"As an English instructor at the Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal College in Sisseton, S.D., I collected from a young Dakota woman a paper that mused on the collective virtue of cultural humility.

She wrote: “It becomes clear to me that humility emanates from happiness.”

I find this beautiful statement to be sweetly representative of my personal experience with American Indians and also illustrative of the problems with UND’s nickname, “The Fighting Sioux.”

I would contend that the young lady’s connection between happiness and humility creates a better understanding of the “Fighting Sioux” logo issue than the old pro-logo arguments.

For me, her paper pinpoints keys to realizing some things important about American Indian people: traditionally, they want happiness, not fanfare; currently, they prefer humility to fanfare; most often, they connect humility to happiness and fanfare to unhappiness."

Get the Story:
Stuart Rieke: Showy nickname offends Indians’ deep humility (The Grand Forks Herald 2/22)
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