FREE SPEECH : Indian Sports Nickname Issue Riles Fans : Portland paper’s decision not to print names is well-received out of state--but not at home.

Like a stone thrown into water, an Oregon newspaper’s decision not to print Indian nicknames for sports teams is beginning to have a ripple effect around the country, even though it is losing a popularity contest on the home front.

A farm club for the Atlanta Braves baseball team is toning down its Indian-related advertising. St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y.--previously known as the Redmen--has changed its mascot and is considering a name change. The Washington, D.C., City Council has unanimously passed a resolution calling for the Washington Redskins to change their name.

However, at the Portland Oregonian, letters are piling up high on several editors’ desks, and readers are leaning 60% to 40% against the action, according to Judson Randall, assistant to the editor.

Oregonian Editor William Hilliard announced on Feb. 16 that the paper would drop the names Redskins, Redmen, Indians and Braves from its reporting. “I have directed this action with the belief that these names tend to perpetuate stereotypes that damage the dignity and self-respect of many people in our society and that this harm far transcends any innocent entertainment or promotional value these names may have,” Hilliard wrote to his newspaper’s readers.

The Oregonian has listed 92 sports teams across the country, down to Class B high schools in Washington and Oregon, affected by the decision.

Some critics have asked: Aren’t we all getting too sensitive?

Spoofing the move, one of the Oregonian’s own columnists pointed out that the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Ore., uses the nickname Braves.

Steve Capka, a talk-show host on KFXX all-sports radio, said calls are coming in 100 to 1 against the Oregonian decision. “I don’t think they did their homework,” said Capka, whose grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee. “The Cleveland franchise changed their name to the Indians to honor the first Native American to play in the big leagues (Louis Sockalexis, the team’s best hitter in 1896) and the Boston franchise changed their name to Braves to honor a Delaware Indian chief. These moves were not meant to demean.”

One Beaverton reader wrote in to say: “The Oregonian is free to protest all injustices it perceives about the world--on its editorial page. The rest of the paper should be devoted to reporting and covering society as it is, not how the Oregonian’s editors might wish it to be. Anything less than that is irresponsible journalism.”

Inside the Oregonian there has been some resistance too.

Steve Duin, a political columnist, says the issue is one of censorship. “We can’t be deciding every name. It’s an issue between teams and different groups in our society. How can we decide every dispute?”

Duin said the move surprised him because “the Oregonian is not known as a paper on the cutting edge.”

However, there has been change at the paper over the years. The newsroom has become more diverse, and a small percentage of staffers represent varied ethnic groups, including American Indians. Hilliard is black and, associates say, sensitive to ethnic issues.

The issue was first raised last fall by John Killen, an Oregonian assistant city editor who grew up in Idaho and worked for 11 years in sports journalism in Lewiston, Ida., a heavily Indian area.

“My best friend’s wife was Indian,” he said. “I was aware of the epithet ‘Redskin’ a long time ago.”

Referring to any effect the Oregonian decision may have across the country, Greg Nokes, an assistant managing editor, said: “We made our decision not expecting the rest of the world to follow suit or teams to drop their names. We did it for our readers in our community. If it leads to change elsewhere, so much the better.”

Johnny Jackson, a Cascade Klickitat chief says he is happy about the move: “It pleases my elders. The majority of our people felt hurt by it all.” He particularly mentioned images of ugly Indians used as emblems and mascots.

Steve Iverson, principal of the Roseburg High School Indians said the Oregonian’s decision created a lot of interest, but no change. “This is not a new issue. We have no demeaning mascots and would not have them. We are governed by good taste.”

Some speculate that the paper’s decision may have been easier to make because the local college teams--the University of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Beavers--do not go by Indian names. One reader now predicts: “When the animal rights people get done with team mascots, there will be no Ducks, Beavers, Bears, Cougars, Huskies or Banana Slugs either.”