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You are here: Home / Language / Why is the Cleveland Baseball Team Called the Indians and How Did the Name Originate?

Why is the Cleveland Baseball Team Called the Indians and How Did the Name Originate?

May 7, 2020 by Karen Hill

Controversy generally surrounds the choice of Native American names for sports teams, but not in Cleveland.

That city’s baseball team is named in honor of one of their star players from the 1890s.

He was Alex Sophalexis, a Penobscot Indian so respected that in 1914, one year after his death, Cleveland took the name “Indians” to commemorate Alex and what he had meant to their team.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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