By Jeff D'Andrea

The La Ronge 89ers stand by logo

Aug 26, 2016 | 12:00 PM

The La Ronge 89ers, senior men’s hockey team, stand by their logo with pride, even after another club with the same caricature has been forced to change it.

The city council of Thorold, Ont., has ruled that their Junior B club, the Thorold Blackhawks, will have to change their logo by June 1, 2017.

In his statement made to the Blackhawks, Thorold mayor Ted Luciano said the logo is “an offensive caricature demeaning to Native members of our community and beyond,” and later added “the City also believes that its continued use is a form of harassment.”

With the exception of the colour scheme and the addition of their city name, the 89ers have adopted essentially the same logo—a common practice among senior and minor sports organizations across Canada.

But despite the logo being outlawed by the Thorold mayor and city council, the La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) doesn’t plan on changing the logo anytime soon.

Lighting it up

P.A.'s Zablocki leads Regina to victory on Day 4 at Esso Cup

2h ago

WORLD SOFTBALL

Group stages officially set for Men's Softball World Cup in P.A.

9h ago

Safety first

Safety concerns and tips surrounding discarded needles in P.A.

Apr 23, 2024

Kevin Roberts, the director of sports and recreation for the LLRIB chose the logo with his late brother Jimmy in 2005. He took to his Facebook page to issue a response to the news defending the 89ers’ use of the logo, which has received over 115 likes. 

“We believed in the decolonized thinking and mentality that you empowered yourself to define your name and any associated symbols that went along with it,” Roberts said.

The Roberts brothers named the team the 89ers to signify the year 1889, when then La Ronge and Stanley Mission Chief James Roberts signed adhesion to Treaty 6.

Roberts believes that the LLRIB should be able to choose the symbols they believe in, and they believe in the caricature they’ve adopted as their own.

“I can’t comment on what their city and leadership have decided to do, but what we think and believe is we define ourselves and use the logos that we are confident in using,” Roberts told paNOW.com in a phone interview. “We’re proud to use it. We’re proud of what it means to us—the pride, the respect, the history and the success that comes with what we do at the reserve level with our sports program.”

Instead of being offended by the caricature of the logo, Roberts said he felt the opposite emotion.

“We just found that the logo represented a fighting spirit,” Roberts said. “There was a strength concept to it. That’s the angle we looked at when we decided to use it.”

The rest of the LLRIB seems to agree. The logo has been used by their minor hockey teams, and variations of the logo have been used for golf, softball and volleyball teams. It’s been synonymous with Lac La Ronge sports, and according to Roberts, it has not generated any issues in the community.  

“It captures all of our sports programs that we’re involved with. We’ve never had a complaint from a parent or a player about what we use in terms of our name or our logo,” Roberts said. “I would say that a lot of them take pride in our jersey and our logo.”

Roberts said that other First Nations have used similar names and logos, and believes they should have the freedom to define themselves with what they chose.

“I look at what happens in our home area in Saskatchewan here, we have a lot of First Nation teams that identify themselves as Indians, Braves, Warriors, Chiefs,” Roberts said. “I’m assuming they’re content with identifying their team names with such terminology and that’s the same angle that we’re coming from.”

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea