• DOI:10.1353/AIQ.2001.0038
• Corpus ID: 161347816

"Chief": The American Indian Integration of Baseball, 1897-1945

@article{PowersBeck2001ChiefTA,
  title={"Chief": The American Indian Integration of Baseball, 1897-1945},
  author={Jeffrey P. Powers-Beck},
  journal={The American Indian Quarterly},
  year={2001},
  volume={25},
  pages={508 - 538}
}

• J. Powers-Beck
• Published 1 August 2001
• History
• The American Indian Quarterly

They were called "Chief": the dozens of Native Americans who played major league baseball from 1897 to 1945 and the hundreds who played minor league ball. Although the story of the African American integration of baseball has been told in great detail, the story of the Native American initiation into professional baseball, starting with Louis Francis Sockalexis in spring 1897, has not yet been fully told. American Indians did not face the same obstacles to participation in professional baseball as did blacks at the turn of the century, but they too endured an integration experience. In one chapter of Baseball: The People's Game, Harold Seymour began to tell that story: