Opinion
Yellow Bird: Time to drop 'Fighting Sioux'


"When I read the recent article "Activists strike: Dartmouth folds," (Page 4A, Nov. 28), I sat with my head in my hands and considered yet another incident that will incite more hostility to our community.

I'm tired. We need to find a way to resolve the nickname issue peacefully.

Some 500 miles to the southwest at Standing Rock, the Lakota probably are looking east and wondering once again about the people here in Grand Forks.

Ron His Horse Is Thunder, tribal chairman of the Lakota Nation on the Standing Rock reservation, probably is wondering, too. The article says Archie Fool Bear is chairman.

Spirit Lake will be surprised when it reads it signed a resolution of support for the nickname. It did neither. The current tribal chairman, however, signed a resolution of the North Dakota Indian Commission asking that the name be changed.

A resolution of support for the nickname was passed by the Spirit Lake council during the years of the Phillip "Skip" Longie administration. It said the tribe supported the nickname but with exceptions. As far as I know those exceptions have not been resolved."

Get the Story:
Fighting must go; change name (The Grand Forks Herald 11/29)
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