Parents Petition Skokie Indians Little League Team To Change Name

SKOKIE, IL — More than two decades after the Niles Township High School District 219 school board voted to drop the "Niles West Indians" name and logo, a group of parents last week launched a petition to convince the board of the Skokie Indians Little League to follow suit.

Organizers of the petition, which had gathered more than 1,300 signatures in its first week, say they plan to pursue further discussions with village officials about updating the village's logo to remove the use of Native American iconography.

"The Skokie Indians Little League must recognize that we are long past due to truly honor the First Nations of this country, by respecting them for their rich history, culture, and tremendous impact on this country, and not degrading them as sports mascots," the petition said. "We must send a strong and important message that Skokie truly welcomes everyone and celebrates our different cultures. We must acknowledge that the games our little leaguers play are played upon the lands of the Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Peoria, Myaamia, and Oceti Sakowin Tribes."

Matt Temkin said he began drawing up the "Retire Skokie Indians Name and Logo" petition last summer. An Evanston native and father of two students in Skokie School District 73.5, Temkin and his wife, who grew up in Skokie, moved back to the village more than four years ago.

Last summer, after the Washington D.C. National Football League dropped its name and the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball team announced plans to retire its own, Temkin said league representatives told him the name was about honoring Native American history and referenced the image of the face of a Native American man on the village of Skokie's official crests and logos.

"Pointing to racist symbols in other places doesn't make it right," Temkin said. "I think our next fight after we see change here is to take it to the village and demand that the village drop its logo as well, which is just as egregious or more, and it's all over, whether its the police or fire department patch, or logos on fire trucks or it's on village vehicles or flags, it's everywhere."

Temkin said he shelved the petition draft last summer to focus on police reform and other social justice advocacy, but the idea was recently revived following a discussion with fellow Skokie parent Louis Mercer.

Mercer, who coaches his son's Skokie Indians team, said the name and logo is his only complaint with the league.

"Native American groups have pointed this out for decades: this is an offensive symbol and that this is not a way to honor us — and especially an organization that really has no ties to Native Americans, to be using this is really inappropriate," Mercer said. "I've been uncomfortable with it since the beginning, but at the same time I want my son to be on teams with his friends and in his community, and it is a very well-run league."

Through discussions with Temkin, he realized there were many others who shared the discomfort with the name and logo, which depicts the profile of a Native American man in a headdress.

"I got to talking with Matt and some other of my friends and realized a lot of people felt the same way," Mercer said. "I think it's just something that we all kind of felt, but we didn't really know what to do about."

Organizers of the name-change petition plan to present it to the Skokie Indians board at a meeting next month.

Pancho Espinoza, president of the league’s board, said it’s not the first time the issue has come up.

“I can appreciate that the issue of the Skokie Indians name has arisen at this time, since there are teams that still portray Native Americans in a racist manner,” he told Patch in an email.
“In my 15 years of involvement with the league as a parent, coach, board member and president, from 2006 to 2021, the issue arose a couple of times but the topic didn't materialize into an ongoing conversation,” he said.

“Our response at that time was that: We consider our league to be a tribute to the Native Americans (known as the Potawatomi Indians) who originally settled Skokie. We have discussed more recently whether the name should be changed, especially in light of many professional, college and high school teams eliminating their use of Native American team names, some of which used racist imagery and portrayed Native Americans as savage, warlike and uncivilized. Even though we did not adopt the name as a disrespectful action and we have steadfastly rejected that sort of imagery and behavior.”

Mercer and Temkin were joined as signatories by the Niles West Student Government, the Oliver McCracken Middle School Social Justice Club, Skokie Schools Equity Collaborative, Skokie United, independent candidate for Skokie trustee James Johnson, Skokie School Board 68 board candidate Annie Warshaw, Skokie Park District board candidate Mary Oshana and Skokie Park District Vice President Khem Khoeun, a Skokie Caucus Park candidate for village board.

Kailey Cabrera, an 8th grader at McCracken and president of its student council, said she has been aware of the Skokie Indians name growing up in Skokie. She said the issue of a possible name and logo change recently came up at the school's social justice club.

"It is something that needs to be changed because it perpetuates and promotes stereotypes, this adding onto the fact that it is just straight up offensive. Skokie prides itself on welcoming everyone and its diverse population — in order to maintain this philosophy, taking this next step is imperative," Cabrera told Patch.

The 14-year-old lifetime Skokie resident said in an email interview that the name and logo had a negative impact on the village's youth by validating offensive behavior.

"It makes it okay to be blatantly disrespectful. The younger generations now are our future, and it is our job to make sure that they are impacted in a way that will create woke and respectful adults," she said.

"A tradition that promotes this kind of disrespectful representation is not a good tradition," she added, "let alone one that should continue to be upheld. Things are constantly changing and for the better. We will not have a society that advances without being open to changing — especially changing things that are as disrespectful as the team's name and logo."

The Skokie Indians markets itself as a 501(c)3 organization "affiliated" with the Skokie Park District on its website. It fields a travelling team for kids up to age 14 and house leagues for children aged 5 to 17. No record of the little league or travelling team's tax-exempt status could be located on the IRS website, and the nature of its affiliation with the park district is not clear. Espinoza said its tax-exempt status was revoked under the board's previous leadership.

Skokie Park District Executive Director Michelle Tuft has not responded to an inquiry regarding the district's facility rental policy or its contractual relationship with the Skokie Indians organization. Any response will be added here.

The history of the Skokie Indians goes back to former Niles Township Democratic Committeeman Martin "Scotty" Krier, who founded and owned the team first known as Krier's Niles Center Indians and as Krier's Skokie Indians after the village's name change in 1940.

Espinoza, the league’s president, said board members had previously discussed changing the its name and logo.

“The board had been discussing the matter prior to the Spring 2020 season, but when COVID hit a lot of our agenda was put on hold. Unfortunately, our board was hit with their own personal hardships and the loss of loved ones with the COVID-19 pandemic and this matter, along with our other league business, was put on the backburner,” he said in an email. “We are committed to change and are willing to work with the community, to ensure the boys and girls of Skokie can continue to participate in baseball and softball in a welcoming environment.

Temkin is the son of longtime Chicago Tribune high school sports columnist Barry Temkin, who covered the end of Native American names at schools like Naperville Central and Marist through the 1990s.

In addition to the 2000 decision to change the Niles West High School name to the Wolves, the University of Illinois dropped Chief Illiniwik as its mascot in 2007 and Maine West High School in Des Plaines ended its tradition of having a student dress up in traditional Native American garb for sporting events in 2018.

The younger Temkin said he was amazed it has taken so long for the leadership of the Skokie Indians to reconsider the name, but he hoped league officials were ready to move forward with a new name, regardless of the reason.

"The arguments that have been made against the stereotypes of these emblems and the harm it causes indigenous folks, I don't know if that message has really sunk in, or it's just like, there's too much attention we need to change it," he said.

Mercer said he grew up attending Illini football games at Memorial Stadium in Champaign with his grandfather, and attending Native American-themed summer camps with his father. While he now recognizes it as cultural appropriation, he said he recognizes the iconography has been part of many of his own positive memories.

"But I realize now, the special part, the part I want to pass down and share with my son, is the time with my dad," he said. "It wasn't the use of Native American names and 'tribes' and things like that. It was the time with my dad that was special — not the symbols that were used."