by David Fleitz

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by David Fleitz

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I've been looking all over the Internet for the earlier versions of Cleveland's "Chief Wahoo", and I finally found some.

The Cleveland American League team was called the Blues, then the Bronchos, then the Naps (after popular star Nap Lajoie) in their first 14 seasons of existence. In 1915 they changed the name to Indians when Lajoie was released. The club has always maintained that they chose "Indians" to honor Louis Sockalexis, the Native American outfielder of 1897-99, though that claim seems to be in doubt now.

As you can tell, the "Chief" logo changed through the years. The 1928 logo looks like that famous photograph of President Calvin Coolidge in an Indian headdress, and one wonders if that photo inspired the logo. The 1947 version - the one the players wore on their sleeves in the 1948 world championship season - was really horrible, from an ethnic-sensitivity standpoint. The current red-faced, grinning Chief Wahoo appeared in 1950 and has been mostly unchanged since then.

Chief Wahoo has been an issue for the club since 1986, when the team put the Chief back on the players' caps after a long absence. Sales of Indians caps went way up in 1986, and remain high today, meaning that many people don't seem to take any offense to the grinning guy with the big teeth.

However, I want to know this: why do they call him "Chief" when obviously he's a mere brave? A chief would have more than one lousy feather sticking out of his head.