Changing Your Mascot

All sports teams including little league have some sort of team name or mascot. Tigers, bullfrogs, bears and other animals and mystical creatures have been used without any resistance or usual issues. Chiefs, Braves, Arabs, Regals, and Indians along with other mascots and team names have been viewed as offensive and recommended for change according to Spindel (2005), Toporek (2013), Walters (2006), Laveay (2009), Eitzen (1993) and Duncan (1993). 

According to Laveay, Callison and Rodriguez (2009), Franklin (2006) and Price (2002), mascots like the Cleveland Indians and movies like Pocahontas decreased a Native Americans self-esteem and sense of community. According to Beres (2005), the media controls how non-Indians view Indians and that image is a savage and happy hunting people on its way to extinction and so policy makers make laws accordingly. Not all imagery, mascots and team names are offensive. According to Pond-Cummings (2008), rarely has a mascot been seen so differently by different groups because some mascots symbolize strength and all the good, but others are a complete mockery and deeply offensive. According to Franklin (2006), many smaller tribes have signed waivers showing their support or lack of objection to the use of their nicknames for mascots or artwork. So in many cases these mascots and team names have been fully supported by their local communities.