Chicago Blackhawks name and logo controversy

The National Hockey League (NHL)'s Chicago Blackhawks was named in honor of the U.S. 86th Infantry Division, which was nicknamed the "Blackhawk Division" after Black Hawk, a Native American chief who was based in present-day Illinois; the team's founder, Frederic McLaughlin, having served in that division.{{cite news|title=A brief history: Chicago Blackhawks|url=https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/news/a-brief-history-chicago-blackhawks/c-535695|publisher=NHL Enterprises, LP|website=NHL.com/Blackhawks|date=August 8, 2010|access-date=May 15, 2018}}{{cite news|last1=Ledra|first1=Cristina|last2=Pickens|first2=Pat|title=NHL team nicknames explained|url=https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-team-nickname-origins-explained/c-283976168|publisher=NHL Enterprises, LP|website=NHL.com|date=November 22, 2016|access-date=May 15, 2018}}{{cite news|url=http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/06/17/baffoe-should-the-blackhawks-ditch-their-indian-head-logo/|title=Should The Blackhawks Ditch Their Indian Head Logo?|first=Tim|last=Baffoe|date=2013-06-17|publisher=CBS Chicago}} The first logo was drawn by Irene Castle, who was white, in 1926.{{Cite web |date=2018-05-25 |title=Irene Castle and the Chicago Blackhawks |url=https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/biggest-little-fashion-city/feature/irene-castle-and-the-chicago-blackhawks |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=The Biggest Little Fashion City - Online exhibitions across Cornell University Library |language=en}}

Black Hawk was a leader of the Sauk who sided with the British in the War of 1812 and later attempted to regain tribal land in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Opponents of the logo say that adoption of his name for the 86th Infantry, the hockey team, and later for the Blackhawk helicopter are an example of designating certain Native Americans as "worthy adversaries."{{cite web| url=https://www.sapiens.org/culture/confessions-of-a-blackhawks-fan/| title=Confessions of a Blackhawks Fan: Can an anthropologist who loves hockey embrace his team's race-based mascot?| author=Stephen E. Nash| date=February 2, 2016| access-date=September 6, 2017| publisher=Sapiens}}{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/simon-waxman-tomahawk-missiles-apache-helicopters-just-as-offensive-as-redskins/2014/06/26/16c18738-fc9a-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html| title=The U.S. military's ongoing slur of Native Americans| author=Simon Waxman| date=June 26, 2014| access-date=September 6, 2017| newspaper=The Washington Post}}

{{main|Black Hawk (Sauk leader)|Black Hawk War}}

Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk was born in Saukenuk (modern-day Rock Island, Illinois).{{Cite web |title=Black Hawk War begins |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/black-hawk-war-begins |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=History |language=en}} He was a Sac war leader. He fought with the British in the War of 1812 in hopes it would deter white settlement in his homelands.{{Cite encyclopedia |date=2023-09-29 |title=Black Hawk {{!}} Life & War |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Black-Hawk-Sauk-and-Fox-leader |access-date=2023-11-22 |language=en}}

He rejected the Treaty of St. Louis of 1804 which took his homelands and called for removal west of the Mississippi River.{{Cite web |title=Great Native American Chiefs {{!}} Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak (aka Black Hawk) |website=Online Exhibits |url=https://apps.lib.umich.edu/online-exhibits/exhibits/show/great-native-american-chiefs/group-of-native-american-chief/war-chief--black-hawk--aka-ma- |access-date=2023-11-22 |publisher=University of Michigan Library}}

In 1832, Black Hawk led an armed party of Sacs, Meskwakis (Foxes), Kickapoos, Ho-Chunk (Winnebagoes), and Potawatomis into his occupied homelands. This was in contrast with Sac Chief Keokuk who did not seek to confront the Americans.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Keokuk {{!}} Biography & Facts |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Keokuk-Sauk-leader |access-date=2023-11-22 |language=en}} Black Hawk did not intend to start a war, but he was prepared to defend his homelands. His intention was to grow corn on his tribal homelands.{{Cite web |title=Black Hawk War |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095509875 |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en }} Eventually, the Black Hawk War began, which was waged in modern-day Illinois and Wisconsin.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Black Hawk War – Native Resistance, US Invasion, Conflict |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Hawk-War/Black-Hawks-intentions-in-1832 |access-date=2023-11-22 |language=en}}

