The Chicago Blackhawks are going to remain the Blackhawks and there is no sign of a change coming anytime soon.
Speaking publicly for the first time since baseball’s Cleveland Indians announced Monday they plan to change their name, Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz reiterated the same message the team shared this summer after lingering questions about Native American team names returned to the forefront.
“Obviously respect the decision the Cleveland Indians made to go down that path, but we continue to deepen our commitment to upholding our namesake and our brand,” Wirtz said Thursday.
Braves officials told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in July they have no intention of changing the name of the franchise nor the use of a tomahawk as a logo. They are discussing the tomahawk chant often done at home games.
“We are so proud of our team’s name, and our expectation is that we will always be the Atlanta Braves,” Terry McGuirk, the Braves’ chairman, told the AJC.
In July, after Washington’s NFL team announced it was reviewing its name, the Blackhawks said they planned to continue with their name because it honors Black Hawk, a Native American leader from Illinois’ Sac & Fox Nation. Washington ended up dropping the “Redskins” name, logo and all Native American imagery. The Indians announced their decision this week.
The Blackhawks also said this summer they are committed “to raising the bar even higher” when it comes to expanding awareness of Black Hawk and all Native American people — and Wirtz, the son of Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, made it sound as if that effort had only reinforced what the franchise felt about its name. The team announced later in July that they were banning headdresses at home games as part of their pledge to honor the Native American community.
“The work we’ve been doing over the last several months in expanding and deepening conversations and partnerships within the native community, we continue to feel really positive about the types of work we can do,” Danny Wirtz said, “the way in which we can be better stewards of the namesake and the history, and to use our platforms to be educators, not only for our fans, but for our internal teams and making sure that we provide that reverence and respect that we talk about.”
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