You’re going to hear a lot about the Seminoles in the coming days. (The Florida State men’s basketball team is making a run for the NCAA championship.) Is that offensive? Is it hostile and abusive?

As Sporting News AOL Fanhouse columnist Greg Couch notes in his column: From an official standpoint it’s hard to tell.

The NCAA described the use of Native mascots using the terms hostile and abusive six years ago, Couch writes. But you still see names and images of Seminoles and Fighting Sioux on the courts and fields year after year.

Couch argues that both the Seminole tribes in Florida and the university have monetary incentives to keep the name around. He always notes several conversations he’s had with Tribal members who feel the mascots honorary. There are a lot of unanswered questions.

And while a number of schools, including the University of Illinois, have succumbed to the NCAA and made changes, the whole move has been one ugly, messy, confusing failure.

Why?

Because the NCAA’s leadership has been so weak.

Even more so, it has exemplified the typical NCAA hypocrisy and greed. If you think imagery is hostile and abusive, and you are the governing body, then you cannot allow the Florida State Seminoles to run up and down the court. During its football games, FSU still has a student dressed as Chief Osceola riding onto the field on a horse, planting a flaming spear into the turf.

That’s not hostile and abusive, but Chief Illiniwek, the former Illinois mascot who used to dance at halftime of its football games, was?

Where does the NCAA actually stand on this? What was it after?

Jenna Cederberg.

Tags: Fighting Sioux, florida state seminoles, greg couch, NCAA, ncaa men's basketball tournament, sporting news, University of North Dakota

Native biennial film festival to feature record number of Native
women filmmakers
Mark your calendars: The 2011 Native American Film + Video Festival at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York begins on March 31. It’s free and this year it will feature a larger number of women film makers, the Tanka Bar blog said.

A movie that will make its premiere at the festival is Apache 8 by Sande Zeig, about an all-woman Apache wildland fire-fighting crew that has worked together for 22 years. Zeig said that all the firefighters would attend the festival, which she said was the best venue for the movie’s world premiere.

No “Indian” for comedy duo?
The ongoing controversy over the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo sparked an interesting request for the comedy duo “the Indian and the White Guy” when they were asked to cut out the word “Indian,” from performances if they played at UND’s Alerus Center, the Grand Forks Herald reports.

The duo’s manager said he was made aware of the stipulation but talks to have his clients perform didn’t get far.

Phil Potter, national director of programming for VenueWorks in Ames, Iowa, said he was looking at Williams and Ree among several acts as possible entertainment at a “business after hours function” at the Alerus on March 17.

“There were at least half a dozen acts we kicked around, and it never got to an offer point,” he said.

Potter said he knew nothing of the nickname controversy until someone in Grand Forks mentioned it to him. Potter said he called Williams and Ree’s agent and asked “if that is too sensitive right now.”

He said he made the suggestion that the act limit its references to Indians.

He said the discussions didn’t advance further, and the event planners apparently decided “to do something smaller, maybe local,” and he didn’t think more about it.

“Living Sicker, Dying Younger”
If you’re still hungry, take some time to check out the University of Montana School of Journalism Native News Honors Project 2010 . It includes stories about the state of Native health from the seven Montana reservations and the urban outlook as well.

Photos, video and text included.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: 2011 native american film and video festival, dying younger, Fighting Sioux, indian and white guy, living sicker, montana school of journalism native news honors project, smithsonian's national museum of the american indian, University of North Dakota, unversity of montana

Three bills introduced into the North Dakota Legislature that would keep the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux nickname won’t be fought by the university’s board, the Grand Forks Herald reported.

The school’s board had hinted at trying to changed the nickname but said this week it won’t fight the bills, one brought by a Republican representative who said he would keep pushing the bill despite several administrative roadblocks that might be in its way.

Several issues would seem to constrain state lawmakers, which board members noted.

One is the settlement with the NCAA that had required UND to win approval from both the state’s Sioux tribes to retain the nickname. Only one tribe, the Spirit Lake tribe near Devils Lake, chose to vote on the nickname.

Board member Michael Haugen said he worried about the reaction by the NCAA. “UND needs the NCAA. It’s not the NCAA needing UND,” he said.

UND President Robert Kelley, who was traveling to meet with NCAA officials, said he hasn’t heard their reaction yet, but would find out soon.

