CLEVELAND — President Donald Trump is urging Cleveland Guardians ownership to make a name reversal and become, once again, the Cleveland Indians.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday morning, Trump called for both the Guardians and the Washington Commanders to change their names.
RELATED: President Donald Trump urges Cleveland Guardians to change name in Truth Social post
"The Washington 'Whatever’s' should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team. There is a big clamoring for this. Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past," Trump's post read.
In his post, he said the Native American population, "in massive numbers, want this to happen."
"Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago. We are a Country of passion and common sense," Trump said in his post.
Cleveland-based Committee of 500 Years of Dignity & Resistance board member Paul Edward Montgomery Ramírez said Trump is lying.
"For him to pretend that Native Americans are absolutely on board with this isn't slightly true," Montgomery Ramírez said. "There are native organizations that are funded reasonably well to support issues that many in the native community don't actually agree with and then say that they are speaking on behalf of the entire community."
500 Years of Dignity & Resistance was part of the original movement to have the Cleveland Indians change its team name.
RELATED: Northeast Ohio Native American organizations call for Cleveland Indians to change name
"We kind of expected this was coming, and now with the issues that he's [Trump] found himself unable to escape from currently, it made all the sense in the world for him to make this kind of a distraction for effectively what's a culture war that they're waging for their base to get them back together after it's been fragmenting, so yeah, we were expecting it," Montgomery Ramírez said.
We wanted to hear from fans about their preferences, so we conducted a survey before Monday night's game: Guardians or Indians?
Fifty-nine fans took part in our polling.
Forty-seven people voted for "Indians." Twelve preferred "Guardians."
"It was always a woke choice and there was no reason for this, and nobody that I ever talked to wanted it, and I even read articles where the Indians didn't want it," Tim Swallen said. "I'd like to see it changed back, and I think Trump's onto something."
Daniel Lee added that he felt the move from Indians to Guardians was due to political pressure.
"It's nice to have the tradition," Lee said.
Swallen encourages the current team owners to sell the team so that new leadership can make a name reversal.
"There was no real complaint other than two people, and so they changed the whole name of the team, and it had cost them a fortune," Swallen added.
Derek Kanady said he prefers Indians because "it's not racism or anything else. It's just good 'ol tribe."
Those who voted for Guardians said the name change either didn't bother them or they sensed underlying racism.
"Guardians or Indians?," I asked a fan.
"I like 'Guardians' because it's less racist," they responded.
Montgomery Ramírez said he's not surprised by the overwhelming number of fans who voted for Indians.
"There's been a lot of difficulty in that conversation," Montgomery Ramírez said. "Cleveland fans have a history of feeling like they get things taken away from them, most notably, the football team a couple decades ago. There's a lot of resentment I would say in the broader community in Cleveland."
He said he's seen "two different camps" of people: one that wants the name reversal and one that wants Chief Wahoo back as the mascot.
"Chief Wahoo! That's the only way," one fan said on Monday.
"I've seen people who have some of the very, very old like even more stereotyped images of that mascot, and they just very happily have those around. It's difficult to try and figure out how to talk to people," Montgomery Ramírez said. "Our existence has been under the shadow of a mascot for years."
Montgomery Ramírez added that fans pointing to Louis Sockalexis as a reason for the team's name, Indians, is a false statement.
"That story kind of really came around decades later around the civil rights era when it seems people were recognizing, 'Hey maybe this is not good,'" he said. "There was no respect for him. It's just not true and his family doesn't recognize it as being respectful. It was a money grab."
He said he understands the attachment to a team name that's been around for more than 100 years, but he notes change is inevitable.
"Names change; names of streets, names for buildings, everything changes, and it's still, at the end, the baseball team that represents the City of Cleveland," Montgomery Ramírez said.
On Monday, Cleveland Guardians' president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, responded to Trump's request, saying he understands that there are different perspectives, but he's looking to the future:
RELATED: Cleveland Guardians respond to Trump's demand to change team name
"We’ve got the opportunity to build a brand as the Guardians over the last four years and are excited about the future that's in front of us," he said on Sunday.
In President Trump's unsurprisingly racist remarks calling for the Cleveland Guardians to revert to its previous team name, he noted that: "Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. ... OWNERS, GET IT DONE!!!"
This damaging and thoughtless assertion is wholly untrue.
The Lake Erie Native American Council cannot be clearer in reaffirming that there is no honor for Indigenous people in dehumanizing mascots that reduce us to racist stereotypes. For decades, our community has seen the perilous aftereffects of the desensitization of non-Native people conditioned to see us – consciously and not – as subhuman caricatures rather than as individuals from the strong, thriving, diverse and sovereign tribal Nations from which we come.
The Lake Erie Native American Council commends the team's leadership for committing to build its future as the Cleveland Guardians. Over the past few years, the Guardians have worked to strengthen their relationship with Cleveland's Native community following the changing of its team name and mascot. Prior to the name change, the team met with Cleveland-based and national Indigenous leaders who encouraged them to change the name and shared our private and at-times painful lived experiences to illustrate its necessity.
We look forward to continuing to grow a partnership between Cleveland's Native American community and Cleveland's baseball team as it moves forward as the Cleveland Guardians. Go Guards!
The Guardians were the fifth name in franchise history, after the Blues (1901), Bronchos (1902) and Naps (1903-1914) before becoming the Indians in 1915.
The became the Guardians in 2021:
RELATED: Cleveland Indians changing name to Guardians
