ND Governor Jack Dalrymple; Time for the NCAA to Explain Themselves to the People of North Dakota

I couldn't agree more. listen to the audio right here

FARGO, ND – An April 22nd gathering of NCAA executives, North Dakota state representatives and the University of North Dakota’s Board of Higher Education should be open to the public as an opportunity for the NCAA to “explain to the people of North Dakota” their position regarding the Fighting Sioux Indianhead logo, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple says.

Appearing on the Scott Hennen Show yesterday, Dalrymple advocated an open-door meeting with the involved parties so that statements made by the NCAA could be subject to a public reception…not confined to a legal document.

“I think it’s time for the NCAA to explain to the people of North Dakota why they are doing what they are saying they’re going to do. I think the time is come for them to articulate that, and not in a legal document.” Dalrymple said.

Home UND puts transition on hold

It will be interesting to see how this issue plays out over the spring and summer. I think there is going to be a big fight between the Legislature and the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education. I would really like to know what the process is for coming up with a new nickname if the change is made; I have a bad feeling about that concept as well. This is what happens when political correctness runs amuck, we would probably get stuck with a horrible nickname no one likes except the P.C.  hand wringers.

bismarcktribune.com ---- The transition away from the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo is on hold at the University of North Dakota while the school awaits further direction from the State Board of Higher Education.

UND is supposed to have phased out the nickname and logo by Aug. 15, but after the passage of House Bill 1263 in support of the nickname, the university is waiting to see what happens among the board, the NCAA and the Legislature.

"The state Legislature is indicating a direction that is strongly different from the State Board of Higher Education, so we think the best thing we can do for the state of North Dakota is to hold off," said university spokesman Peter Johnson.

The Aug. 15 deadline is one of many UND has seen over the years as the board has continually pushed back the date for various reasons.

While August is not far away, Johnson said he expects the board to give direction before the bill becomes law on Aug. 1, just two weeks before the required transition date.

Regardless, the university is in a good place to pick back up with the transition if necessary, Johnson said.

The Honoring History and Traditions Task Group has already evaluated all non-athletic uses of the nickname and recommended retiring those as well.

The New Directions Task Group, which will be appointed by UND President Robert Kelley, will be charged with coming up with a new nickname.

Johnson said the process of picking a new nickname could be time-consuming, along with the wait that comes with getting entirely new uniforms and apparel.

"For just a year or two, we would just be North Dakota," if the transition takes place, Johnson said

UND’s Fighting Sioux Nickname May Stay Despite Conflict

UND’s Fighting Sioux Nickname May Stay Despite Conflict: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Well lets not let facts get in the way of a good argument. Check out these comments from Fighting Sioux logo opponent Mike Forcia.

Other opponents -- including Native American groups -- say the logo is also racist and demeaning.

“It is mocking. It’s the antics that go along with it,” explained Mike Forcia. “They wear face paint and war bonnets. Some of those things are sacred to our people.”

Forcia said he understands that some of the proponents mean well, but he said they don’t understand the full impact on the American Indian culture.

Never once have I seen anyone wear a war bonnet or war paint, since I have been in Grand Forks, ND (1993). This statement absolutely incorrect and fallacious this doesn't happen at UND and I dare him to actually back up his facts. Nothing like making up your own facts to forward your argument.

AW, UND's Illegitimate President Has Issues With Legislature Listening To Citizens on Sioux Nickname

I think some background is in order. UND has a long proud tradition of using the Sioux name as it's identity for sports team. For a long time there's been a small but vocal group trying to create discord by saying that the name is disrespectful. Of course the Sioux tribal members don't see it that way no matter how much racial discord the haters, a malcontent humanities professors, tried to whip up.

It finally came down to a law suit against the NCAA. While we had a winning case, the Attorney General and the State Board of Higher Education stabbed us in the back by agreeing to an unprecedented agreement. We not only had to get our neighboring tribe to agree to the name we had to get a tribe hundreds of miles away to agree. According to interviews I heard of Archie Fool Bear, that tribe really doesn't have a lot of contact with UND.

