KPLU: Spokane Tribe maintains close ties with baseball franchise

Avista Stadium in Spokane is full of the familiar sights, sounds and smells of baseball. And then, there are things that might make you do a double take.

At the restrooms, “men” and “women” are written in English and in another language. It's Salish, a family of languages that was spoken for centuries throughout the Northwest. In the team store, you can buy a ball cap with the Spokane Indians logo in Salish.

“Things have changed. There used to be teepees for our ticket offices,” said Otto Klein, senior vice president of the Spokane Indians Baseball Club, a farm team of the Texas Rangers.

In 2006, the team asked the tribe to be part of its rebranding efforts. Gone are the days when the team's logo featured a grinning “Chief Wahoo.” Now the team has incorporated feathers and the Salish language into an official logo.

And this year, the team introduced the most visible nod to the tribe's culture yet: a home game uniform in Salish. The idea came up in one of their regular meetings with the tribe.