Here's why the Potawatomi sign on Miller Park's outfield wall is covered up this weekend

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Christian Yelich catches a fly ball in the first inning against the Chicago Cubs at Miller Park on May 27 at Miller Park, with the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino sign visible in the background.

The right-center outfield wall at Miller Park might look a little strange to fans this weekend.

With the Atlanta Braves in town, fans attending a game at Miller Park might notice some signage obscured on the outfield wall. What’s underneath is an advertisement for Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, and for close to the past decade that sign has been covered up when the Braves and Cleveland Indians are here.

Here's the reason why.

“The issue of Native American words and symbols being used as team names or mascots is an issue many tribes have advocated against for years,” Potawatomi Hotel & Casino stated. “As a business owned and operated by a tribal government, this is a decision we’ve made to support and build on that advocacy.”

Potawatomi and the Brewers have long had a strong corporate relationship, intensified when Potawatomi became the club’s first “presenting sponsor” back in 2009 (a title it maintains today). That was the second-largest sponsorship level at the time, behind the naming rights for the stadium (which belongs to MillerCoors).

The Potawatomi Hotel and Casino advertisement in right-center field at Miller Park (usually located between the West Bend Insurance and Aurora Health Care signage) is obscured July 5 before the Brewers meet the Atlanta Braves.

When those teams visit town, Potawatomi elects to obscure all signage – traditional and digital – within the park.

There has been slow progress toward scaling back racial depictions by Major-League baseball teams. Cleveland announced in January that it was abandoning the “Chief Wahoo” logo on its uniforms, beginning in 2019. The team will continue using the name “Indians,” however and will not relinquish the trademark to Chief Wahoo – meaning it will still be able to profit off merchandise sales bearing the logo.

The Braves, meanwhile, have long drawn criticism for the tomahawk chant deployed by their fans, and they still use a hatchet as part of their insignia.

In 2010 the State of Wisconsin established a law where mascots could be challenged and reviewed by the Department of Public Instruction. Governor Scott Walker signed a bill in 2013 that rewrote the law and made any challenges more complicated.