Proud alumni of the
Miami U. REDSKINS !
(until the pc patrol hit in 1997)
Posted on 02/21/2011 4:05:07 PM PST by rhema
BISMARCK, N.D. — Setting up a potential clash with the NCAA, the North Dakota House on Monday approved a bill that requires the University of North Dakota to keep its Fighting Sioux nickname.
The university has been preparing to drop the nickname and an American Indian head logo this summer as part of a negotiated lawsuit settlement with the NCAA, which considers both to be hostile and abusive to American Indians.
House members voted 65-28 to approve legislation Monday that requires UND to keep the nickname and logo, and directs Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to consider an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA if any penalties result from keeping them.
The bill now goes to the North Dakota Senate for its review. NCAA spokesmen did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages left on Monday.
Supporters of the measure argued that the Board of Higher Education, in deciding to discard the nickname and logo, ignored strong public sentiment in favor of both.
"Overwhelmingly, Native Americans and regular North Dakota citizens ... they said, we don't want the name to go away," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Al Carlson, R-Fargo, the House majority leader. "Are we supposed to ignore it, and say, we don't have the authority to do that?"
Representatives also voted down two related bills that required UND to keep the nickname unless the members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe voted to revoke permission for using it.
The tribe's governing council has approved several resolutions opposing the nickname, but it has never been the subject of a reservation vote. North Dakota's other major Sioux tribe, the Spirit Lake Sioux, endorsed the nickname and logo in an April 2009 referendum.
Opponents of Carlson's proposal said it would ignore years of review of the issue by the Board of Higher Education and UND that resulted in the decision to discard the nickname and logo.
"We will have decided that after five years of work on the part of the University of North Dakota's faculty, their staff, their students ...the higher education board and the attorney general, to name some — they're all wrong. They didn't get it," said Rep. Phillip Mueller, D-Valley City.
The NCAA declared the American Indian nicknames of more than a dozen colleges, including UND, to be "hostile and abusive" in 2005.
The state sued, and the two sides settled out of court in October 2007, with UND agreeing to retire the nickname if the school could not get the consent of the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes to continue using it. If UND keeps the Fighting Sioux nickname, the school may be barred from hosting NCAA postseason tournaments.
The NCAA fascists should butt out of this matter.
I’d prefer the state legislature pass a bill moving the ND/MN state line ten miles west of the Red River. You folks in Minnesota can have Grand Forks and Fargo.
My second recommendation was to go for "The Cleveland Honkeys"
Don't let these hate-mongers get away with this.
And after you win this victory you can go after Notre Dame and its defamatory nickname and mascot.
This is good. NCAA PC claptrap gets a tomahawk to the head!
North Dakota should probably make it a felony to commit cultural genocide and then arrest the first NCAA officials to show up in the state.
Maybe hand them over to the women and children for softening up.
Just when the NCAA was getting ready to present UND with a list of suitably sensitive and inoffensive nicknames: the Fighting Paramecia, the Fighting Petunias, or the Fighting Field Mice.
After all, who gives a flying )*&(^ what REAL Native Americans think?
American Indians are not all of one voice on the matter. Some follow the liberal mantra that these sports team naming practices amount to the demotion of their namesakes to demeaning “mascots.” Others see parallels to such teams as the Minnesota Vikings or the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and appreciate the salute to the prowess of their braves. NCAA should butt out with its stupid one-size-fits-all answers and let the discussions be made directly between the American Indian tribes and the teams.
You think you have it bad? Back in canada, they are called “First Nations” as an FU to whitey. Then our then-liberal-guilt white-ridden politicians gave them everything they wanted, including thousands of free dollars every year, including land and free schooling, plus no taxation at all. They even have their own channel on cable thanks to the canadian taxpayers. They show “Windtalkers” every hour and ‘dances with wolves’ on rotation LOL.
lol
They should Sioux them!
meanwhile......while Wisc problems are right in front of our eyes.
The N.Dak legislature wastes opportunity on this issue and punts on the chance to fix N.Dak PUblic union pension plan problems.....
priorities.....
None of the major league teams have dropped their Indian names because their brand identity (read: profits) is so strongly linked with these names, and, more importantly, there is no one big enough to bully them into doing so.
Smart Indian tribes (like, IIRC, the Seminoles) license out the name.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.