I would like to ask the Attorney General how many other schools had to get two tribes to approve of the name. I expect though we'd get the kind of dishonest answer that Scott Hennen when he asked AG Wayne Stenehjem why he had never visited the tribes to negotiate when he promised he would the day of the settlement. Stenehjem said on the radio that he had early on. However in the Grand Forks Herald newspaper story, the Long Bitter Fight, Grant Shaft said that Stenehjem's involvement in the matter ended at the time of the settlement.

The anti's in the administration and Board of Higher Education were happy to not negotiate with the tribes and leave the blame on the Tribes until Tribal members took up the issue on their own and were forcing a vote. Then UND's illegitimate president pressured the Summit league commissioner to say that our application was being held up until the matter was settled. The Board of Higher Education then using that as an excuse started working on retiring the name right away.

Now since the people of Grand Forks and the Tribal Members and the UND alumni have been ignored the North Dakota state legislature has taken up the issue. Robert Kelley doesn't like anyone that doesn't agree with him having a say in this matter.

He also expressed concern about “the profound negative, deleterious effect” he fears recent legislative involvement in the long contentious nickname issue could have on the university.

Just like he made up the issue about the Summit league he's trying to obscure the facts. The lawsuit was settled under North Dakota state law. The state legislature can and should change the law so that people have a say.

Kelley would like to pretend that if he gets his way here that everything will just settle down. I don't think so. If UND had allowed the case to go to court and we lost we would have regretted it, but at least we tried. If UND and the state government had tried to get the tribes approval and failed we would have regretted it but at least we tried.

Instead nobody from the state negotiated with the Tribes. The Kelley administration didn't want to keep the name. The State Board of Higher Education formed a committee to try to keep the name. Grant Shaft headed up one organizational meeting and as soon as Tribal members on the Spirit Lake reservation started working on the issue on their own they he said we couldn't wait for the Summit league and made the motion to drop the nickname.

Shaft says that they had contact with the tribes. I don't believe him. Where is the documentation? Where are the expense forms for travel?

Things aren't going to just go away:

[Al] Olson also expressed concern about the effect the controversy is having on UND’s current major fundraising campaign, as many potential donors have strong feelings about the Fighting Sioux name and logo.

Tim O’Keefe, executive director of the UND Alumni Association, agreed that there are potential costs to stretching the transition out over several years. “I think this president has a great agenda … that’s being impaired,” he said. The nickname issue dominates discussions he has with alumni around the country, and consequently “they’re not talking about the many great things that are happening here.”

But a great many of UND’s 112,000 alumni “are in mourning,” O’Keefe said.

Tim, great things aren't going on at UND. Robert Kelley is running this institution into the ground.

And we're not in mourning. We're angry that our side has been ignored when it hasn't been denigrated. The great majority of people on and off the reservation have this in common. We want to keep the Sioux nickname. The university people work for us, not the other way around.

Contact your House members, there is supposed to be a vote around noon on Monday to save the name.

Cross posted from Say Anything Blog

What do you think of people who end Anthem with Sioux instead of brave?

Ah this is nice, another shot across the bow by a P.C. blow hard. We get it Dave you hate the Fighting Sioux logo and everything UND, it's not that hard to figure out from your writings. I am sure it upsets you that the Fighting Sioux rebounded and soundly defeated the C.C. Tigers and Sioux fans dared enjoy the win in an fellow opponents arena that probably would've sounded like a quiet Mausoleum if it wasn't for the Sioux fans that were present at the World Arena last night.

Dave Ramsey Gazette --- Saturday night, North Dakota fans invaded World Arena in force. These fans made more noise than Colorado College fans, which makes sense. They had plenty to cheer about in North Dakota’s 6-0 victory.

They had fun. They made a lot of noise. And that’s all fine.