The other issue is the state constitution giving direct control of the university system to the board, rather than to lawmakers. North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem told lawmakers that, too.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: fighting si, Fighting Sioux, grand forks herald, NCAA, robert kelley, UND, University of North Dakota

More than a thousand people on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation have signed a petition seeking a vote throughout the reservation on retaining the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname.

That petition will be considered at the tribal council’s May 4 meeting, unless a special meeting is called sooner, Lauren Donovan of the Bismarck Tribune writes here.

Recently, the nickname was officially retired by the State Board of Higher Education. But the issue remains volatile, with North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven telling the board that the Standing Rock Tribe’s position should be considered, as long as it’s held before Nov. 30, Donovan reports.

Even though the State Board of Higher Education moved to officially retire the name for the University of North Dakota earlier this month, the issue is not over.

Petition organizer Archie Fool Bear, a supporter of the nickname, says the name can be “un-retired.” He tells Donovan:

“It’s not over. We’re 1,004 strong and we signed our names. Our people need to be heard. This is a democracy, not a dictatorship.”

Fool Bear said even if the tribal constitution doesn’t provide a referendum process, the council created precedent two years ago by holding a reservation-wide vote on whether to change their tribal name from Sioux to Oyate.

The National Collegiate Education Association terms the Fighting Sioux nickname “hostile” to tribes, and set the Nov. 30 deadline for a decision on it.

The Board of Education, of course, jumped ahead of that deadline, but nickname supporters cite it in their arguments.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Fighting Sioux, Gwen Florio, Native American news, North Dakota Board of Higher Education, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, Oyate, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota

Tetona Dunlap is a graduate student in journalism at the University of Montana. She is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone tribe from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.

The other day I was eating lunch with two friends in the cafeteria at the University of Montana. It was crowded as it often is around noon, students filled tables while chatting loudly, the sound of utensils clattering against ceramic plates. However, no matter how crowded or noisy, none of us at our table could help but notice the grinning red face across the room.

Seated at the table next to us was a guy wearing a Cleveland Indians T-shirt and baseball cap. His back was to us, but emblazoned across it was Chief Wahoo. All of us at the table were from different tribes, but we are all equally offended by this stereotypical and racist image smirking at us as we ate. We made sarcastic remarks like, “Is that what we look like?” noting its red face, big nose and sky-high feather. We laughed at its absurdity, our laughter blending with the laughter of our fellow students enjoying their lunch.

When I first learned that the North Dakota State Board of Education ordered the University of North Dakota to drop its Fighting Sioux mascot, I was overjoyed. In 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association banned college logos and nicknames it considered “hostile and abusive.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: buffalo post, Chief Wahoo, Cleveland Indians, Cultural insensitivity, Fighting Sioux, Gwen Florio, Indian Education for All, National Collegiate Education Association, Native American news, NCAA, North Dakota Board of Education, North Dakota Supreme Court, Ralph Engelstad Arena, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Tetona Dunlap, Univeristy of North Dakota, University of Montana

The issue of Native-themed sports mascots has been much in the news lately, most recently with the ongoing controversy over a decision to end the University of North Dakota’s use of the Fighting Sioux mascot. (See yesterday’s post here.)

Students at the University of Colorado-Denver have been paying attention, and are weighing in on the side of ending all use of such mascots.

“It’s just blatantly racist when you have teams that are called, you know, the savages,” Charles Panke, a Lakota Sioux descendant, tells Denver’s 9News, here. (Watch a video of the newcast here.)

Panke dismisses claims that such mascots actually honor Native people. “You don’t honor somebody by doing these tomahawk chops that are not part of any Native American culture whatsoever or even doing war whoops or things like that,” he says.

So Panke and others in the Ethnic Studies department created the “I am not a Mascot” video. They’re going to post it to Facebook and YouTube, but we haven’t found it there yet; when we do, we’ll post it.

Darius Lee Smith, with the Colorado Indian Education Foundation, points out that Colorado has nearly 20 schools that use Indian mascots, and of course there are many more around the country.

And he applauds the ethnic make-up of the students who made the video. “”The majority of the individuals are Non-native. I think that’s why this project is so important.”

He wants the Colorado High School Activities Association to push schools to change such logos and mascots, just as the National Collegiate Athletic Association has done nationally.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Colorado High School Activities Association, Colorado Indian Education Foundation, Cultural insensitivity, Darius Lee Smith, Ethnic Studies Department, Fighting Sioux, Gwen Florio, Lakota, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Native American news, NCAA, Team nicknames, University of Colorado Denver, University of North Dakota

Some 300 people marched through Grand Forks, N.D., last night to protest a decision by the state Supreme Court to drop the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname (see previous post, here.) The Grand Forks Herald reports that the group wants to try and keep the nickname.

