[cherry]

Indian or Native American names of sports teams is an honor towards the bravery, heartiness, strength and prowess of the Native American, period....

most of us should be so lucky to have something named for us....

ever hear of the "Fighting Jews"????

or the "Buffalo Polskis"....

me neither......

[drhogan]

when i buy a team, i'm gonna name it the "shanty irish". with pride.

[dalight]

Its funny, those that buy into the Hollywood stereotype of "Indians" are up in arms about how horrid naming teams for them would be. Other team names, are clearly names of derision worn proudly, this is an old tactic, wear the charge that you opponent lays on you rather than cowering.

More often, team names result in identification with the mascot. So that Indians, Redskins, and such names had white, black and Latino folks all claiming to "be" Indians and reciting all of the positive aspects that that association means.

The images people pull from this experience come more from the Boy Scouts than from Hollywood Westerns. So why, would Native Americans want to cut themselves out of this amplification of their importance and values in society? Perhaps the folks behind this movement are wanting to remove Native American values from the American conscious. If you couple this with the assault on the Scouts of America... it really seems like the left really really is pursuing this.