But they began the night by shouting “home of the SIOUX” instead of “home of the brave.” Guess the actual words of the anthem aren’t quite good enough for North Dakota fans. And, I guess, in the land of free North Dakota fans can sing the anthem any way they want, even if this behavior offends and saddens those who care about our great country and its great anthem.

Glad my dad wasn’t around to listen to his National Anthem polluted by the North Dakota shouters. Guess it’s just another one of those traditions UND fans cling to so fiercely.

What do you think of this behavior by North Dakota fans?

Let me know.

First off, I wore the uniform of my countries military and I see nothing disrespectful with saying and the home of the Sioux at the end of the national anthem. This is a whole lot to do about nothing and more whining about the Fighting Sioux logo and their fans… Personally, I am not going to stop doing it. Why should I? I don’t need a history lesson to know what our nation’s flag stands for. I am a veteran that answered the call and picked up a weapon to defended this great country so self proclaimed elites like you could have your precious freedom of speech protected. In Chicago the Blackhawks fans cheer and clap through the whole national anthem and the building shakes. So what? What do you want? You want people to be arrested for saying the home of the Sioux? What is this guy and the P.C. crowd going to complain about where there no longer is a Fighting Sioux nickname? The Sioux will still be the big mean ______________!!!

Deadline looms for University of North Dakota decision on whether to ditch Fighting Sioux name

My buddy Bert sent me this article from the Star and Tribune aka the Red Star and Sickle. Wow, just wow... I guess Dave Kolpack forgot to mention that this past summer the Spirit Lake Nation voted overwhelming majority to approve the Fighting Sioux name by about 2/3 margin, which translates somewhere in the 67% - 33% area. The Tribal Council reaffirmed this vote this past week.

The members of Standing Rock are waiting till after the Tribal Council Election on the 30th of September, in hope they will be allowed to have a vote on the Fighting Sioux name. The reason the Standing Rock Tribe isn’t voting on whether UND can use the Fighting Sioux name issue is because that Ron His Horse is Thunder won’t allow the people of the Standing Rock Tribe to have an up or down vote on UND’s use of the Fighting Sioux name.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Brett Potas is so angry the University of North Dakota may drop its Fighting Sioux nickname that he's canceled his season hockey tickets and says he won't give his alma mater another dime.

"They tried to get me to think about it. I said that I've been thinking about it for years," Potas said. He says he doesn't want to be associated with a university that takes a politically correct position.

Lucy Ganje, an art professor who led protests against the name, said the school not only should drop its nickname and Indian head logo, it should also apologize to the Sioux tribes and the school's American Indian students.

The two views illustrate the passionately fought debate over the nickname that has nagged the school for years and could finally be resolved this fall. Unless the school gets the support of the state's two Sioux tribes by Oct. 1, which appears unlikely, the state Board of Higher Education says it must drop the nickname.

"One thing's for sure, the feelings run deep," athletic director Brian Faison said. "I'm sure there are other places where emotion has been attached to the logo, but here there's an intensity I've never experienced any place else."

UND teams have been known as the Fighting Sioux since 1930. Those who support the name echo the argument made by fans of other teams with American Indian mascots — that it is part of the school's heritage and is a sign of respect that honors the Indians' proud traditions.

But critics argue that naming sports teams after Indians, a historically disenfranchised race of people, is demeaning, and even racist, and that the practice should stop because many tribes oppose it.

Just this month, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to look into whether the Washington Redskins' name defames American Indians. A lower court ruled in favor of the NFL team.

The NCAA in 2005 listed 18 schools with American Indian mascots and images that it considered "hostile and abusive," and banned them from postseason play pending name changes. William and Mary was added in 2006. Some schools, like Florida State University (the Seminoles) and the University of Utah (the Utes), were allowed to keep their nicknames by getting permission from local tribes.

But most changed their nicknames, leaving UND as the lone holdout.