During the war, his people faced starvation.{{Cite web |title=The Black Hawk War Phases |work=Northern Illinois University Digital Library |url=https://digital.lib.niu.edu/illinois/lincoln/topics/blackhawk/phases |access-date=2023-11-22}}

The five month Black Hawk War culminated into what has been described as a massacre{{Cite web |date=2012-08-03 |title=Bad Axe, Battle of |url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS1604 |access-date=2023-11-22 |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society |language=en}} and slaughter{{cite journal |last1=Ostler |first1=Jeffrey |date=3 February 2016 |title='Just and lawful war' as genocidal war in the (United States) Northwest Ordinance and Northwest Territory, 1787–1832 |url=https://nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/ostler-2016.pdf |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2016.1120460 |access-date=1 March 2024}} at the Battle of Bad Axe in its fifth month. Despite Black Hawk waving a white flag on the first day of the battle, US troops slaughtered 23 Indigenous people.https://ss.sites.mtu.edu/mhugl/2015/10/11/battle-of-bad-axe-the-bad-axe-massacre/ On the second day, US troops shot at Indigenous women, children, and men for eight hours https://web.archive.org/web/20090815021319/http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/blackhawk/page2c.html as they were crossing the river to escape as refugees into Iowa as well as fired on injured Indigenous people as they were drowning. Most of the 400 Indigenous people at the battle were killed. US troops scalped victims and tore skin off the backs of the dead. Jeffrey Ostler writes in the Journal of Genocide Research that "The slaughter at Bad Axe is clearly encompassed by Chalk and Jonassohn's definition of genocide as 'a form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group'."

After the war, Black Hawk was taken prisoner of war under Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, who would later become President of the Confederate States of America.{{cite web | url=https://digital.lib.niu.edu/illinois/lincoln/topics/blackhawk/phases | title=The Black Hawk War Phases |work=Northern Illinois University Digital Library }} In his autobiography, Black Hawk described his imprisonment as torture.{{Cite book |title=Autobiography of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, Or Black Hawk |author=Black Hawk |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7097/7097-h/7097-h.htm |access-date=2023-11-22 |via=Project Gutenberg}}

After the war, Andrew Jackson sent Black Hawk on a tour of eastern cities as a trophy of war{{cite web |url=https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111bh.html |title=Black Hawk Surrender Speech (1832) |author=|website=Hanover History Department|access-date=1 March 2024}} to show the strength of the United States. Black Hawk attracted large crowds and grew in fame. However, in Detroit, crowds hanged and burned an effigy of Black Hawk.

Black Hawk spent the last years of his life in Iowa with his family with the Sacs, where he died.{{cite encyclopedia | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Black-Hawk-Sauk-and-Fox-leader | title=Black Hawk | Life & War |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica | date=16 February 2024 }}

After his death, his grave was robbed and his head was severed. The rest of his remains were stolen later. One historical account says that his remains were stored at a museum which burned down and were destroyed.{{cite web | url=https://www.southeastiowaunion.com/news/where-are-blackhawks-bones-historian-disputes-the-final-resting-place-of-the-sauk-chief/?amp=1 | title=Where are Blackhawk's bones? Historian disputes the final resting place of the Sauk chief |first=Ashley |last=Duong |work=Southwest Iowa Union |date=September 20, 2019 |access-date=29 November 2024}}

