Winnipeg mayor wants Eskimos to change name

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman thinks the CFL Edmonton Eskimos should change their team name. “I think there’s an opportunity to have a more inclusive name,” he said. “That’s ultimately a decision for the team, though.”

Bowman, who is Metis, said he respects the Edmonton CFL organization but would prefer a different name. A statement from the Eskimos says they use the name with “pride and respect.”

“We are actively engaged in listening to the conversation that people are having around our name.”

The team also said if Bowman has an opinion he’d like to share with it, he should do so. The Eskimos are facing the Blue Bombers in the CFL western semifinal on Saturday in Winnipeg.

It’s not the first time there have been calls for the Edmonton team to change its name.

Andre Talbot, the retired 2004 Grey Cup champion who played for the Toronto Argonauts but spent his final season in 2010 with Edmonton, said that changing the team name would be a small, but positive gesture.

“Sports organizations need to be community building organizations,” Talbot said in 2015. “And if we’re isolating and offending part of that community, then our particular organization or league is not doing its job.”

Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which represents Canada’s 60,000 Inuit, said in 2015 that it wasn’t right for any team to be named after an ethnic group.

He called the term Eskimo a relic of a past in which Inuit people had no control over their lives or even what they were called. He said he would be offended if someone called him Eskimo.