National Congress of American Indians blasts MLB commissioner’s comment on Braves’ Chop

The World Series shifts to Atlanta beginning with Friday’s Game 3, and some of the focus will be on the stands.

With the Braves back in the Fall Classic for the first time since 1999, fans at Truist Park should be at full throat — and they’ll likely be doing the ‘tomahawk chop’ at some point during the game against the Houston Astros.

Before Game 1 of the World Series in Houston, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred talked about Atlanta’s chop.

“It’s important to understand that we have 30 markets around the country. They’re not all the same,” Manfred told reporters on Tuesday. “The Braves have done a phenomenal job with the Native American community. The Native American community in that region is wholly supportive of the Braves’ program, including the chop. For me, that’s kind of the end of the story. In that market, taking into account the Native American community, it works.”

Manfred later said Major League Baseball doesn’t market the game on a “nationwide basis.”

Those comments drew a sharp rebuke from the National Congress of American Indians, which released a statement from its president, Fawn Sharp. She said Major League Baseball is a global brand that markets the World Series nationally and internationally.

“(T)he games played in Atlanta this weekend will be viewed by tens of millions of fans across the country and around the world,” Sharp said in the statement. “Meanwhile, the name ‘Braves,’ the tomahawk adorning the team’s uniform, and the ‘tomahawk chop’ that the team exhorts its fans to perform at home games are meant to depict and caricature not just one tribal community but all Native people, and that is certainly how baseball fans and Native people everywhere interpret them.

“Consequently, the league and team have an obligation to genuinely listen to Tribal Nations and leaders across the United States about how the team’s mascot impacts them.”

Sharp noted the NCAI has worked for more than 50 years to eliminate Native American mascots in use by professional and amateur sports teams around the country.

That includes the Chiefs, whom they’ve asked to change their team name and logo. A year ago, the NCAI called the banning of face-painting and headdresses, along with the subtle change to the “chop” at Arrowhead Stadium, a positive step.

Sharp asked that the “tomahawk chop” by Braves fans be excluded from World Series TV coverage.

“In our discussions with the Atlanta Braves, we have repeatedly and unequivocally made our position clear — Native people are not mascots, and degrading rituals like the ‘tomahawk chop’ that dehumanize and harm us have no place in American society,” Sharp wrote.

“NCAI calls on the team to follow the example set by the Cleveland Guardians, and we call on Major League Baseball and the Fox Broadcasting Company to refrain from showing the ‘tomahawk chop’ when it is performed during the nationally televised World Series games in Atlanta.”