Native American Motifs

THE ATLANTA BRAVES

1967 - 1975

1972 - 1989

1987 - 1989

1988 -Present

The current logo

The Atlanta Braves logo comprises of an axe underneath the company’s name. The whole logo slants towards the right. The axe basically represents the strength of the team and its continuous efforts to improve its performance.
Keeping aside the shape and the font style, the colors (red with a navy blue outline) in the Atlanta Braves logo have been used to indicate the team’s strength to recover from the lows with a bang.

The logos used for the braves include a cartoon image of a Native American, as a war prone cartoon character locked in the past.  These elements are sacred such as eagle feathers, ceremonial paint, music, and dance. Often they are mocked by multitudes in orchestrated cheers during sports games. Native Americans consider these practices a disrespectful infringement on their cultural, spiritual and intellectual property rights.

Every major National organization representing Native Americans has asked for these uses of Native peoples and cultures to be stopped. The time was right for sports teams to consider this form of racism perpetrated under their auspices against Native peoples.  This lead to sports teams including the Braves to change their logo and create a new identity, which was culturally accepted. in 1988 the original Braves logo, changed from the cartoon native American to the Braves title with the axe underneath. 

Not many Native American motifs are recognizable in the Braves new logo, however there is the same illustration style, of bold outlines, which is seen in a lot of Native American paintings. Also the use of leather or twine, which is wrapped around the end of the axe, to me also represents the Native Americans.

I think the re-design of the logo has achieved its intentions dramatically, however personally I don’t think I like the logo. I think the title is fine, but there is something about the axe that I don’t think works quite right.