Higher Education Board President Says Notre Dame Joined Hockey East Because of the Sioux Name

Someone wake Grant up and tell him that it was about the TV deal.




This guy gives buffoons a bag name.

In addition to the risk of losing affiliation with the Big Sky and potential scheduling and recruitment problems, Shaft said he believes that Notre Dame’s recent decision to affiliate with Hockey East — and not the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference that includes UND — was due in part to UND's being on sanctions because of the " ongoing nickname fight. It doesn't take an MBA degree to realize this decision has more to do with business than public opinion."

Actually Grant it was the TV deal that our new division wouldn't work with them on.

College Hockey News: Notre Dame had a preference for the NCHC because of its Western footprint, but the NCHC ultimately decided it didn't want to accept Notre Dame with its TV deal in tow.

You really have to be arrogant or stupid to interject the Sioux nickname controversy into the Notre Dame decision. But then that's what we get from the higher education in this state. They don't care what the public thinks. All we are is a flock of sheep for them to fleece to benefit those that work for the University system.

On a related topic, UND President Kelley urged the legislature to let the drop the nickname in it's upcoming session. Considering the fact that the Big Sky Conference said they'd blackball us if we kept the name that's not an unreasonable position. However in his speech it seems that he failed to acknowledge our friends and neighbors of the Spirit Lake Tribe that want us to keep the name.

That really irks me that Kelley sitting in his ivory tower clearly has contempt for the opinions of those on the reservation. As far as I can tell he's refused every offer to meet with actual Indians that are supposedly to be saved by the anti Indian rules of the NCAA. Certainly he failed to invite them as he flew down to Bismarck on the University's luxury plane to testify against the name. He also seems to have not insisted that members of the Tribe be brought along to the meeting with the NCAA.

Kelley and Shaft, drop your superiority complexes and actually listen to the people of the Tribe. You might actually learn something.

This was cross posted from my home on SayAnythingBlog.com.

This guy gives buffoons a bag name.

Related articles

• Hockey East Weekly: 11/21/11 (insidehockey.com)

Board of Higher Education/NCAA Locking Out Native Americans When Discussing Sioux Nickname

Cross posted from Say Anything Blog.

Of course they've never cared what the actual Sioux Tribal Members thought about the name.

Grant Shaft, a Grand Forks attorney and vice president of the State Board of Higher Education, said that Gov. Jack Dalrymple, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and leaders of the North Dakota House and Senate have been invited to the face-to-face meeting.

Also invited: Board President Jon Backes, UND President Robert Kelley and Athletic Director Brian Faison.

Shaft said that NCAA President Mark Emmert and Bernard Franklin, a longtime NCAA vice president and head of its governance committee, have agreed to attend the meeting. Additional NCAA officials may also participate.

It will be a closed meeting, Shaft said, adding that Stenehjem and Pat Seaworth, the board’s attorney, have indicated that the assemblage as anticipated “would not require” that it be open under North Dakota’s open meetings law.

Of course the public is going to be excluded as well.

Our current egregious settlement was negotiated in secret by Attorney General (included in the meeting) and the NCAA (included in the meeting.) The settlement was then approved in secret by the Board of Higher Education (included in the meeting).

The settlement with the NCAA was egregious because it had an unprecedented requirement that not one but two tribes approve the use of the Sioux name. One can only conclude that these secret meetings were about getting rid of the name and having the blame fall upon the Indians.

And now the same people, the NCAA and the Board of Higher Education are getting together to make decisions on what is respectful to the Indians by treating the Sioux Tribal Members with disrespect. I'm reminded of the attitude of the 1800's where the government said they knew what's best for the Indians so they should control all of their assets. Now I don't believe in apologizing for things done in the past by people to people that are all long dead. But I don't condone that same attitude by people working for us in 2011.

This Board of Higher Education should be ashamed of themselves, but I doubt that they have that much decency.

They sure didn't show any decency when they made this deal with the NCAA and then never made an attempt to keep the name. Grant Shaft, pictured supposedly led the effort to keep the name. He waited a full year to actually do anything. He disbanded his committee after one meeting because the Spirit Lake Tribe was moving towards having a vote on the issue. He then used the trumped up issue of Summit league membership to push through a shortened deadline in order to thwart the will of the people across the state including the Sioux people.

Having these same people represent us in negotiations with the NCAA is a travesty.