Donald Bruce Beard: UND will move on with nickname

Wow. This letter to the editor was in the Inform.com today. The letter is from Donald Bruce Beard, who wrote a letter earlier this winter about the nickname issue. Funny, I believe he's one of the few to bring up the new REA and not winning any titles.

Unfortunately, die-hard supporters of UND’s previous nickname boo when their Fighting Hawks are announced at hockey games, behavior the Forum decries as “boorish.”

This conduct is the latest bad-foot forward in a march of missteps, the most egregious being the Ralph’s appropriation of Sitting Bull, a medicine chief who despised wasicu/whites (“all liars”), and placing Indian heads adorned with sacred eagle feathers in arena entrances, there to be trampled by thousands; North Dakota’s highest officials dissing a settlement agreement allowing the Standing Rock Sioux to reclaim their own name, then by law permanently assigning that name to UND and backing down only when faced with NCAA sanctions; and supporters wearing Fighting Sioux garb and ending the national anthem with “… home of the Sioux,” thus misidentifying UND teams and disrespecting the Standing Rock Tribe.

Interim President Schafer assures us, “We’re moving forward, we have chosen a new nickname and we’re going to make value to that name.”

Doubtless, he’s right. After all, since the advent of the Ralph, neither have our skaters garnered a single national championship, nor has boorishness rendered us deserving.

For those that don't know who Beard is, he's wrote 100's of letters to the editor against the Fighting Sioux nickname.