions of sport and society. In
1997, as "the American game" celebrated the breaking of the
color barrier with recognition of the signing of Jackie Robinson (Weir,
April 14, 1997), it is a telling commentary that conceptions of race and
ethnicity in baseball appeared not to extend to Native Americans. Whereas
the year 1997 marked the passage of fifty years since the first
African-American player was permitted to play in the major leagues, little
if any substantive notice was paid to the fact that the year also marked
the one hundredth anniversary of the first Native American to play in the
majors.18.19 Perhaps the profound silence
of the Cleveland franchise and Major League Baseball on this point reveals
just how damaging mythologies such as the Cleveland story are to our
collective appreciation and sensitivity to Native Americans in sport and
in our society.
NOTES
1 Throughout
the manuscript, the terms American Indian, Indian, and Native American
appear. The author realizes that these terms in and of themselves are open to debate and discussion
relative to proper use. Wherever possible, terms appear as they have been used within the context of the numerous
citations referenced in the manuscript.
2 Chief
Wahoo is the logo associated with the Cleveland Indians baseball
organization. Chief Wahoo is depicted as a cartoon character with a red face, wide grin, black hair parted down the middle
held in place with a headband, with a feather protruding from the back of the headband.
3 Some of the American
Indian groups that have protested use of the Chief Wahoo logo since 1972
include the American Indian Movement, the Coalition Against Racism in Sports and the Media,
the Lake Erie Native American Council, and the North American Indian Cultural Center.
4 Edgar Heap of Birds is an associate
professor of art at the University of Oklahoma. The controversial work was
part of an exhibit entitled "16 Songs: Issues of Personal
Assessment and Indigenous Renewal" (Associated Press, 1996).
5 According to Coakley (1994),
"Critical theory is based on the notion that sports cannot be
understood or analyzed apart from the specific historical and cultural circumstances in which they
exist (p. 36)
6 Some scholars may argue that
history as dispensed through a sport franchise's press release does not
serve the same societal function as that of a scholarly regulated publication. In
point of fact, there may be validity to such an argument. However, theoretically and practically, the two intersect. In their
construction, both press releases and scholarly publications are expected to be developed in accordance and in
adherence to a code of professional ethics. It is notable that the professional ethics of public relations practitioners and
scholars share a common emphasis on the need to serve the public interest with honesty and integrity through accuracy and truth
while avoiding false or misleading information (AAUP Policy Documents and Reports, 1990; Baskin & Aronoff, 1992).
Furthermore, regardless of the information delivery system, the
material shared with fans and other sectors of the public influences individual and collective understanding in ways that are not
substantially different from material disseminated in a classroom, text, or scholarly journal. Ultimately what is being
considered here is the quality of the information shared and how then that information impacts on the ability of individuals and the
society as a whole to make sense and meaning of the world in which they live. Consequently, when an organization chooses to
make a historical claim and use it as a justification for their actions, they also assume the responsibility that goes along
with representing that history as accurately as possible for the greater good of the of the public and society.
7 Hauptman (1995) makes reference to
this expression (which is printed on a sign at Gardiner, NY) in the
preface of his book, Tribe & Tribulations: Misconceptions About American
Indians and Their Histories.
8 The practice of using Native
American imagery in advertising for a wide range of products has left an
indelible mark on American consumer culture. Fergus Bordewich (1996) observes
that these images are so embedded in mainstream consciousness that few people pause to consider where these images
originate or the implications of their continued use. He notes that "We drive 'Cherokees,' 'Winnebagos,' and
'Pontiacs...School children write on 'Big Chief' tablets.
9 In 1993, as the franchise readied
itself to move into a new stadium the following year (Jacobs Field), the
Cleveland ball club considered whether to continue using the Chief Wahoo logo.
The day after the announcement was made that the logo would remain in use, pictures appeared in the July 1, 1993 Cleveland
Plain Dealer featuring a large sign held by a fan which read "We Saved The Chief" (p. 1A). On page 2A, a
picture of eight year old Michael Soeder was printed as well. He is the boy mentioned in the text of thearticle. Both pictures were taken
by Plain Dealer photographer Richard Conway. The garden mentioned in the text was observed by the author on a trip
to Cleveland in June of 1997.
10 According to The Encyclopedia of
Cleveland History(Van Tassel & Grabowski, 1996), there were four
newspapers published in Cleveland in 1915. Those were the Cleveland Leader,
the Cleveland News, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Cleveland Press. This information was verified as well
at the Cleveland Public Library on July 21, 1997.
