The documents often cited to justifying the trend for change are an advisory opinion by the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 2001 and a resolution by the American Psychological Association in 2005.
These fictional representations stand in the way of any authentic understanding of contemporary Indigenous peoples, and promote racism. Individual schools may have performance traditions, such as the tomahawk chop, a mascot or cheerleaders in stereotypical Native attire, and chants adapted from Hollywood movies. Other imagery include dreamcatchers, feathers, spears, and arrows.
The typical logo is an image of a stereotypical Native American man in profile, wearing a Plains Indians headdress and are often cartoons or caricatures. In a list of the top 100 team names, 'Indians' is 14th, 'Braves' is 38th, 'Chiefs' is 57th. Among the categories of names for sports teams in the United States and Canada, those referring to Indigenous peoples are lesser in popularity only to the names of various animals.
