When the Cleveland Indians changed their name to the “Guardians” in 2021, it was supposed to be progress.
But for many Native Americans like me, it felt like something else entirely: being canceled.
On the Sunday of this past week, President Donald Trump stood up for us when he called on the team in Ohio to bring back its iconic name.
“Cleveland should do the same with the Cleveland Indians,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after calling for the Washington Redskins name to also be restored. “The Owner of the Cleveland Baseball Team, Matt Dolan, who is very political, has lost three Elections in a row because of that ridiculous name change. What he doesn’t understand is that if he changed the name back to the Cleveland Indians, he might actually win an Election.”
“Indians are being treated very unfairly,” Trump added. “MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!”
The original name wasn’t just a catchy title. It actually had meaning.
It was linked to Louis Sockalexis, a Native American outfielder who played for the then-Cleveland Spiders in the late 1890s.
Sockalexis, a member of the Penobscot Nation, was the first Native American widely recognized in professional baseball. In 1897, he hit .338 with an .845 OPS in 66 games, according to MLB.com.
The origin of the Cleveland Indians name lies in the Native American legend, Louis Sockalexis.
‘Deerfoot of the Diamond’ on ESPN+ ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/MdtZ2S8m5p
— 30 for 30 (@30for30) November 13, 2024
A 1915 edition of The Plain Dealer newspaper remembered his legacy clearly:
“Many years ago there was an Indian named Sockalexis who was the star player of the Cleveland baseball club,” the article said. “Sockalexis so far outshone his teammates that he naturally came to be regarded as the whole team.”
The article added that “fans throughout the country began to call the Clevelanders the ‘Indians’” as “an honorable name.”
After star player Nap Lajoie left the team in 1915, “Indians” was chosen as the new name — widely seen as a nod to Sockalexis.
That same year, The Boston Herald also praised Sockalexis in coverage of the renaming.
He died in 1913, but his impact was still fresh in the minds of fans and sportswriters.
But after the 2020 summer of wokeness, the activists — mostly white, childless liberals — succeeded in scrubbing his name from the public eye.
The self-righteous bunch were only helping the American Indian, right? Not even close.
All they accomplished, aside from deleting Aunt Jemima, was erasing Sockalexis and insulting many, many modern Native Americans, such as this sports fan. We enjoyed being celebrated by American culture.
Sockalexis wasn’t a mascot. He was a sports pioneer.
And his story deserves to be remembered, not canceled.
If anyone had bothered to ask most of us Native Americans if we were offended by being celebrated in sports, we would have told them to kick rocks.
Instead, the coastal elites who power the progressive outrage machine spoke for us and canceled a legend.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
