Opinion

Opinion: A slow and painful death for 'Fighting Sioux' nickname

Monday, August 29, 2011

"So the last hurrah has been heard for the University of North Dakota’s Sioux logo and nickname. The future legislative vote to give power over the logo to North Dakota’s Board of Higher Education is but a formality. We fought the NCAA, the not-so-chagrined educrats and talking heads lament, and the NCAA won.

What a disgrace. We can conclude a few things before this chapter is closed. We’ve just been stooge-slapped by an organization whose leaders lack either the wit or the courage to defend its decisions.

Assume, for risibility’s sake, that the NCAA was sincere in its crusade against the use of American Indian names. Its purpose was to ensure that member schools had proper permission from the relevant Indian tribes to use their likenesses and names.

When the NCAA discovered that the Standing Rock Sioux tribe had already approved UND’s use of the Sioux name and likeness decades before its agreement with North Dakota (combined with the later Spirit Lake tribe’s affirmative vote), the proper reaction should have been: “Our mistake. Now that we know that both tribes have given permission to UND, we won’t sweat the 2007 agreement with North Dakota because our central criterion was met after all: getting permission.”"

Get the Story:
Ross Nelson: UND logo fight ends in disgrace (The Fargo Forum 8/28)

Also Today:
Around the country, relief, anger and sadness at end of ‘Fighting Sioux’ (The Grand Forks Herald 8/27)