Over the past twenty some odd years sports teams have been attacked due to team logos and names. Whether we talk about the Washington Bullets changing to the Wizards as not to promote guns, or recently with the Washington Redskins being attacked because their name is a blatant racist remark towards Native Americans.
While many fans (predominately older) do not agree with the attack on sports franchises — especially ones the portray Indians in a negative light — they do not understand the pain which these names or images bring native Americans.
If these images were directed towards blacks, Asians, Mexicans, or any other background, it would have been stopped alost before it began. However it seems we have forgotten about the Native Americans, their thoughts and feelings. Perhaps it is because it is harder to identify who is an American Indian, the out of sight out of mind mentality, or perhaps it is because throughout school we learned how the Indians were the bad guys.
Whether misguided learning or ignorance towards the race, the demeaning words hurt them as much as they any other person of color or person of another race.
Coming back to the Quebec First Nations chief, and his recent remarks. When the chief, Ghislain Picard was shown an alternate Chicago Blackhawks logo, he immediately jumped on the bandwagon according to CBC out of Canada.
“If there’s consideration for what we think and what we would like to see, then sure,” Picard said.
The logo shown, and you may have seen it already, is that of another native American and it has been circulating around social media for several years.
While the logo take a more literal approach at the Chicago Blackhawks logo, one of an Aboriginal warrior, it also misses the story behind what many call the greatest logo in sports.
The Blackhawks came about when Maj. Frederic McLaughlin purchased a small team, Huntington Hardwick back in 1926. Maj. McLaughlin was in the Blackhawk Division while in the army, which the division earned its name after a Sauk and Fox Indian leader who fought against the States in the war of 1812 as well as 1832. Maj. McLaughlin named the team after that division. McLaughlin’s wife would create the team’s first logo, and the rest became history.
The Blackhawks logo is one from respect to where they came, the army’s 86th infantry unit, but more importantly to show respect to an actual man. The Blackhawks organization is involved with local Illinois Native American organizations, giving back to the people for which were led by the man on the team’s crest.
While a person growing up thousands of miles away, who is affiliated with a different Indian tribe may not fully know the rich history of the Blackhawks logo, but likewise we may not know the pain the dipliction of an Indian on a players chest might be to someone of that background either.
Source: CBC, Sports Mockery, Encyclopedia Brittanica, Chicago Blackhawks,
