3. Atlanta has already been making changes.
Chief Noc-A-Homa and his teepee are out, and they have been for a number of years. Ironically enough, the man most associated with the role was Levi Walker — originally born into the Chippewa-Ottawa tribe.
The “Screaming Indian” mascot is gone as well. It had remained unused since 1989, but controversy arose in late 2012 with a report that this logo might resurface on batting practice hats for 2013. That idea didn’t make it past the “trial balloon” phase with many equating this to the cartoonish Chief Wahoo logo of Cleveland baseball fame.
Even the briefly used “Chop On” hashtag/moniker/greeting didn’t survive for long. The clumsy “ForTheA” was its replacement.
At this point, the last remaining vestiges of whatever could be construed as “Native American culture or imagery” appropriation would involve the use of the Tomahawk, their name “Braves” itself, and the Tomahawk Chop “warchant” that still reverberates with fans.
The Braves are moving… slowly and carefully… in the direction of eliminating the major “issues” one by one. This last trio of such issues still exist, then, because they are perceived to be among the least-offensive elements
In the case of the Chop, it’s been a crowd-sourced/crowd-driven event derived from the presence of former FSU Seminole Deion Sanders while he was a Brave. Before that, it was created by the FSU band in the 1960’s, still remaining as one of their signature elements today.
Accordingly, we can expect any further changes to be even more slow and deliberate, particularly now that the onion has been peeled back to the core of their team identity… an identity that’s stood since the 1912 season when the Boston National League baseball team was first called the “Braves”.