According to a Cleveland press release, the renaming of the franchise was conducted through a contest run by a local newspaper, the winning entry being 'Indians', "...in honor of Louis Francis Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian from Old Towne, Maine ..." ("Name/Logo Issue, November 15, 1995). In another Cleveland publication, the 1997
Indians Media Guide, an unidentified fan is credited with suggesting "Indians" as a posthumous tribute to Louis Sockalexis, the first American Indian ever to play in the major leagues.
A critical analysis of the story as presented by the Cleveland organization via press releases, media guides, and yearbook entries (all of which report essentially the same thing) beg a series of questions. The referenced newspaper contest itself gives rise to several queries. What was the name of the newspaper that played such a crucial role in renaming the team? Why was only one newspaper rather than the four that existed at the time included in the renaming process?
10 Would the exclusion of the other papers from the contest not have alienated supporters and writers from those papers? Additionally, in a time when the United States continued to implement governmental policy which stripped Native Americans of their culture and their freedom how likely would it have been that Sockalexis' ethnic background would have been viewed as something to be honored?
11 (Sheppard, 1993).
In a review of sport sections of the
Cleveland Leader, the
Cleveland News, the
Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the
Cleveland Press from September, 1914 through March, 1915 the version of the story behind the renaming of the franchise differs markedly with the one presented by the Cleveland organization today. In early January of 1915, as the professional baseball community geared up for the spring season, Cleveland sportswriters were taking note of the departure of well-liked and much-admired marquee player, Napoleon Lajoie, while simultaneously recognizing the necessity to rename the team.
On January 6th, stories appeared in the
Cleveland Plain Dealer and the
Cleveland Press reporting the intention of Charley Somers, president of the team, to convene a conference of baseball writers for the purpose of selecting a new name. Dubbed the "nomenclature committee" by a
Plain Dealer columnist known by the pen name of "The Second Cook" (January 9, 1915), the committee would meet nine days after Somers' proposed process had been announced and a name identified at that time.
In the intervening days between Somers' announcement and the January 15th meeting of the sportswriters, banter appeared in the papers regarding the renaming of the franchise
12.The erroneous idea that a contest had been conducted to rename the team may stem from a headline in the
Cleveland Press which reads "Fans Will Help Select New Nickname for the Naps" (January 7, 1915, p. 14). Electing to solicit suggestions from the fans to rename the "Napless-Naps", the sports editor from the
Press explained that "Nicknames suggested will be submitted to the committee." In response to the invitation, fans reportedly submitted fifty seven recommendations for consideration ("57 Varieties of Names for Naps," January 12, 1915, p. 12).
Any link between the
Press solicitation of fan suggestions and the eventual selection of the "Indians" name is difficult to discern from the accounts presented and appears improbable. The assertion that a fan recommended "Indians" to honor Louis Francis Sockalexis, although not impossible, has no evidentiary foundation in the articles chronicling fan or writer preferences. In three stories from the
Press in which the results of the fan response were listed, "Indians" does not appear ("Fan Offers Scraps As Team Name," January 9, 1915; "Favors Old Nickname," January 11, 1915; "57 Varieties of Names of Naps," January 12, 1915).
In the January 17th edition of the
Plain Dealer, a large cartoon featuring several figures in stereotypical Indian attire and headdress along with the caption "Ki Yi Wangh Woop! Their Indians!" was printed (Blosser, January 17, 1915). A short story situated below the cartoon reporting the outcome of the baseball writers meeting to select the new name, noted that "The title of Indians was their [baseball writers] choice, it having been one of the names applied to the old National league club of Cleveland many years ago" (January 17, 1915, Part Three, Page One).
Two aspects of the story are particularly salient. First, Sockalexis is not mentioned in the stories recounting the selection of the name. Second, the
Plain Dealer reported that the nickname was "but temporarily bestowed" until such time as the team could "earn some other cognomen which may be more appropriate" ("Baseball Writers Select...", January 17, 1915, Part Three, Page One). This statement does not support the notion that the name was intended to permanently pertain to the team let alone permanently honor a figure who did not warrant mention at the time the selection was announced.
The revelation that a fan's fond reminiscence of Sockalexis was not the driving force behind the adoption of the "Indians" name relieves Cleveland's story of its cloak of authority, revealing in its stead several problems. Perhaps nowhere is the problematic of this discovery revealed more sharply than when Cleveland asserts in their publications that "the memory of Louis Francis Sockalexis was not forgotten in 1914 and that he continues to be remembered today" ("Name/Logo Issue," November 15, 1995;
1997 Cleveland Indians Media Guide).
In 1992, Native American scholar and author Michael Dorris wrote that Native imagery in sport obscured reality by serving as "opaque curtains, solid walls of white noise." When considered through the lens Dorris describes, the tidiness of Cleveland's explanation for the origin of their name masks not only their own motivations. It also masks the complexity of who Sockalexis was and the texture of his experience as an Indian playing in the major leagues in the late 1890s. One might speculate that if Cleveland really intended to "acknowledge and foster the legacy of Louis Francis Sockalexis" as they claim ("Name/Logo Issue," November 15, 1995), this part of the story is what they would seek to tell. Noticeably, apart from Sockalexis' status as the first American Indian to play professional baseball, Cleveland publications offer very little insight into who Sockalexis was or what his experience as a player was like.