{{main|Native American mascot controversy}}

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee), who was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom for decades of American Indian advocacy, including leading a lawsuit against Washington’s football team{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/suzan-shown-harjo-redskins-name-fight/2020/07/14/6f382d16-c5f4-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html |title=Suzan Harjo fought for decades to remove the Redskins name. She'll wait to celebrate. |last=Milloy |first=Courtland |date=14 July 2020 |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=1 March 2024 |url-access=subscription}} and restoring over 1 million acres of Indigenous land back,{{cite web | url=https://savingplaces.org/stories/places-that-inspired-poet-and-activist-suzan-shown-harjo | title=The Places That Inspired the Work of Poet and Activist Suzan Shown Harjo | National Trust for Historic Preservation }} and is President of the Morning Star Institute and former Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians,{{Cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/11/10/president-obama-announces-presidential-medal-freedom-recipients|title = President Obama Announces the Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients|date = 10 November 2014}}{{cite web | url=https://www.ncai.org/about-ncai/ncai-leadership | title=NCAI Leadership | NCAI }} says the Blackhawks have escaped the scrutiny given to other teams using Native imagery because hockey is not a cultural force on the level of football or baseball. American Indian organizations have called for an end to all Indian-related mascots and that she found the hockey team's name and Indian head symbol to be offensive. "It lacks dignity", she said. "There's dignity in a school being named after a person or a people. There's dignity in a health clinic or hospital. There's nothing dignified in something being so named (that is used for) recreation or entertainment or fun." The National Congress of American Indians also opposes the Blackhawks' logo, as it does all Native American mascots.{{cite news| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/06/19/protests-rare-over-blackhawks-name-logo/| title=Protests rare over Blackhawks' name, logo: While critics say use of Indian mascots perpetuates outdated image, hockey club says it has mutually beneficial ties with local community| date=June 19, 2013| first=John| last=Keilman| newspaper=Chicago Tribune}} In 2010, sports columnist Damien Cox called on the franchise to retire the "racially insensitive" logo, saying that: "Clearly, no right-thinking person would name a team after an aboriginal figure these days any more than they would use Muslims or Africans or Chinese or any ethnic group to depict a specific sporting notion."{{cite web|first=Damien|last=Cox|url=https://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/nhl/article/815709--cox-offensive-blackhawks-logo-has-got-to-go |title=Cox: Offensive Blackhawks logo has got to go |newspaper=Toronto Star |date=2010-05-28 |access-date=2013-03-03}}

In 2013, WTTW interviewed Chicagoan Anthony Roy, First Nation Ojibway Tribe, who has called for a new logo and mascot, who said "You can't ignore the history of the time and the ideas and the ideology people of color faced during the creation of mascots. There was forced assimilation and cultural destruction. When the [physical] genocide of the Nation was over, cultural genocide starts. So while children were taken from their families, Native children, ... this is alongside the history of sports and the births of sports leagues and many mascots. For instance the residential school my father attended that was around the time of the foundation of the Blackhawks."{{Cite web|url=https://news.wttw.com/2013/11/07/native-american-sports-mascots|title=Native American Sports Mascots |work=WTTW}}

In 2015, Mark Chipman, chairman of True North Sports & Entertainment, the owner of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets, decided to ban fake Native headdresses at games after meeting with First Nations leaders. The meeting took place in response to a complaint by a Jets fan after seeing a Blackhawks fan in a headdress.{{cite news| url=http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/11/11/winnipeg-jets-ban-fake-native-headdresses-162405| title=Winnipeg Jets Ban Fake Native Headdresses| first=Vincent| last=Schilling| date=November 11, 2015| publisher=Indian Country Today| access-date=September 6, 2017| archive-date=January 23, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123044157/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/11/11/winnipeg-jets-ban-fake-native-headdresses-162405| url-status=dead}}

In 2020, Anthony Tamez-Pochel (Cree, Lakota, Black), co-president of the Chi-Nations Youth Council, wrote in Teen Vogue about being Black and Indigenous in a city with a race-based mascot. "Being Indigenous in a place like Chicago can be tough. The assault of racist mascots and attempts to erase Native culture are constant and daunting. There are many multiracial Natives like myself who don't look like a stereotype, and because of this, our Native identities are often questioned or dismissed entirely. This experience erases a whole part of us and mentally breaks us down. ... Living in Chicago, we are constantly bombarded with the Blackhawks logo, which represents the city's professional ice hockey team."{{cite web | url=https://www.teenvogue.com/story/native-youth-need-safe-spaces | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301042212/https://www.teenvogue.com/story/native-youth-need-safe-spaces | archive-date=2020-03-01 | title=Safe Spaces Are Crucial for Native Youth |work=Teen Vogue | date=6 February 2019 |first=Anthony Pochel |last=Tamez}}

