Cleveland Indians to change team name, sources confirm to ESPN

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Monday, December 14, 2020
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Indians will be changing their team name, sources confirmed to ESPN.

ESPN's Jeff Passan tweeted Sunday night that sources confirmed the New York Times report about the name change.

It is currently unclear what Cleveland's new team name will be.

The Oneida Nation of New York, which lead the Change the Mascot Movement on the decision to change the team's name released a statement Sunday night saying,

"This is the culmination of decades of work. Groups like the National Congress of American Indians passed resolutions for decades on this, social science has made clear these names are harmful and Cleveland got out in front of it and they're leading, and rather than having this hanging over their heads, they're charting a new path."

The team has been called the Indians for nearly a century.

In 2018, Major League Baseball and the Indians mutually agreed to remove Chief Wahoo from the team's jersey, caps as well as in signage across Progressive Field.

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