Chief Noc-A-Homa

Chief Noc-A-Homa was a Braves mascot.

Since the 1912 season when the team became the Boston Braves, the organization has used a "Brave" (i.e. a Native American) as its logo. The Boston Braves used the Braves logo first between 1912 and 1920, and then from 1929 to 1935, and then finally between 1945 and 1952. The "brave" logo was continued during the team's 13 seasons as the Milwaukee Braves. In 1954, the team adopted as a secondary logo a picture of a "screaming Indian" with an outline of the state of Wisconsin as the background.

This was the first introduction of Chief Noc-A-Homa. His name was a variation on the phrase "Knock a Homer". The Chief would make the transition from secondary to primary logo at the start of the 1957 season, which incidentally was the team's first championship season in Milwaukee. He would continue as the team's primary mascot throughout the team's years in Milwaukee and when they became the Atlanta Braves. There were slight variations to the team's logo over the years though the Chief remained the main logo.

The organization even took it a step further and introduced an actual Chief Noc-A-Homa. Starting in 1964, the team had a live mascot, Tim Rynders, who "lived" in a teepee in an unoccupied area of seating in the bleachers at County Stadium. Whenever the team hit a home run, he would set off smoke signals, and then exit the teepee to perform a dance. The best known actor to play Noc-A-Homa was an Ottawa native and Odawa Indian, named Levi Walker Jr. Walker played Noc-A-Homa between 1969 and 1986. For a time, he even shared a spotlight with a son, who was named Hit-A-Single as well as a female companion Princess Win-A-Lotta.

During the early part of the football season, the team would often endure losing streaks; according to superstition it was due to the teepee being taken down to allow for extra seating for NFL games. The Braves parted ways with Walker following the 1985 season, dropping the live Native American act although the logo was kept until 1989. The Chief's disappearance was based in part on criticism from native groups who considered that the portrayal was disrespectful. However, the chief was replaced in Braves lore by the "tomahawk chop" gesture, a ritual not held in much higher consideration by North American Indians.

Sources

• 1986 NY Times article
• ESPN article
• Thursday Review
• Milwaukee Public Library blog