The old mascots of the NFL’s Washington Commanders and MLB’s Cleveland Guardians may be back in the game. After dropping the names “Redskins” and “Indians,” fans hope to encourage a balanced approach that respects Native Americans and accommodates tradition. 

Both Washington and Cleveland began playing under their new monikers in 2022. Although the moves were hailed by advocates as erasing racial slurs, resistance that was ignored at the time — including from Native Americans — is now giving voice to a backlash and stoking nostalgia.

In August, I wrote in the Sun about the Native American Guardians Association campaign to “reclaim the name Washington Redskins.” Their Change.org petition has racked up almost 148,000 verified signatures, pressuring the team’s ownership to consider a reversal.

Washington’s old logo, which debuted in 1971, was designed by an indigenous artist, Walter “Blackie” Wetzel. He based the illustration on a Blackfeet leader, Chief Whitecalf, whose likeness was “gifted” to the team by the tribe.

After the logo and name were stripped, Wetzel’s grandson, William Wetzel, wrote in the Great Falls Tribune that the name change was “the right thing to do” but it “really bothered him” that the logo of Whitecalf in profile “has been so conflated with a racial slur.”

Mr. Wetzel, as I wrote in the Sun, “noted that his grandfather was Blackfeet Tribal chairman, president of the National Congress of American Indians, “and spent his life working to advance civil rights.”

NAGA writes on its website that “a sincere and righteous campaign to eliminate blatantly degrading, cartoonish, and otherwise stereotypical Indian sports mascots and logos has been hijacked by extremists.” 

A 2016 Washington Post poll backed up this view, finding that 90 percent of Native Americans weren’t offended by the name. NAGA’s Midwest director, Billy Dieckman — a Marine and “100% Native American” of the Kiowa Tribe — described Whitecalf as “a true American badass.”

Now, NAGA says that the well-meaning campaign of the 1960s has morphed into “a damaging campaign intent on eradicating ALL Native American identity from sports and the American landscape.” Such campaigns, it says, are “motivated by an anti-American, ‘decolonization’ agenda.”

Mr. Dieckman called it a “horrible decision to cave … and abandon the name ‘Redskin’ which is steeped in deep honor and is the status symbol of proven, elite warriors that were allowed to participate in the cleansing bloodroot of painting one’s skin red for battle.”

Last week in Congress, NAGA’s efforts notched a victory. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources voted 17 to two to advance House legislation transferring “administrative jurisdiction over the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus to the District of Columbia.” 

If passed by the full Senate and signed into law, the legislation would allow the Commanders to construct a new stadium to replace RFK. Yet restoring the Whitecalf logo absent the old name was a condition of earning the committee’s support in consultations with the NFL and Commanders. 

“There’s good faith in negotiations going forward that’s going to allow this logo to be used again,” the Montana Republican, Senator Daines, told Fox News’s “America Reports.” “Perhaps revenues going to a foundation that could help Native Americans in sports and so forth.”

For the Guardians, cooler heads seek a similar reconsideration. They point out that the Indians moniker was adopted in 1915 to honor the first Native American baseball player, Louis Sockalexis. An outfielder from the Penobscot tribe, he played in the 1897 and 1998 seasons for the Cleveland Spiders.

NAGA’s Change.org petition for Cleveland, saying its inspired by “the incredible success of the recent petition campaign to #ReclaimTheRedskins,” has garnered over 16,000 verified signatures. NAGA says there’s “profound significance to the Cleveland Indians’ name for our people’s history and culture.”

In bringing nuance to the racist-or-not paradigm of the original debate, NAGA writes they “recognize the importance of sensitivity in addressing cultural concerns,” but believe “that honoring the name ‘Cleveland Indians’ can be a symbol of unity and respect.”

NAGA invites supporters to “work together to celebrate the heritage of Native Americans while fostering an environment of inclusivity and understanding.” Together, its twin campaigns are garnering more attention than Washington’s alone, which NAGA said faced a “media blackout.” 

Sports, as I wrote for the Sun in December 2022, is where “all the things used to divide us — race, gender, religion — fade away if we let them, obscured behind the jerseys we wear.” With luck, Washington and Cleveland can perform that noble function again, honoring Native American contributions rather than erasing them from the field.