This paper critically analyzes sport mascots and team names in Canada that contain symbols of Indigenous peoples’ cultures. They include mascots linked to the Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver Olympics and the Edmonton “Eskimos” football team. The paper places these mascots and team names within a historical context to argue that they are legacies of a Settler colonial practice in Canada: using symbols of Indigenous peoples’ cultures to define the Settler state while simultaneously suppressing these cultures through assimilationist policies and practices. Thus, the mascots and team names contribute to a Settler colonial project that, as Patrick Wolfe (2006) convincingly argues, depends on the logic of elimination. _x000D_
_x000D_
This paper goes beyond a simple critique of Settler colonialism by recognizing that state-sanctioned practices aimed at assimilating Indigenous peoples into Settler society never succeeded. It argues that sport mascots and team names that draw on Indigenous imagery remind us of the failure of the Settler colonial project. The paper foregrounds the NASSS conference theme of decolonial praxis by considering how sports fans can use examples of Settlers’ appropriation of Indigenous cultures through sport as motivation to read and commit to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada's 2015 calls to action.