Cardinals Reliever With Cherokee Heritage Wants Braves Fans to Abandon Tomahawk Chop

The Tomahawk Chop has been a tradition at Atlanta Braves home games since the early 1990s, when the team acquired FSU football star Deion Sanders.

However, many feel that the Chop's presence in baseball needs to be changed due to the offensive history the ritual has for Native Americans.

Among the detractors of the Chop is someone who's currently in uniform attempting to battle it; St. Louis Cardinals reliever Ryan Helsley, a member of Cherokee Nation with Cherokee heritage.

Helsley, a native of Tahlequah, OK, speaks the Cherokee language and has ancestors that marched from Georgia to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears.

So, it was not lost on him when Braves fans at SunTrust Park welcomed him, and every other reliever from an opposing team, with the Chop.

The 25-year-old is deeply connected with his ancestry and calls the Braves tradition "disappointing" and "disrespectful."

MLB has taken steps to remove offensive images and rituals from the sport, including the banishment of longtime Cleveland Indians icon Chief Wahoo after the 2018 season.

Commissioner Rob Manfred is clearly aware of the damaging symbolism behind these seemingly innocent traditions. Therefore, it is more than fair for people to question why he hasn't forced any action regarding the Chop in Atlanta. As FSU has surely learned over the years, it's difficult to legislate a behavior, but what about a cap on selling the foam tomahawks?

It's 2019. Changes to the offensive ritual are long overdue. Take it from someone in Ryan Helsley who knows better.