The Braves' tomahawk chop became a mass phenomenon in 1991, after organist Carolyn King played the accompanying chant and melody during at-bats and Atlanta fans adopted the synchronized arm motion. The ritual intensified as the team began winning, while foam salesman Paul Braddy turned the celebration into a lucrative sideline: after broadcaster Skip Caray joked that fans needed tomahawks, Braddy carved a foam version with an electric knife, arranged to sell it through the stadium, and eventually produced as many as 8,000 a day—enough to leave a $60,000-a-year sales job. Native American organizations objected that the chant and prop transformed Indigenous identity into a cartoonish stadium performance. The confrontation reached a new level during the 2019 National League Division Series, when St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Ryan Helsley, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, said the chant and chopping motion were insulting and portrayed Native people as primitive, 'caveman-type' figures. Before Game 5 in Atlanta, the Braves stopped distributing foam tomahawks, playing the chop music, and displaying the chop graphic. The club then entered discussions with Native organizations, but the issue remained unresolved: the Braves retained the team name, later encouraged the chant again, and Commissioner Rob Manfred defended the franchise in 2021 by saying its relationship with the Native American community in the Atlanta area was supportive. Leaders of the Cherokee and Muscogee nations, along with the National Congress of American Indians, continued to argue that the ritual reduced Native Americans to caricatures, while other Native leaders—including Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Richard Sneed—said they were not personally offended, though he called the chant outdated and 'hokey.'
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