Cleveland Indians To Be Renamed As Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball is changing its team name to the Cleveland Guardians.

What Happened: The team, which carried the Indians moniker since 1915, announced its decision Friday morning in a video. While acknowledging the Indians’ history, the video stressed Cleveland’s multicultural population and insisted “there’s always been Cleveland – that’s the best part of our name.”

According to MLB.com, the Guardians name is inspired by the “Guardians of Traffic” Art Deco statues on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge over Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River. While the video didn't say when the new name would go into effect, the MLB website stated the Guardians will be the official name beginning in the 2022 season.

Together, we are all... pic.twitter.com/R5FnT4kv1I

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 23, 2021

Why It Happened: For many years, Native American activists have decried what they perceived as a derogatory use of their culture by professional and school sports teams. This effort took on a new relevance last year when racial equality protests occurred across the nation following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

The Indians had been the focus of complaints by Native American activists since the mid-1990s, and in 2018 it removed its cartoon logo of "Chief Wahoo." In July 2020, the team issued a statement that said the “organization is at its best when we can unify our community and bring people together — and we believe a new name will allow us to do this more fully.”

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Perhaps the most notable acquiescence to the name change request was the NFL’s Washington Redskins, which agreed last year to drop their name based on longstanding complaints by Native American groups that the team name was racially offensive. The team, which has yet to come up with a new brand, now plays as the Washington Football Team.

Photo: Jeff Egnaczyk / Flickr Creative Commons.