Native American Groups to Sue Cleveland Indians over Chief Wahoo Mascot

Native American groups plan to file a federal lawsuit against the Cleveland Indians to force them to retire the Chief Wahoo mascot.

Robert Roche, a Chiricahua Apache who is a part of the “People Not Mascots” group and directs the American Indian Education Center, expects the federal lawsuit to be filed by July. 

“It’s been offensive since day one,” he told NBC News. “We are not mascots. My children are not mascots. We are people.”

As NBC noted, “groups like People Not Mascots hope that new pressure will be applied to the Indians following last Wednesday’s decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which stripped the Redskins of its trademark and declared the team name to be ‘a racial slur.'”

Native American groups have also pressured Nike to ax the mascot.