The state of North Dakota sued to block the NCAA stipulation, but it agreed in a 2007 settlement that the school would drop the name by 2010 unless it got the approval from the Standing Rock and Spirit Lake Sioux tribes. The Spirit Lake tribal council voted last week to allow the school to remain the Fighting Sioux, but the Standing Rock council has refused to give its approval. [Read the whole article here]

Spirit Lake issues nickname resolution

Some very good news came out of Spirit Lake Today. Now hopefully we can get a resolution from Standing Rock. This is just one step in the process. Nothing is over yet.

[Tu-Uyen Tran, Grand Forks Herald] ----- The Spirit Lake Tribal Council has approved a resolution recognizing the tribe’s support of UND’s Fighting Sioux nickname.

According to nickname opponent Terry Morgan, whose mother is tribal Chairwoman Myra Pearson, confirmed that the council did make the decision. He said that rather than embracing the nickname, the council simply acknowledged the vote.

In the tribe’s April election, 67 percent of tribal members voted to support the nickname.

It was part of an effort by nickname supporters to win the council’s blessings for the controversial nickname. The settlement between UND and the NCAA, which consider American Indian nicknames to be hostile and abusive, requires the university to win formal support from councils at Spirit Lake and Standing Rock.

Morgan said he doesn’t believe the resolution is the support UND needs at all.

The resolution itself has this to say:

“Now therefore be it resolved that the Tribal Council goes on record to officially accept election results of April 23, 2009, for University of North Dakota logo and name retention.”

“Be it further resolved that the Tribal Council concurs with the wishes of the Spirit Lake people.”

The resolution also said that “a significant majority of the membership voted in favor of allowing UND to continue using the Fighting Sioux name and logo.”

Nickname supporters at Spirit Lake say they think the resolution is exactly what the NCAA wanted. State Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who negotiated the settlement with the NCAA, concurs

Rev. David Nichols, Tolna, N.D.: Board acts ethically by jettisoning nickname.

Here is the latest from the anti-nick name crowd. This was in today's Grand Forks Herald, as ussual the Herald didn't allow comments to this post. It would appear that the it's the Herald's modus operandi in cases where a writer writes something about the Fighting Sioux name. My response is, yawn!

TOLNA, N.D. — The North Dakota Board of Higher Education recently voted to prohibit UND from using Fighting Sioux as its nickname. As a Christian who strives to follow the commands and ethics of the Prince of Peace, I was encouraged and delighted with the board’s decision.

Non-Indian schools and universities have no moral bases for using the names or images of American Indian people for their corporate agendas. The dominant Anglo-Saxon culture has, for generations, manipulated and exploited the indigenous people of this continent for our economic gain.

Nicknames and logos are little more than mass-marketing tools that are used nationwide by schools and sports teams to create billion-dollar commercial brand allegiances among consumers.

Institutions of higher education such as UND morally discredit themselves when they stoop to using racial stereotypes as mass-marketing techniques.

None of us likes being labeled or told who we are. God made diversity to be the founding principle of creation. We show reverence for God’s works when we respect each other’s differences and let our neighbors define themselves and create their own destiny.

I’ve heard too many white folks defending the Fighting Sioux nickname by saying it’s “a good and proud role model for the Indians to have.” This simply is us telling another race of people what’s good for them.

We would be insulted if anyone did the same to us. Imagine our reaction if an Indian school created a Farming Rednecks nickname. The Fighting Sioux nickname should be as offensive to our moral sensibilities as a Farming Redneck or Dancing Negroes nickname would be.

The North Dakota Board of Higher Education’s decision returns UND to an ethical standard it lost when it traded its Flickertail nickname for an offensive racial stereotype. By doing so, the board models for a generation of students the ethical demand of Christ to love and respect your neighbor as yourself.

David Nichols

Rev. Nichols is the pastor of Morning Star Parish

More lecturing from Fargo on the Fighting Sioux name.

As a Sioux fan living in Grand Forks, ND I always love when our friends from the Fargo Forum like to take the moral high ground and preach to us from their high horse. This instance is no different. It's another one of these my school/town is better than yours. Have we not been down this road before? Some might say it's the same old tired argument of Fargo versus Grand Forks, NDSU versus UND. I suppose I should put in the obligatory shot across the bow by saing, "you can’t have sucks without NDSU." But I digress.

