Facing many years of online pressure and allegations its name had racist overtones the Innisfail Indians baseball team has changed its moniker to Trappers.
The team's name change follows the longstanding controversy with professional sports teams -- including the Cleveland Indians major league baseball team, the NFL's Washington Redskins and the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos, using names, accompanied with logos often considered offensive caricatures, that offended First Nations groups.
Former team manager Desmond Bouteiller, who was asked to be a consultant on this contentious issue, said Monday, Nov. 28, his phone “hasn't stopped ringing” since a blog post he wrote on the issue was picked up by media across the country.
“It's pretty crazy,” said Bouteiller, who is now the manager of the Innisfail Merchants Junior AAA baseball team. Bouteiller said team officials have encountered pressure for many years on Facebook to change the name and management decreed this year the Parkland Baseball team would make the switch to Trappers in 2017.
In his blog post, which can be found at merchantsbaseball.ca/blog, he noted the issue was causing serious online controversy against the local team and its players.
“This particular uprising was focused on the players of the Innisfail senior Indians. Comments were made to players labelling them as racists, and uneducated, and began to push an uneasy front against people trying to make a difference,” Bouteiller wrote on his blog.
He said his work to look at the issue, which began two years ago, was to write letters to 29 different First Nations bands within Alberta to get “clarification” on the issue.
On April 13 of 2015, Bouteiller received a message from a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which he said, “forever changed” his views.
“He educated me about the origins of the label Indian, and how it resonates with slavery, and conquest,” he said in his blog post. “He taught me of the Dene and Cree people that once controlled the land from Alaska to the James Bay, and how it would be ‘pretty difficult for them to think of themselves as Indians.'
“He concluded the email by telling me that ‘Canada has adopted a word that is patently racist, and that this racism underlies Canadian identity,'” he added. Bouteiller said Monday it was decided then the name of the local baseball team needed to be changed, which he now fully endorses.
“I support his movement,” Bouteiller said Monday.
In the meantime, the new local PBL team has begun fundraising to purchase new jerseys, hats and equipment that will bear the Trappers name.
Desmond Bouteiller
"This particular uprising was focused on the players of the Innisfail senior Indians. Comments were made to players labelling them as racists, and uneducated, and began to push an uneasy front against people trying to make a difference
