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Cleveland's Baseball Team to Change Name

VOA News

   Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians will be changing the team's
   name after years of criticism and objections from Native American
   groups.

   The team has not officially announced the move, but multiple news
   organizations cited people familiar with the matter saying that could
   happen as early as this week.

   Cleveland had already taken the step of eliminating its use of a Native
   American caricature as the team's logo during the 2019 season.

   InJuly, it pledged to examine the issue of the team namein light
   oflocal and national social justice protests.

   Renaming teams and ending the use of Indigenous mascotsin both
   professional and scholastic sportsin the United Stateshave drawn praise
   from those saying their use isracist.

   The National Football League's team in Washington changed its name this
   year, becoming the Washington Football Team after ending its use of the
   long-criticized Redskins name and logo."Redskin" is a pejorative term
   foraNative American commonly usedduring America's frontier period when
   settlers and Native Americans competed for land and resources.

   Such changes have drawn some criticism from people who defended the use
   of Indigenous names and imagery, and said the changes served to
   eliminate team history.

   President Donald Trump tweeted his objection to Cleveland's change,
   calling it "Cancel culture at work!"

   Cleveland has used the Indians name since 1915. It is not clear how
   quickly the name will be changed,orwhat the replacement will be.

   There are other high-profile teams that have faced calls to change
   their names, including baseball's Atlanta Braves, football's Kansas
   City Chiefs and the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks.Each of
   those teams has said it has no plans to change its name.

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