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CLEVELAND, Ohio –Cleveland Indians will fully phase out the team's name by 2022 and replace it with a new nick name that is not offensive to Native-Americans and people of color, franchise officials announced Monday.
The $1.5 billion major league football team franchise, however, will keep the Indians name and uniforms for the 2021 season while the name-changing transition process takes place.
The decision for a new nickname, which has not yet been chosen, follows a previous decision to scrap the team's controversial Chief Wahoo loco that Native-American and activist groups called racist and demeaning after decades of protesting the loco and the nickname by the indigenous community and their supporters.
Indians' owner Paul Dolan and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced in January of 2018 that Chief Wahoo would no longer appear on uniforms or stadium signs following the end of the 2018 season.
Chief Wahoo was barred from future Hall of Fame plaques in March of 2018, starting with the induction of former Indian Jim Thome.
Merchandise featuring the Chief Wahoo logo will still be available at the Indians' ballpark and retail stores in Ohio, but will no longer be sold on the league's website. The team's primary logo is now a block "C".
Dolan said in a statement Monday that the team will consider a non-Native American name for its franchise after discussions with activists, tribal communities and civic leaders.
The Indians were a founder member of the American League in 1901 as the Cleveland Bluebirds (or Blues).
They renamed to the Cleveland Napoleons (Naps) in 1903, before adopting their current name in 1915
The current name of "Indians," which Dolan himself says is no longer acceptable, has been around for some 105 years.
The upcoming name change comes at a time when the Black Lives Matter Movement and other Civil Rights movements seeking racial and economic equality and an end to useless excessive force by police that disproportionately targets the nation's Black community are thriving.
Officials for the Atlanta Braves said last week that there will be no change in their team name or logo, which they said is a proud tradition that will be celebrated.
Major league baseball, basketball and football are all part of the framework of the largely Black major American city of Cleveland, a Democratic stronghold that sits in the 29 percent Black county of Cuyahoga, also a Democratic stronghold, and the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties.
