Over the summer, while the country was still roiled by protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, the Cleveland Indians began to investigate a name change. The team had been known as the Indians since 1915, but after years of protest and criticism over a name that was deemed by many to be racist, it said the time was right to determine whether the name was still appropriate.

It was not lip service. Over several months, the organization, led by the team’s controlling owner, Paul Dolan, conducted research and held interviews with what it called stakeholders — fans of the team, Native American groups, religious and civic leaders from a variety of backgrounds, researchers, historians and psychologists.

And on Monday, the team announced it would abandon the name “Indians,” which many feel is an outdated relic of subjugation. The team will choose a new name in an unspecified time frame. Until it does, it will still be called the Indians. But that is temporary.

“We have decided to move forward with changing the current team name and determining a new, non-Native American based name for the franchise,” the club said in a statement on Monday.

Source: New York Times

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