Baseball is here and there’s new grass on the field. So it’s time to trot out the Atlanta Braves name controversy.
The first objection is the name: “Braves.” This is an English word, of course, not a tribal one. The word was first used by the painter George Catlin around 1816 to denote young male southwestern tribesmen who had not yet fought against an enemy.
The second is the “Tomahawk Chop.” The tomahawk was really the British Navy boarding axe. It was made out of iron. The tribesmen had the usual flaked rock tied to the stick version, but when they saw what iron could do they traded heavily for the iron head in the 17th century and attached that to a stick.