File:Black Hawk and His Son Whirling Thunder.jpg

In 2024, in an interview with CBS, one of Black Hawk's lineal descendants, April Holder (Sauk and Fox, Wichita, Tonkawa), spoke out against the Chicago Blackhawks, calling on the team to stop use of its name and logo and to stop profiting off of her ancestor's identity and legacy. Holder said, "If someone were to come and take your name and use it for something and profit off of it, what is that called? It's called identity theft", she said. Referring to the logo, she said, "It's sickening, it's gross, it's grotesque, it's hurtful", she said. "[Black Hawk] was very eloquent, well spoken, and extremely intelligent ... he was just a man who wanted to do right by his people." Holder said that to her knowledge, the team has never asked her family for permission and if they had asked, her family would not give approval. "There are things that are not for sale. The dignity of my tribe, my people, and my ancestor's legacy are not for sale." Holder said his identity is "not for a team to use". "It belongs to our people. It belongs to my family. It belongs to that legacy of the people he fought for", she said. "Black Hawk did not make those sacrifices for some hockey team to exploit and profit off him. That was not what he created a legacy for. He created it so that future generations like my child and myself could exist." During the interview, Holder also referenced the Black Hawk War, saying, "(The United States) massacred our people there, they massacred women and children there ... It's not enough for us to experience genocide, basically. It's like, now we have to take even your names from you. We have to take the legacy of your people away from you."{{Cite web |last1=Savini |first1=Dave |last2=Assad |first2=Samah |date=2024-06-10 |title='Do what's right': Black Hawk descendant demands Chicago Blackhawks change logo, name |work=CBS Chicago |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/black-hawk-descendent-demands-chicago-blackhawks-change-logo-name/ |access-date=2024-07-12 |language=en-US}}

The Blackhawks have worked with the American Indian Center (AIC) to help inform their community and fan base by sharing Native American culture and history. In 2013, Scott Sypolt, Executive Counsel for the American Indian Center weighed in on the logo and name controversy by stating, "There is a consensus among us that there's a huge distinction between a sports team called the Redskins depicting native people as red, screaming, ignorant savages and a group like the Blackhawks honoring Black Hawk, a true Illinois historical figure."{{cite news |last=Neveau |first=James |url=http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/madhouse-enforcer/Blackhawks-Making-Effort-to-Engage-Chicagoland-Native-Americans-228360071.html#ixzz3SEGTm0zY |title=Blackhawks Avoid Backlash -- For Now -- by Engaging Native American |work=NBC Chicago |date=2013-10-18 |access-date=2015-02-19 }}

However, this stance is markedly different from the one previously taken by the American Indian Center, with the shift coming only in the past few years after other, more offensive mascots were successfully retired. In 2010, for instance, Joe Podlasek stated that, "The stance is very clear. We want the Chicago Blackhawks logo to change. For us, that's one of our grandfathers. Would you do that with your grandfather's picture? Take it and throw it on a rug? Walk on it and dance on it?"{{cite web| url=http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/19/wearing-someone-elses-culture-more-chicago-blackhawks-149980| title=Wearing Someone Else's Culture: More on the Chicago Blackhawks| date=June 19, 2013| publisher=Indian Country Today| access-date=September 6, 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930062509/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/19/wearing-someone-elses-culture-more-chicago-blackhawks-149980| archive-date=September 30, 2015| url-status=dead}} John Blackhawk, Chairman of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, has suggested that the change in position for the AIC may be connected to contributions the Blackhawks organization has recently begun making to the center: "We all do contributions, but we don't do it for the sake of wanting to be forgiven for something we've done that's offensive."

In 2019, the American Indian Center of Chicago ended all ties to the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation, stating they will no longer affiliate "with organizations that perpetuate stereotypes through the use of 'Indian' mascots." The AIC noted in its statement that they "previously held a relationship with the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation with the intention of educating the general public about American Indians and the use of logos and mascots. The AIC, along with members of the community have since decided to end this relationship" and stated that "going forward, AIC will have no professional ties with the Blackhawks, or any other organization that perpetuates harmful stereotypes."{{cite web| url=https://aicchicago.org/statement-aic-ends-ties-with-chicago-blackhawks-foundation/| title=Statement: AIC ends ties with Chicago Blackhawks Foundation| date=July 8, 2019| website=American Indian Center of Chicago| access-date=July 6, 2020| archive-date=July 16, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716033424/https://aicchicago.org/statement-aic-ends-ties-with-chicago-blackhawks-foundation/| url-status=dead}}

