Saturday, April 25, 2009
Officials at the University of North Dakota (UND) are proud of their school’s nickname: the Fighting Sioux. But many local members of the Sioux Nation are not thrilled with it, and the university has only one more year, according to a legal settlement with the NCAA, to get two Sioux tribes to approve UND’s use of the nickname. School officials won an important vote this week when oner tribe, the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, approved the use of Fighting Sioux in a referendum.
But getting the other tribe, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, to okay the nickname won’t be easy. The tribal council is on record opposing the continued use of the university’s logo and nickname and has refused to schedule a referendum on the matter. Supporters of UND intend to circulate petitions at the tribal council elections next month to lobby for getting the issue on the local ballot.
Tribal members aren’t the only ones who have objected to UND’s nickname. St. Cloud State and the University of Minnesota have complained about it whenever the schools meet for athletic events. Some see the Fighting Sioux name as being “hostile and abusive” towards American Indians.
UND officials have bitterly contested the “hostile and abusive” characterization and pointed out that the school has one of the nation’s largest American Indian enrollments and dozens of university programs for Indian students.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
UND Gets Spirit Lake Sioux Support for Its Nickname, but Dispute Goes On (by Chuck Haga, MinnPost)
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