Despite the announcement by the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Football team that both organizations would be changing their names, the Chicago Blackhawks have no plans to follow suit.
«Obviously, we respect the decision the Cleveland Indians made to go down that path, but we continue to deepen our commitment to upholding our namesake and our brand," Chicago CEO Danny Wirtz told reporters. "The work we've been doing over the last several months and expanding and deepening conversations and partnerships within the Native 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 the history, and to use our platforms to be educators not only for our fans but for our internal teams and making sure that we provide that reverence and respect that we talk about that."
"We want it to come to life in everything we do across so many dimensions — both from a marketing standpoint, from a learning and education standpoint, and from by all means a community standpoint in ways in which we have integrated Native voices into a lot of those efforts."
"So, we're going to continue down this path and continue to hold our brand up in the highest levels of honour,» Wirtz concluded.
Both the Blackhawks' name and logo have been questioned by many over the years. The team released a statement back in July that said that it "symbolizes an important and historic person, Black Hawk of Illinois' Sac & Fox Nation, whose leadership and life has inspired generations of Native Americans, veterans and the public."
Back in November, the Blackhawks announced they will read a Land Acknowledgement statement before every home game moving forward.
Source: Sportsnet