11
In 1900, three years after
Sockalexis arrived in Cleveland and fifteen years before the franchise is
named the Indians, only two American Indians lived in Cleveland (Sheppard, 1993).
12
In his column entitled
"Mixed Pickles," the Plain Dealer's sportswriter
known only as "The Second Cook" engaged in witty repartee about the team name on several occasions (Janury
10 & 14, 1915). Noting that one fan suggested that they refer to the team as the Barons in deference to President Charley
Somers, The Second Cook couldn't resist pointing out that given the team's poor performance the previous year, 'barren'
might be a very good name. On January 9, 1915, an article appearing in the Cleveland Press speculated about the
merits of "Twilight Sleepers", a name thought to be indicative
of the napping the indicative of the napping the Naps had done in the
1914 season.
13 John McGraw's description of
Sockalexis as a great "natural talent" was shared by others at
the time. In an April 24, 1897 entry in The Sporting Life, Elmer Bates commented that
Sockalexis' sensational throwing, marked by both consistency and sureness of aim, was attributable to "characteristics of his
race in handling the bow and arrow" (p. 5). Similarly, The
Sporting Life again remarked about the "naturalness" of
Sockalexis' talent by publishing a headline that read: "Indian In
Ball: The Race Has A Natural Inclination For Sphere Games" (p. 11).
Notably, the labeling of Sockalexis as a natural talent is consistent with the pattern of racial stereotyping to which African-American
athletes have often been subjected, (Eitzen & Sage, 1997).
14
To the author's knowledge, there is
no account available from Sockalexis himself.
15 References to Sockalexis having
given up a rightful claim as Chief of the Penobscots in order to play
baseball are inconsistent with descriptions of the Penobscot's overall form of
governance. Based on anthropologist Frank Speck's (1997)definitive work, Penobscot Man, hereditary
chieftancy was abandoned sometime around 1875 in favor of a two party elective system of governance.
16 Between 1897 through 1899, while
Sockalexis played for the Spiders, Libbie Custer, the wife of General
George Armstrong Custer of Little Big Horn fame, traveled around the
country as she had done since the time of her husband's death lecturing about the battle and her husband's career
(Barrett, 1996).
17 Native American author, Sherman
Alexie (1993), described Native American experience as that of survival
pointing out that"...it's almost like Indians can easily survive the big
stuff. Mass murder, loss of language, and land rights. It's the small things that hurt the most. The white waitress who wouldn't take
an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins" (p. 49). Although the writer speaks of American Indian experience in the
1990s, the orientation expressed is worth considering relative to the manner in which Sockalexis' experience was
reported by an all-white media. Among the many things written about Sockalexis in 1898, following the growing awareness that he
battled a drinking problem and was not fulfilling his promise as a ballplayer, an item about Sockalexis' ancestry
appeared in January of 1898 in the Sporting News. Under the headline "Sockalexis' Ancestors", the writer observed
that Sockalexis came from a tribe called the Abenaki, "never very numerous, but as scalpers and wholesale murderers they had a
proud and pre-eminent record." Interestingly, those depictions of Sockalexis carry forward to 1992, when a book
freely modeled on Sockalexis' life entitled The Cleveland Indian: The Legend of King Saturday (Salisbury, 1992) was
published. On the jacket of the book, the main character, called King Saturday, is described as a con man, a drunk, a
brawler, a hero, a schemer, and a murderer. Although a work of fiction, Sockalexis' picture appears on the cover of the
book.
18 An article entitled "The
Original Cleveland Indian" written by Jack DeVries was published in Game
Face magazine in August of 1997. DeVries reports that in a January 18, 1915
article in the Plain Dealer, the Indians "name" "was
to honor the first Native American to play in the Major Leagues." Upon
reviewing the mentioned 1915 article from the Plain Dealer, which appears in the editorial section of the newspaper rather
than the sports section, the interpretation present in Game Face Magazine alters the meaning of the published 1915
passage and deserves careful attention. Below is the first paragraph from the 1915 article:
Many years ago there was an Indian named Sockalexis who was the star
player of the Cleveland baseball club. As batter, fielder and base runner he was a marvel. Sockalexis
so far outshone his teammates that he naturally came to be regarded as the whole team. The "fans"
throughout the country began to call the Clevelanders the "Indians." It was an honorable name, and while
it stuck the team made an excellent record (emphasis added).
19 It is notable that despite the
national spotlight shining on Cleveland during the 1997 season due to the
city and franchise's hosting of the All-Star Game, record attendance, and a team
performance that would eventually lead to an appearance in the World Series, the article about Sockalexis is published
toward the end of regular season.
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