The Chicago Blackhawks’ leadership group remains committed to the team’s name and logo despite its frequent scrutiny in 2020.
Newly named CEO Danny Wirtz, in a Thursday press conference introducing new president of business operations Jaime Faulkner, emphasized that yet again.
Wirtz’s comments came after the MLB’s Cleveland Indians announced earlier this week their plans to drop the “Indians” nickname following protests by Native American groups.
“I respect the decision the Cleveland Indians made to go down that path,” Wirtz said. “But we continue to deepen our commitment to upholding our namesake and our brand.
“[Given] the work we’ve been doing over the last several months in expanding and deepening conversations and partnerships in the Native American community, we continue to feel really positive about the types of work we can do, the way in which we can be better stewards of the namesake and history, and to use our platforms to be educators for our fans and internal teams. [We want to] make sure we provide that reverence and respect.”
The Blackhawks’ name and logo, depicting 1800s Sauk tribe leader Black Hawk, has been in the news frequently this year.
After the NFL’s Washington Football Team dropped their former nickname in July, the Blackhawks released a statement standing by theirs but committing to raise more awareness and offer more support for Native Americans.
Later that month, the Blackhawks banned fans from wearing headdresses at future United Center home games and announced their sponsorship of a new educational wing of the Trickster Cultural Center building in Schaumburg.
TCC first partnered with the Blackhawks in 2010, and its CEO, Joe Podlasek, said Thursday the relationship has been beneficial. Six to 10 Native American veterans are honored per season at the UC through one particular program between the two organizations.
“We said at the beginning, ‘This is going to take time for cultural education,’” Podlasek said. “Now we’re at a point where we can really take off and blossom. We have the trust among each other and the understanding that they are in it for cultural education that they don’t know how to deliver, so that’s why we partner with them.”
That new wing, called “A Place of Teaching,” will be unveiled in a virtual gala this coming Tuesday. It includes artifacts from the Ojibwe, Sauk, Fox and other tribes, an interactive teepee and wigwam, a Native American military timeline and more.
Podlasek credited assistance from the Blackhawks and the Field Museum for its speedy completion.
He also said he supports the Blackhawks’ name and logo because it encourages that kind of education.
“I am one that takes it team by team, not just lump them all together and say, ‘If it’s a Native image, it’s all wrong,’” he said. “The Washington Redskins had to go. The Cleveland Indians had to change. But we work with so many schools who need the cultural education behind why their school was named, and that ties into the same thing with the Blackhawks.
“There’s a wealth of knowledge that’s just been lost, and it needs to be revisited, the stories retold. And then people will understand that it’s not a Hollywood version, it’s the real history.”
Other Native American organizations, however, feel differently than Podlasek and the TCC.
The American Indian Center, located in Albany Park, formerly partnered with the Blackhawks but later broke off ties, citing the team’s name and logo as the cause. A representative from AIC has not yet returned a request for comment Thursday.
“Going forward, AIC will have no professional ties with the Blackhawks or any other organization that perpetuates harmful stereotypes,” it said in a statement last year. “We see this as necessary to sustain a safe, welcoming environment for members of our community as well as protecting our cultural identity and traditions.”
And in October, the Blackhawks statue outside the UC was covered with paint and messages such as “land back” and “decolonize.” Photos of the incident were distributed on Twitter by an account titled “No Native Mascots.”
