In fact as professor (and card-carrying Commanche) David Yeagley has pointed out in some of his articles for Frontpagemag.com, a number of these professional and collegiate athletic associations sought and received official blessing from tribal elders when they formed their teams back in the day.
The neighborhood highschool mascot is the Indian. We just battled to keep this and won. The school board was even wanting to change it. They wanted us to rename the mascot the "wave".
Can you imagine John Burroughs Marching Waves???????