Last weekend, extra security was called in for an annual powwow at UND because of the intense feelings over the pending name change, according to WDAY, here. And, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven says he’ll look to the Spirit Lake Sioux Nation for support to appeal the name change, according to the Jamestown Sun.

Meanwhile, the nickname ban continues to attract commentary, pro and con. Here’s a sampling:

” … The University of North Dakota, and, as an extension, the city of Grand Forks and the surrounding area, does not deserve the Fighting Sioux moniker/mascot/logo. As a result of our community’s ignorance, racism, and lack of perception, we have done nothing to reach out and truly honor our Native brothers and sisters, contrary to what so many people claim.” The Dakota Student

“I think it (stinks). I think it’s stupid.” Zach Parise, a former Fighting Sioux player who now plays for the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, to the Newark Star-Ledger.

“We agree with the general premise that racially inspired team nicknames and logos should be re-evaluated nationwide, and that all care should be taken when considering the use of nicknames and logos that may be deemed offensive to the race of people who inspired them. We are troubled, though, by the inconsistency with which that effort is being applied across the nation.” The Mitchell Daily Republic

“It’s time to move on. UND is an excellent school that has achieved greatness in academics, research and athletics. The logo dispute has been a sideshow that has diverted attention from those achievements and stained the university’s reputation and the state’s image.” The Jamestown Sun

And, there’s this video on YouTube:

What do you think?

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Fighting Sioux, Gwen Florio, Native American news, Spirit Lake Nation, Team logos, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota

Just because the North Dakota Board of Higher Education yesterday retired the state university’s Fighting Sioux nickname doesn’t mean everyone has accepted the pending change.

“This is Sioux country. This whole state is Sioux country,” women’s basketball coach Gene Roebuck said today at a news conference, the Associated Press reports here.

“It’s going to be hard for me to move on and to accept any other type of logo,” says Roebuck. She wore a jacket with anIndian head logo designed by a Native student at UND. The school has had the mascot for more than 80 years.

Getting rid of it paves the way to UND’s participation in the Summit League, which set getting rid of the nickname as a criterion.

As the AP’s Dave Kolpack reports:

The NCAA in 2005 and 2006 listed 19 schools with American Indian mascots and images that it considered “hostile and abusive,” and banned them from postseason play pending name changes. Nicknames the NCAA deemed offensive ranged from Indians to Braves to the Fighting Illini.

Some universities, like Florida State (the Seminoles) Central Michigan (Chippewas) and Utah (the Utes), were allowed to keep their nicknames by getting permission from local tribes. The University of Illinois was allowed to keep its Fighting Illini nickname, but a mascot dressed in buckskins and headdress, Chief Illiniwek, was banned.

The name was dropped even though the two Sioux tribes within the state — the Spirit Lake Nation and Standing Rock Nation — couldn’t reach agreement on the issue. Spirit Lake backed the nickname; Standing Rock had yet to resolve the issue.

Senior BJ Rainbow, at the office of American Indian Student Services, senior BJ Rainbow says he likes the change but worries about hard feelings and a possible backlash.

No timetable has been set for a new nickname.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Indian mascots, buffalo post, Central Michigan University, Fighting Sioux, Florida State University, Gwen Florio, Native American news, NCAA, North Dakota Board of Higher Education, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of Illinois, University of North Dakota, University of Utah

Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press, which will be updated:

MAYVILLE, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Board of Higher Education has determined that the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux nickname is retired.

The determination came Thursday after a state Supreme Court ruling that said the board had the authority to change the nickname at any time. The court rejected an appeal that sought to delay action.

The board had voted last May to retire the nickname. A motion on Thursday to reconsider that vote died for lack of a second. Board president Richie Smith said before the vote that he thought no further action was required to retire the nickname.

A group of eight Spirit Lake Sioux tribal members who support the nickname had wanted the courts to bar any decision before a Nov. 30 deadline set in a settlement agreement involving the NCAA, the education board and UND.

The justices in their ruling said the board could change the nickname before the deadline.

Tags: buffalo post, Fighting Sioux, Gwen Florio, Native American news, NCAA, North Dakota Board of Higher Education, North Dakota Supreme Court, Spirt Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota