Chief Wahoo's Warriors

The “Real” History Of Chief Wahoo In A Nutshell

---A long time ago between the times of 1897 to 1899 there was a professional baseball player who was a Native American. His name was Louis Sockalexis and he was a good player. The team he played for was called the Cleveland Spiders. Later on, in 1914, the owner of the Cleveland franchise hired a group of sportswriters to decide a new name for the baseball team. They decided to name the club “The Cleveland Indians”. Then in 1932 a newspaper started publishing a cartoon character of an Indian man alongside articles about the team called “The Little Indian”. There was also a cartoon strip called “The Big Wahoo” that ran from 1936 to 1947. People enjoyed these cartoon characters and it was an entertaining way to describe the results of daily games. There was also another Native American player named Allie Reynolds. He played from 1942 to 1946 with the Cleveland Indians. He had nicknames that were directly connected to the name “Chief Wahoo”. In 1946 a young man named Walter Golbach was hired to create an official logo for the Cleveland Indians. He created a logo that had similarities to “The Little Indian” cartoon strip but was the first official Chief Wahoo logo. Then in 1952 a person showed up in a Wahoo costume for a kids party at a public hall event in Cleveland. Sportswriters began using the Chief Wahoo name more frequently after this. This instilled Chief Wahoo as a household fixture among residents of the Cleveland area. Many people appealed to Chief Wahoo and wanted to learn more about Native American culture. They were proud of the Indians. A battle flag flown aboard the USS Cleveland (Lpd 7) has a Chief Wahoo logo on it.

---Louis Sockalexis played professional baseball from 1897 to 1899. He is arguably the first Native American to play baseball at that rank. He was extremely athletic having been able to throw a baseball over 400 feet in one motion, after catching it in the outfield, and tagging out a runner during a game. The Penobscot tribe was considered a pure gene pool tribe by other Native Americans. It is documented that they could hunt game by running and catching their prey by hand. Because of the strict physical requirements of this tribe it was not acceptable to drink, smoke, or destroy your body. Mr Sockalexis had an alcohol problem and ultimately ended his career at a brothel where he jumped out a two story building hurting his ankle. Sockalexis also had a famous cousin who was a succesful athlete. The few years Louis played in baseball were good but not that great. It is important to note that he was an outstanding base runner. Many reports from historians claim that he was constantly a victim of racism. Chief Wahoo is not based after him. It is clearly evident that he can be credited for the creation of the team name, however. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Sockalexis