The Atlanta Braves have been facing pressure for several years now to do away with their most popular fan chant and change some of their imagery, but there have been no indications that the “tomahawk chop” is going anywhere in 2020.
The “tomahawk chop,” in which Braves fans are given foam tomahawks or use their arms and sing along to a distinctive warchant, once again became a controversial topic during the MLB playoffs last year when St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Ryan Helsley, a member of the Cherokee tribe, was critical of it. Jeff Schultz of The Athletic spoke with National Congress of American Indians CEO Kevin Allis and Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. recently, and both called for the Braves to make changes this season.
“The ‘warrior savage’ myth has plagued this country’s relationships with the Indian people, as it reinforces the racist view that Indians are uncivilized and uneducated, and it has been used to justify policies of forced assimilation and destruction of Indian culture,” Allis said. “We would count the ‘Tomahawk Chop’ to be among those symbols. As a ritual that is still widely practiced and consumed on television by sports fans across the country, it is a painful perpetuation of the ‘warrior savage’ myth.”
Hoskin agreed, telling Schultz that the time is now to have “meaningful dialogue on cultural appropriateness of Native Americans in this country.”
After Helsley spoke out against the tomahawk chop, the Braves decided not to give out 40,000 foam tomahawks for Game 5 of the NLDS. The team later said in a statement that they plan to work with the Native American community to “evaluate how we activate elements of our brand,” but representatives from the NCAI and Cherokee Nation say no one from the Braves has reached out to them.
By deciding not to hand out foam tomahawks in a playoff game last year, the Braves were seemingly acknowledging that the chant and a part of their branding is racially insensitive. Now, they’re facing a great deal of criticism for essentially ignoring something they admitted was an issue. Eventually, we may see a situation where Major League Baseball steps in like it did with the Cleveland Indians and their old logo.
