UND nickname proponents hope for Standing Rock referendum

I have been out of pocket for the day and a half and there wasn't an Internet hook up next to the campfire last night. All I can say to the Standing Rock members is keep fighting the good fight, KEEP putting pressure on the Ron His Horse is Thunder. Don't let a few talk for the whole tribe.

Standing Rock supporters of UND’s Fighting Sioux nickname continue to hope that they can get the issue on the ballot as a referendum within the next two months.

Archie Fool Bear, a nickname proponent, said his group is still gathering signatures to persuade the Tribal Council to give tribal members a say.

In May 2008, the council voted to ban any nickname referendum indefinitely. In May of this year, some members of the council tried to reverse that but were narrowly defeated, Fool Bear said.

That proves to him, he said, that not the entire council is intent on blocking a vote. If he can get enough signatures together, he could talk to some opposing council members and see if they’d change their mind, he said.

So, contrary to nickname supporters’ earlier expectations, the Tribal Council appears to be central to the nickname issue.

For UND to retain the nickname, which opponents say is racist and creates a hostile campus environment, the Tribal Councils of both the namesake tribes in the state must approve. The State Board of Higher Education in May added another requirement: a 30-year agreement to keep the nickname from both councils. The deadline, the board said, is Oct. 1.

Eunice Davidson, a nickname supporter in the Spirit Lake Dakotah Nation, said the Tribal Council there hasn’t approved the nickname yet, though she expects it’ll happen soon. She and other supporters got the issue on the ballot in April, and 67.3 percent of voters approved. [Grand Forks Herald]