1972 Means, who is a Sioux Indian, says the “whole viewpoint America takes of the Indian is that we don’t count.”

Indians file suit against KC Chiefs 

1972 Feb 11, York Daily Record 

The American Indian Movement planned to file suit against the Kansas City Chiefs.. enjoining it from using Indian reference in its symbol. .. Vernon Bellecourt, movement director, said the suit would be brought by a local AIM chapter. 

1972 Feb 11, York Daily Record 

1972 Feb 3 Tucson Daily Citizen 
      Poor little Wahoo is getting his lumps again and all because of the perpetual happy smile he wears in greeting Cleveland Indian baseball fans.
      In this latest upheaval, climaxed by a $9 million lawsuit being filed against the Cleveland Indians' owners, people seem to forget that we went through this exact situation a year ago. The same group that is stirring up the fuss now started preparing for a demonstration on Indians' Opening Day last season and their plans were revealed..
       Tribe president, Gabe Paul, who was in Tucson at the time for spring training, contacted the commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn and told him what was brewing among the Indians' minority groups on Cleveland's near west side, within walking distance of the stadium.
      The plan was for a group of protesters to run out on the field carrying signs complaining of the Indians' plight and pointing at Wahoo as a despicable little character who was born to disparage and embarrass American Indians.

Artist loved everybody

          The man who first drew the caricature was a Cleveland artist named Fred Reinert, an avid baseball fan who seldom missed a game. He is the most pleasant man I have ever met and never to my knowledge harbored even the slightest prejudice toward any man.

1940s Fred G. Reinert's rubber Wahoo 

        [  Since 1928 – A Pictorial History of the Cleveland Indians and Chief Wahoo Logos

         The Secret History of Chief Wahoo  ]

          The name “Indians” was selected by the Cleveland Baseball Club after a contest among the fans to pick a suitable name. The winner based his opinion on the fact that Louis Sockalexis, a full-blooded Indian, had been a player on the Cleveland club in the late 1800’s. He was known as Chief Sockalexis and was revered by young and old alike as one of the heroes of the area at that time. [Editor’s note: this myth has since been debunked. Click here to read more.]
      With this background it is difficult to understand why one Russell C. Means is so upset by the Wahoo symbol which adorns the Indians’ uniforms.
      It is also stitched into the pretty dresses that the waitresses wear at the Wigwam and one wall of that famous room is papered with hundreds of replicas of the smiling face of Wahoo.
      Means, who is a Sioux Indian, says the “whole viewpoint America takes of the Indian is that we don’t count.”
      It is undoubtedly true that the Indians received more than one raw dead from the white man in the early days and has to fight for whatever he can get today. But to say that Chief Wahoo is a symbol dedicated to perpetuating the poor plight of the Indian is ridiculous.

Several teams follow suit

      In fact, anyone looking at that happy face could only have a warm feeling toward the Indians and, at least for the duration of a ball game, forget about the savage depicted on television as he circles the covered wagons, whistling arrows into the early settlers.
      The Cleveland Indians don’t hold a monopoly on that name or names similar, which are derived from Indian heritage. The Braves, Redskins, Seminoles, Chiefs all wanted to be identified with the Red Man and certainly not with the intention of degrading anybody.
      The Lions, Cougars, Panthers, Tigers, Wolves and Foxes still roam their domains highly respected in the animal kingdom despite the fact that their names have been emblazoned on the uniforms of athletic teams throughout the nation.
      And what about those wonderful “Bums” of baseball, the original Dodgers? That red-nosed, tattered character with his cigar butt and torn derby hat was loved by all New Yorkers when they saw his beaming face covering the entire first page of a New York paper the day the Dodgers clinched one of their pennants.
      In this day when minority groups are diligently searching for any group action that might be a slur on their race, religion or nationality, there is a tendency to be too sensitive. [Editor’s Note: Sound familiar? This sentence could have been taken from today’s opinion pieces.]

      That is certainly the case with Chief Wahoo who is the one guy who has kept smiling all the woeful years that he has been a traveling buddy with the Indians’ baseball team. 

1972 Feb 3 Tucson Daily Citizen 

Meanwhile, a war party of 11 invaded the long house of Edward Bennett Williams, president of Washington's pro football bluc, to protest the team's name, Redskins, as a "derogatory racial epithet." .. Williams ordered the wagons drawn up in a circle.

1972 March 31 Warren Times Mirror 

1973 headline