Braves bring chop to Series
ATLANTA – As the World Series shifts to Atlanta, some TV viewers may be offended to see Braves fans still chopping and chanting in force.
After teams in the NFL and Major League Baseball have dropped names considered racist and offensive to Native Americans the last two years, the Braves chop on – with the support of baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.
What matters most to Manfred is the Braves have the support of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based in North Carolina about three hours from Atlanta.
“The Native American community in that region is wholly supportive of the Braves program, including the chop,” Manfred said Tuesday. “For me, that’s kind of the end of the story. In that market, we’re taking into account the Native American community.”
Manfred’s decision to accept input from only one Native American group doesn’t sit well with the Oklahoma-based Muscogee Nation.
“I think on a subject like that and when you’re dealing with Indian country you have to look at it as a whole instead of one or two specific places,” Jason Salsman, press secretary for the Muscogee Nation, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
“You have to look far and wide and how all Indian na- tions feel.”
Richard Sneed, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, would like to see more outrage about what he says are far bigger issues facing Native Americans, including poverty, unemployment, child abuse, sexual assaults and suicide.
“I’m not offended by somebody waving their arm at a sports game,” Sneed told the AP on Tuesday. “I’m just not. If somebody is, that’s their prerogative, it’s their right. They can be offended . ... I don’t know very many, maybe one or two, from my tribe who say, ‘Yeah, I don’t like that.’ But at the end of the day, we’ve got bigger issues to deal with.”
Sneed said the problems with crime and poverty remain largely ignored when the national attention has been on team names and the tomahawk chop.
“There’s just so much happening and the frustrating part for me as a tribal leader is when the only issue that seems to be discussed is ... ‘How offended are you by the chop and should the Braves change their name?’ ... Really, it’s the least of our problems, I guess is what I’m saying.”
There is no indication the Braves plan to change their name or discourage the chop, which has been a tradition for their fans since the early 1990s. Former Braves outfielder Deion Sanders is credited with bringing the chop, which was part of his college football background at Florida State, to Atlanta.
Sanders, now Jackson State’s football coach, declined an interview request from the AP.
The Braves are following the lead of Florida State and the minor league Spokane Indians in nurturing relationships and developing support from local Native American groups.
The Braves temporarily attempted to deemphasize the chop in the 2019 NL Division Series against St. Louis after Cardinals reliever Ryan Helsley, a member of the Cherokee nation, said he found it insulting.
Following Helsley’s complaint, the Braves stopped distributing the red foam tomahawks used by fans doing the chop during the series. They also stopped having the accompanying music played to encourage the chant.
The coronavirus pandemic emptied stadiums and took attention away from it.
Now fans have returned and the chop is fully revived, complete with drumbeats, stadium music and the tomahawk images posted on video boards around Truist Park.
From Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to University of Georgia standout defensive tackle Jordan Davis to Braves fans, there is widespread local support for the chop.
Kemp wrote “Chop On, and Go @Braves!” on his Twitter account after Atlanta beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.
Davis, asked Monday if he was pulling for the Braves, said: “Definitely. Chop on Braves. We’re definitely rooting for them.”