Baseball’s League of Nations chronicles the little known history of Native Americans’ contribution to baseball, including an examination of Native American logos and mascots, how baseball was used to assimilate Native American children into American culture, and the barnstorming teams of the 20th century. It continues to the present with contemporary major league players such as pitcher Joba Chamberlain, Winnebago, pitcher Kyle Lohse, Nomlaki, and centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, Navajo.
A half century before Jackie Robinson officially integrated America’s National Pastime, Louis Sockalexis, a Native American of the Penobscot Nation, played outfield for the Major League Cleveland Spider—the year, 1897.