while the history of colonization and marginalization is not unique to the americas, the practice of deriving sports team names, imagery, and mascots from indigenous peoples of north america is a significant phenomenon in the united states and canada. the popularity of the american indian in global culture has led to a number of teams in europe also adopting team names derived from native americans. in asia, africa, australia and south america, the adoption of indigenous names generally indicates that the team members are themselves indigenous. while there are team names in north america derived from other ethnic groups, such as the boston celtics, the new york yankees, the notre dame fighting irish and the minnesota vikings, these are names selected by immigrant/settler groups to represent themselves.