After the Washington Redskins announced that they would be changing their name in July 2020, the Blackhawks confirmed that they would continue to use their team name.{{cite news| url=https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/29425716/blackhawks-keeping-nickname-honors-native-american-leader| title=Blackhawks on keeping nickname: Honors Native American leader| date=July 7, 2020| publisher=ESPN}} However, the team did agree to ban Native American headdresses at home games held in the United Center in recognition of being sacred symbols.{{cite news| url=https://www.startribune.com/blackhawks-ban-native-american-headdresses-at-home-games/571946132/?refresh=true| title=Blackhawks ban Native American headdresses at home games| agency=Associated Press| date=July 29, 2020| newspaper=Star Tribune}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Before the ban was enacted, there had in fact been incidents where some Blackhawk fans wore headdresses.{{cite news|url=https://www.secondcityhockey.com/2020/7/29/21346810/chicago-blackhawks-ban-headdresses-team-events-united-center-native-american-education-nhl-2020|title=Blackhawks ban costume headdresses from team events, United Center|first=Brandon|last=Cain|publisher=Second City Hockey|date=July 29, 2020|access-date=September 13, 2020}}{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/chicago-blackhawks-fan-wearing-headdress-shocks-hockey-fans-1.3016684|title=Chicago Blackhawks fan wearing headdress shocks hockey fans|first=Jordan|last=Wheeler|publisher=CBC News|date=March 31, 2015|access-date=September 13, 2020}} After the Cleveland Indians announced in December 2020 that the team would change their name after the 2021 season, new CEO Danny Wirtz reiterated that the Blackhawks would not change.{{cite news| url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/blackhawks/ct-chicago-blackhawks-nickname-danny-wirtz-20201217-jmahralauzfypphfkzrvyfxnva-story.html| title=Chicago Blackhawks won't follow the Cleveland Indians' lead and change their nickname, new CEO Danny Wirtz says. A Native American representative responds: 'That Indian head has got to go.'| author=Phil Thompson| newspaper=Chicago Tribune| date=December 17, 2020}}

The Chi-Nations Youth Council (CNYC), an Indigenous youth organization in Chicago, said in 2020, "The Chicago Blackhawks name and logo symbolizes a legacy of imperialism and genocide." "As statues of invaders, slave holders, and white supremacists fall across the nation so too should the images and language of the savage and dead 'Indians'." CNYC also noted "As social consciousness has grown over the past decades so has the Blackhawks performative gestures of buying their reprieve from those willing to sell out the health and humanity of our future generations."{{Cite web|url=https://chinations.org/statement-chicago-blackhawks-name-and-logo-symbolize-a-legacy-of-imperialism-and-genocide/|title = Statement: Blackhawks' Name and Logo Symbolize a Legacy of Imperialism and Genocide|date = 14 October 2020}}

Despite this opposition, as of 2022, the Blackhawks have stated their intent to keep the name and imagery, along with their belief that they "honor and celebrate legacy of Black Hawk" and that the name and logo "symbolizes this important and historic person." Their website states that they are working on "educating our staff, fans and local community on the history of Black Hawk and original peoples of Illinois, as well as on Native American contributions to today's society."{{cite news|url=https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/team/native-american-initiatives|title=Native American Initiatives|publisher=Chicago Blackhawks|accessdate=September 27, 2022}} The website also lists several Native American groups and individuals they donate money to, or hire to do artwork, and posts stories about various Native Americans who are considered members of the "Blackhawks community."

As of 2025, the team still maintains a partnership with Chief Black Hawk's Sac and Fox Nation tribe. The partnership involves collaboration on various issues, including land acknowledgement, grant programs, collaborative exhibits and installations, language preservation projects, game day materials, resources invested in identifying future opportunities and ways to ensure transparency between both parties.

• Washington Redskins name controversy
• Cleveland Indians name and logo controversy

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• [https://digital.lib.niu.edu/illinois/lincoln/topics/blackhawk/phases Phases of the Black Hawk War] (Northern Illinois University Digital Library)

Article from The Journal of Genocide Research about the Black Hawk War

Jeffrey Ostler (2016) [https://nycstandswithstandingrock.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ostler-2016.pdf ‘Just and lawful war’ as genocidal war in the (United States) Northwest Ordinance and Northwest Territory, 1787–1832], Journal of Genocide Research, 18:1, 1-20, DOI: 10.1080/14623528.2016.112046

{{Chicago Blackhawks}}{{Native American mascot controversy}}{{Discrimination}}

Category:Chicago Blackhawks

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Category:Native American mascots

Category:Mascots introduced in 1926