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

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

The Standing Rock Tribal Council decided today to await a decision by the North Dakota Board of Higher Education’ on the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname before the tribe takes action.

That council’s move disappointed tribal members who support the nickname, the Fargo-Moorhead Forum reports here.

Archie Fool Bear had collected more than 1,000 signatures on a petition to put the issue on the ballot. But he says tribal council didn’t even discuss his petition at today’s meeting.

The NCAA considers such nicknames “hostile” and “abusive.” In North Dakota, the decision as to whether to keep the nickname was given to the state’s two Sioux tribes.

Members of the Spirit Lake Tribe voted last year to support the name, but opponents are seeking to undo that approval, the Grand Forks Herald reports here.

A lawsuit by supporters is before the state Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the State Board of Higher Education, meets Thursday at Mayville State University. The nickname issue is on the agenda — UND wants to join the Summit League athletic conference as soon as possible — but board members also await the Supreme Court’s decision, which could force them to wait until Nov. 30 to retire the nickname.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Cultural insensitivity, Fighting Sioux, Gwen Florio, Navajo Nation, NCAA, North Dakota Board of Higher Education, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota

Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Standing Rock Sioux tribal members may be voting on whether to support keeping the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname.

Tribal backers of the nickname turned in petitions with just over 1,000 signatures to the tribal government’s offices in Fort Yates on Monday.

Former councilman Archie Fool Bear helped organize the effort. He’d like to see an election within four months.

Tribal Chairman Charles Murphy says the Standing Rock tribal council could consider a resolution at its next meeting April 6, if the petitions are OK.

A referendum on the Spirit Lake Sioux reservation last year showed 67 percent support for keeping UND’s nickname.

North Dakota’s Board of Higher Education is considering dropping the name.

Tags: buffalo post, Cultural insensitivity, Fighting Sioux, Gwen Florio, Native American news, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota’s athletic teams are trying to get into the Summit League and schedule some games. But that can’t happen until the school settles a dispute over its teams’ Fighting Sioux nickname and logo.

The issue was supposed to have been settled last year, but the process has been subjected to repeated delays – most recently on Friday, when an attorney for the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe filed an appeal to a plan to ditch the name.

The NCAA considers Indian nicknames offensive and urges schools to drop them. In North Dakota, the decision was left up to the two Sioux tribes within the state. The Spirit Lake Nation voted to keep the nickname, but the Standing Rock Nation has yet to take a vote.

Of all the schools with nicknames targeted by the NCAA, North Dakota is the only one that hasn’t changed its name or been granted a waiver.

Meanwhile, Summit League president Tom Douple tells the Associated Press, here, that UND won’t be considered for admission until the school comes up with something that satisfies the NCAA.

“It’s neighbor against neighbor, and those are never real good situations,” Douple says. “I feel for both sides.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Fighting Sioux, Native American news, NCAA, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota

According to this Forum of Fargo-Moorehead (N.D.) story, District Judge Michael Sturdevant will not rule today on a lawsuit filed by those who support the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname.

The NCAA considers such nicknames “hostile” and “abusive.” In North Dakota, the decision as to whether to keep the nickname was given to the state’s two Sioux tribes.

Members of the Spirit Lake Tribe support the nickname, but the new government of the Standing Rock Tribe say making a decision is not a priority.

Those who support he nickname are seeking more time for an agreement to be worked out between the North Dakota Board of Higher Education and the state’s Sioux tribes.
The Spirit Lake nation says the board must abide an earlier agreement that gave the school until Nov. 30 to win approval from the tribes.

The judge says he’ll issue a written ruling before Christmas.

Meanwhile, the New York Times weighed in on the issue yesterday with an extensive story. Check it out here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Fighting Sioux, Native American news, NCAA, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota

The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, doesn’t much like the move to ban Native-themed team nicknames. As a springboard for that opinion, it uses the current controversy over the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname.

The magazine, here, latches onto the fact that the Spirit Lake Sioux voted to keep the nickname. (The decision on retaining the name is contingent upon approval from both Sioux tribes in the state; the Standing Rock Sioux have delayed a decision.) But this piece ignores the fact that there was considerable opposition within the Spirit Lake Tribe to that stance.

American Spectator’s Mark Hyman writes, “The most absurd aspect of this politically correct ruckus is that non-native Americans are lecturing Native Americans on what should offend them. A hearing on the matter is scheduled in a county courtroom in early December.”

If the magazine had done its homework, it just might have found that plenty of Native people have opinions – negative ones – on this, too.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Spectator, buffalo post, Fighting Sioux, Native American news, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota

It looks as though a hoped-for resolution to the issue of the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname is nowhere in sight.

An Oct. 31 deadline came and went without the necessary agreement by North Dakota’s two Sioux tribes on the issue. The state’s university system had agreed to drop the name if both the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes demanded it. The NCAA considers such nicknames offensive.

The Spirit Lake Tribe, however, voted to keep the name, and the issue remains unresolved among members of the Standing Rock Tribe.

North Dakota University System Chancellor Bill Goetz told the Grand Forks Herald, here, that he recently visited with Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Charles W. Murphy.

Goetz told the State Board of Higher Education that Murphy says the issue isn’t high on his agenda and that it is “very, very divisive” for the Tribal Council and on the reservation at large. The Herald reports that Goetz says the chairman is concerned about this and about the impact on American Indian students at UND and throughout the university system.

Meanwhile, the Nov. 30 deadline remains in effect. A lawsuit by nickname supporters objects to moving the deadline. The attorney general will brief the board in a closed session this afternoon on the lawsuit, the Herald reports.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Fighting Sioux, Native American news, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, Team nicknames, University of North Dakota

Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) – A judge is barring the state Board of Higher Education from doing away with the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname until after a Dec. 9 hearing.

Monday’s order from Judge Michael Sturdevant of Bottineau is in response to a lawsuit filed by nickname supporters from the Spirit Lake reservation.

The group says the board would be ignoring the rights of the Sioux people if it retires the nickname at its meeting next week.

As part of a legal settlement with the NCAA, the state board agreed to drop the nickname and Indian head logo unless it gets an agreement from the Standing Rock and Spirit Lake Sioux tribes to keep using them.

The chancellor of state university system, William Goetz, has asked Standing Rock Sioux tribal Chairman Charles Murphy to meet with him before the board’s Nov. 19 meeting.

Murphy told the board earlier that tribal officials are willing to discuss it “without deadlines and other stipulations.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Fighting Sioux, Native American news, NCAA, Spirit Lake Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux, University of North Dakota