Long Island's Native American leaders denounce Atlanta's nickname, celebration

As the baseball spotlight shines this weekend on Atlanta, which is hosting its first World Series games in more than two decades, prominent Native Americans from Long Island are joining others around the country in denouncing the team’s nickname and fans’ go-to rallying cry, which they say are racist and offensive.

"The Atlanta baseball team is one of the most egregious forms of racism in the sports arena that still exists," said Harry B. Wallace, a former chief of the Unkechaug Indian Nation and a member of the Long Island Intertribal Historic Preservation Task Force. "Baseball, as much as I love that game, are the last people to get the message."

Wallace traces his fandom to his first visit to the old Yankee Stadium, with an older cousin in 1958, when fans were allowed on the field to visit the monuments dedicated to the franchise’s greats. He has loved the sport ever since. But as the Fall Classic shifted from Houston to Atlanta for three games Friday through Sunday, he refused to watch because of the "negative, derogatory reflection" of Native Americans at Truist Park, he said.

A primary problem: Fans’ engagement with, and Atlanta’s encouragement of, the tomahawk chop, a rocking of their arms in a chop-like motion accompanied by a singsong chant and sometimes a drumbeat played over the PA system. It typically occurs during Atlanta rallies. During opposing teams’ pitching changes, Atlanta dims the lights at the ballpark and fans turn on their phone flashlights as they do the chop.

"The people who do it," Wallace said, "have no idea what they’re doing."

What they’re doing, according to Lance Gumbs, is reinforcing harmful — and inaccurate — stereotypes about Native Americans.

"It’s signifying hostilities or perceived hostilities that we as Indian people had with the United States government," said Gumbs, a lifelong resident of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and former tribal chairman. "Even though it’s meant to be something at the game, it’s an unnecessary portrayal of our culture that we were hostile, we were always on the offensive, we were murderous, hateful people — when it’s exactly the opposite."

The conversation and controversy surrounding some of Atlanta’s baseball traditions were renewed this past week with the start of the World Series. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred defended the team name and chop when he told reporters on Tuesday: "The Native American community in that region is wholly supportive of [Atlanta’s] program, including the chop. For me, that's kind of the end of the story. In that market, we're taking into account the Native American community."

Gumbs took issue with that characterization, noting that there are no federally recognized tribes in Georgia, never mind greater Atlanta specifically. Manfred seemed to be referencing the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a North Carolina-based tribe with whom Atlanta has developed a relationship.

"The commissioner is really disappointingly stupid in his response to a legitimate protest and objection to these incessantly obnoxious symbols," Wallace said.

The National Congress of American Indians said in a statement Wednesday that it is not merely a local issue.

"The league and team have an obligation to genuinely listen to Tribal Nations and leaders across the United States about how the team’s mascot impacts them," it said in part. "NCAI, a consensus-based congress composed of hundreds of Tribal Nations from every region of this country, has made its categorical opposition to Native ‘themed’ mascots abundantly clear to sports teams, schools, and the general public for more than five decades."

The team responded with a statement this past week that read, in part, "[The organization] proudly elevates Native American culture and language on a continuous basis. Our efforts are ever evolving, and always in partnership with the Native American community. We firmly believe that the strength, courage, and resiliency of all Tribal Nations should be honored and esteemed by Americans every day."

As Native Americans push to rid sports of these norms — an effort that has led to name changes of the NFL team in Washington, D.C., and MLB team in Cleveland — Sandi Brewster-Walker has one request. The executive director and government affairs officer of the Montaukett Indian Nation said she wants teams to not simply react to the outcry but understand what motivates it.

"I don’t like the idea of just dropping it or changing it without discussion," Brewster-Walker said. "The team should really learn about what Natives were in the area or Native American history in general. They should have some learning experience first to understand why the name is offensive."