Ryan Taylor
Democratic-NPL leaders in the North Dakota Legislature are asking for an upcoming meeting to be open to the media and public as state and NCAA officials meet to discuss the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname and logo.
Democratic Senate and House caucus leaders sent a letter Wednesday to Jon Backes, president of the State Board of Higher Education, requesting that the April 22 meeting be open and accessible. The leaders also said representatives from the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes be invited to the meeting, which was scheduled shortly after the Legislature passed House Bill 1263 earlier this session.
Jerry Kelsh
The bill prohibits UND and the State Board of Higher Education from retiring the Fighting Sioux nickname, which was required under the terms of a 2007 lawsuit settlement with the NCAA unless the university could secure the approval of both namesake tribes in the state to continue using the nickname and logo.
Senate Minority Leader Ryan Taylor, D-Towner, and House Minority Leader Jerry Kelsh, D-Fullerton, said the meeting should be open to the press and citizens, “as is in accordance with North Dakota’s open records law and tradition.” You can read the full letter on the Herald’s website, and Chuck Haga will have more about this story in tomorrow’s paper. Here’s part of the letter:
“The reason for the first request is because North Dakota strives to be an open, transparent government. The Dem-NPL caucuses have furthered this cause this session by introducing legislation creating an ethics committee, reporting outside trips taken by legislators, and additional reporting for corporate campaign contributions. We consider open and accessible meetings to be a tenet of good government and feel strongly that the meeting be open.â€
“In addition, we think it is important to include representatives from tribal government should they wish to attend the meeting. Both tribes were mentioned in the settlement between the NCAA and the State of North Dakota, and they should be invited to the meeting between those two parties.â€
I can’t believe that reasonable, intelligent people can’t or won’t see how the Sioux nickname might be offensive and inappropriate. If it offends some American Indians, change the name. It does in fact offend some American Indians. So change the name. What part of that is so hard to understand or accept? Ask UND American Indian students and the department of Indian Studies and, for that matter, the department of Sociology. There is a considerable body of knowledge on the negative effects of labeling, particularly using the name and image of a minority culture for a trivial purpose within the dominant culture.
This isn’t something new. Stanford University changed their name from Indians to Cardinal in 1970. Come on North Dakotans, join the thousand or so schools, from elementary to high school to college and university, that have retired Indian nicknames and replaced them with inoffensive names.