Origin of Indians' name is once again under fire

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, May 18, 1999

The Associated Press

CLEVELAND -- The origin of the Cleveland Indians' nickname has been called into question.

For more than 30 years, the club has said the nickname "Indians" was chosen in a newspaper contest to honor Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian who played for the Cleveland Spiders from 1897-99. But Ellen Staurowsky, an associate professor at Ithaca College who wrote a paper on the subject in the Sociology of Sports Journal last December, said the idea that there was a contest is a mistake. "That's completely fake," she told the Plain Dealer. "It's a misrepresentation of what actually happened. There is no evidence the team was named after Sockalexis." In recent years, protesters have demonstrated against the Indians nickname and the club's Chief Wahoo mascot, saying they are degrading to American Indians. Cleveland fans sometimes argue the nickname was meant as a tribute to Sockalexis and not an insult. The team first began mentioning the Sockalexis link in its 1968 media guide, and in this year's edition, a full page has been devoted to Sockalexis and a history of Cleveland's nicknames. It says that in 1915 "a local daily newspaper ran a contest and the name Indian was suggested by a fan who said he was doing it in honor of an Indians player named Louis Francis Sockalexis." But in researching its own paper and three others from Jan. 1, 1915 through April 30, 1915, the Plain Dealer found that Sockalexis' name was never mentioned when the nickname was announced. The name Indians was chosen by a committee of sports writers. "It's important to realize that nicknames used by teams back then didn't have the official status that they do today," team spokesman Bob DiBiasio said. "Teams had several nicknames that were used by fans and players and the press." In her paper, Staurowsky points to the tale of a contest originating from a Jan. 7, 1915, headline which said: "Fans will help select new nickname for Naps." The Naps was the nickname used by the team until 1915 when second baseman Nap Lajoie was traded to the Philadelphia Athletics. The club was officially known as the Spiders during the 1890s until Sockalexis arrived in 1897. Staurowsky said sports writers would vacillate on using Indians "depending on how well Sockalexis was playing." She said the Indians are not entirely correct when they say the team is named specifically for Sockalexis. "There is a vast difference between speculating the Indians were named after Sockalexis and making the claim the franchise now makes, that there was an intentional decision to honor him," she said.