Grand Forks Herald columnist Doreen says:
Several people asked why Ron His Horse Is Thunder, tribal chairman for the Standing Rock Nation, was speaking for the Lakota people. The answer is that he, like North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, is the elected leader of the Lakota and their spokesman.
Collectively, Standing Rock does not seem to like what happens to their children who attend UND and the disrespect aimed at them. The tribe has said no.
Some of the Internet comments were repetitious. Some were excellent and well-thought-out, talking about the negotiations and even scolding the writers who made awful comments.
But it was those “awful” comments that astounded me. Some were full of bile, bigotry and racism. The NCAA was correct when it said that the nickname and logo created an abusive and hostile environment, I thought as I read those comments.
In some cases, the comments were even threatening. Some of them made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It made me afraid for the young people at UND.
First off; this is a tactic the pro name change crowd is famous for: true to forum, Doreen has leveled some serious allegations and basciallt have given nothing in the way of evidence, where are the police reports. What do we have, other than Internet posts by nameless people which can not prove what their identity is we may or may not even know if theey are Sioux fans. For all we know they could be fans of other teams like the Gophers, Bison or_________ team. These post could be from trouble makers that don't even follow sports.
I keep hearing who UND is a hostile and abusive place but no one can ever given an credible evidence. If there are incidents lets see the specific incidents laid out for us, you must have a police report or something other than an implied or infered action? We can discuss acedotal evidence till we are blue in the face but it does not count when you are leveling serious charges like this.
Katherine Kersten also had a blog article on this subject on November 13th 2006 that addressed these same issues Yellowbird has brought up. So who are we to believe? I would think that Kersten's article is more credible that Yellowbirds, just my hmo.
Fool Bear himself voted for such a resolution in 2005. “They told us just negative things — that UND was a racist place,” he explains. Now, he says, he believes that he and others were fed a bill of goods.
“When I went around to my constituents on the reservation,” says Fool Bear, “a majority of people said, ‘Why can’t we vote on it?’ “Most tribal members would support the name if they got the chance,” adds Joe White Mountain, another committee member.
More from this article on the issue:
Members of the Standing Rock judicial committee visited UND early in 2006 to assess the situation for themselves. “We spoke to everyone, from students on the street to people at the gas station,” says Fool Bear. “Not one gave us any evidence of racism. We went to a hockey game, and they talked about the courage and integrity of the Sioux people. We looked at each other like, ‘Wow, we don’t even honor our Sioux warriors or veterans like this on the reservation.’ ”
White Mountain recalls the committee’s meeting with a UND group that opposes the name. “I asked them, ‘What tribe do you belong to?’ ” he says. “Not one was a Sioux Indian.”This group insisted that the name promotes racism on campus,” adds Fool Bear. “I told them, ‘Put any instances of abuse in writing.’ Today, I’m still waiting — I haven’t gotten one complaint.”
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