The Atlanta Braves’ version of the iconic chant: the tomahawk chop. Is it evil at its root? Is it meant to dishonor Native Americans? Is it really a mockery?
After the Atlanta Braves game two win that leveled the series at one game a piece, the Tomahawk Chop talks sparked up again.
For better or worse, the Tomahawk chop is engrained into Atlanta Braves culture and has been for close to 30 years now.
A war rally cry used by Native Americans, it’s become the sports fans’ rally cry first for the Florida State Seminoles and then the Kansas City Chiefs before spreading to the Atlanta Braves.
More recently, even an English rugby team, the Exeter Chiefs use the chant as well.
The chant’s origins with Florida State University are not known to have come from the Seminole Nation – in fact, it’s believed to have originated with the FSU band. However, that tribe does have a long and close relationship with the University and they have declared support for all things the school does as a means of rallying their sports teams.
Outside of Seminole circles, that’s not a universal opinion.
The long-tenured chant has drawn the ire of St. Louis Cardinals’ reliever Ryan Helsley, who is a member of Cherokee Nation.
He said in the St. Louis Dispatch article, written by Derrick Goold:
"“I think it’s a misrepresentation of the Cherokee people or Native Americans in general,” Helsley said Friday afternoon at SunTrust Park. “Just depicts them in this kind of caveman-type people way who aren’t intellectual. They are a lot more than that. It’s not me being offended by the whole mascot thing. It’s not. It’s about the misconception of us, the Native Americans, and it devalues us and how we’re perceived in that way, or used as mascots. The Redskins and stuff like that."
“That’s the disappointing part,” he continued in a conversation with The Post-Dispatch. “That stuff like this still goes on. It’s just disrespectful, I think.”
His views have been reported widely and other sources confirm the substance of his message.