Another View: Team names like ‘Indians’ are meant to honor, not shame

In his March 24 column, Bill Nemitz says naming a sports team “Indians” dishonors the heritage of Native Americans.

On the contrary, I think we name our teams for qualities we admire and want our teams to have! Los Angeles has the Rams, Chicago the Bears, Detroit the Lions, New York the Giants and the Yankees, New England the Patriots, and, yes, Atlanta has the Braves and Cleveland the Indians.

We name a team “the Indians” not out of disrespect for them. Far from it. We name our teams “Indians” because Indians were brave and skillful warriors – and great athletes as well. The name honors them!

The brutal assaults by militias on Indian villages, in the 19th century, that Nemitz cites have nothing to do with what we know now of the real Native American heritage and everything to do with the conflict that came from our invasion of their homeland in painful and shameful earlier times.

I always read Bill Nemitz’s columns, enjoy them and applaud him most of the time. I think he’s wrong this time.