I guarantee if the shoe were on the other foot and someone wanted to build NDSU a new basket ball arena to replace the one they have now and NDSU had some issue with their sports team's nick name I would be willing to bet the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education would have stepped in for NDSU and ran the defletion. Yeah; like NDSU wouldn’t taken a new sports complex if they had been in the same situation. If they say otherwise they are full of what they are shoveling in Fargo. This is just more of the same jealous of Grand Forks because our facilities aren’t as nice as theirs.

At the time in question the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education’s decision to usurp then-UND president Charles Kupchella, it was the right decision because President Kupchellas was not known for his great leadership skills was totally screwing up and in this situation. The board basically did him a favor so he didn’t have to fall on his sword. The Board probably saved his job as well. Seriously folks, it’s easy to sit in a glass house like Fredrick’s and Monday morning quarterback and this exactly what he is doing.

A belated redemption for UND ---- By: Martin Fredricks , West Fargo
A sad day for North Dakota,” Kris Engelstad McGarry called it. With all due respect to McGarry, many North Dakotans view it as a day of redemption when some sense was restored to a state that thrives on common sense.

McGarry, daughter of the late Ralph Engelstad, referred to the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education’s May 14 decision to accelerate the deadline for tribal approval of the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux nickname. If the two North Dakota Sioux tribes do not approve 30-year agreements to support continued use of the name by October, UND must begin transitioning to a new moniker and symbol.

It is a belated redemption because the current board has taken a positive step to correct the action of the board of December 2000. That board inserted itself into the nickname/logo debate the day after Engelstad sent the now infamous “Dear Chuck” letter to then-UND president Charles Kupchella.

In the Dec. 20, 2000, letter, Engelstad wrote that he would halt work on the half-completed Ralph Engelstad Arena, what was destined to become the home of the UND hockey team, if the Sioux name and logo were not retained. At the time, he had invested $35 million into the $85 million project. He sent copies of the letter to members of the Board of Higher Education, which was set to meet the next day.

“Please do not consider this letter a threat in any manner, as it is not intended to be,” Engelstad wrote.

We North Dakotans tend to call things the way we see them, and that was what we call a threat. It was a strong one, at that, a gun held to the head of Kupchella, UND and North Dakota as a whole. When the board voted unanimously to retain the Sioux name and logo, it gave him the ammunition.

That was the real sad day for North Dakota, regardless of how you feel about the name issue. And there really is no need to add anything to that discussion.

What many North Dakotans didn’t like was the intimidation, and our loss of self-respect was even worse. Do as I say, Engelstad clearly told us, or you won’t get your hockey arena. This, to people who have fended for ourselves for generations. Who was Engelstad to tell us what we could or could not do? Surely, if UND needed a new arena that badly, funds could be raised in other ways from other people.

Unfortunately, the board apparently saw it another way and, with its 8-0 vote, sent a return letter to Engelstad with our pride enclosed.

By all accounts, the Engelstad Arena is a marvel, a monument to UND, its hockey team and Engelstad himself. But it cost us much more than the money it took to build.

In her comments, McGarry said she was not surprised by the “lack of conviction” of the state board and UND President Robert Kelly in fighting for the Sioux name and logo. On the contrary, their actions demonstrated a return to conviction, a restoration of the pride that will not allow North Dakota to be bullied, regardless of how much money is at stake. [link to the article]

From the comments this is one of the best ones that I have seen. I see I am not the only one that feels this way.

Garfield L. ---- Moorhead, MN 06/07/2009 8:56 AM

Its actually round 2 of und and the state board selling out. The Summit league snubs them and all of a sudden its a mad scramble to get the name changed so they can get into the Summit. Its a replay of the mad scramble to keep the name after Ralph's letter. Nothing like throwing away 80 years of tradition to get into one of the country's worst conferences. I find the whole thing comical. I also agree with John B - I don' t think there was any "we" anything.