I'm from Chicago and I would say that I've never considered the Wirtz family, the current owners, as reliably progressive. I don't know about the current Wirtz, other than he rescued a dying franchise from his father's incompetence. I sort of get the sense he's okay, but I don't really know.

An interesting tidbit of info about Illinois, in general, is that many, many things are named after Indian nations. Including, of course, the state itself.

There are thousands of streets named after Indian nations. Many towns, such as Sauk Village, Ottawa, Shabonna - the list goes on - are named after Indian nations. Chicago's etymology is derived from a Miami-Illinois word, shikaakwa (a type of wild onion). Peoria, Illinois, is named after an Indian nation.

One could make the argument that if the various Indian nations are so important to Illinois, that the state itself should revert its sovereignty to those Indian nations. Well, that's not going to happen.

But I'd argue that keeping the names is good. It serves as a reminder of who we displaced. It's a sad bit of history, but the more we see the names involved in this genocidal episode of American (and Canadian) life, the more some of us might want to explore their history, and thus give them some honor.

So in almost every regard, unless Illinois renames thousands of streets and hundreds of towns and parks, etc., Blackhawks is a very fitting name that represents the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois perfectly. Both in good ways and bad. Maybe it's time for me to write a little Medium story on this! :-)