Chewey

Yes. As to that, see ouster (err "Retirement") of Dorgan and total ouster of Pomeroy and future anticipated ouster (errr "Retirement") of Conrad. But, have hope, there are still the Al Franken's running around. Hopefully, Hoeven will voice some support of all of this.

I have to agree that they are late to the fight, but at least they are doing something. I don't think the anti-trust angle will work but something in the 1st Amendment realm might. I think any final bill will omit the anti-trust language. The big thing here is that a legislative body is taking issue with the NCAA's heavy-handed and discriminatory treatment vis-a-vis UND, the native americans who support the nickname, UND alumni, etc. Public exposure of this nonsense is a benefit and it is something that needs to happen. If a bill is passed and signed into law, then the NCAA will have a choice to make about enforcing its "policy". This would be an extremely precarious path to take where a state and, more importantly probably, both tribes have taken public stances against the policy (presuming a vote on Standing Rock is allowed). Would the NCAA want a lot of publicity concerning the following facts which serve to impugn its "hostile and abusive" and "discrimination" claims: 1. 70% of one tribe has voted in favor of keeping the nickname; 2. The other Sioux tribe in the state would vote in favor of the nickname if a few tribal council members would allow a vote; 3. Completely ad hoc and unfair and discriminatory treatment concerning all of the universities that have NA nicknames A. Central Michigan and Florida State have to get permission of the closest namesake tribes whereas UND has to get permission of all namesake tribes; 4. NCAA using its monopoly standing and money to squelch free speech and completely scrap decades of athletic tradition and state tradition; 5. NCAA (translation: A bunch of rich white guys) aligning themselves with a few racist NA tribal council members telling the majority of NA's that they ARE AND WILL BE offended by the "Fighting Sioux" nickname and logo when the vast majority of NA's believe otherwise; 6. Racism and political corruption in action to deny an entire body of people the right to express their views on an issue. Let's hope that the legislature and the Governor will listen to the vast majority of their constituents and pass something like this. How could they do otherwise knowing the huge support a vast # of their constituents have for this? Thank God for Archie Fool Bear and Steve Fool Bear and Eunice Davidson and a ton of other NA's and alumni and interested parties, including the legislature, for keeping up the fight on this. The longer this goes on, the more the NC$$ is exposed for its corruption, racism and outright chicanery. The longer this goes on, the more likely it will be that people will see how a minority of a minority who is well-positioned can not only deny the rights and wishes of the majority but also arbitrarily scrap decades of tradition. The longer this goes on, the more likely it will be that people will see how a minority of a minority of well-positioned racists can impair the financial interests of a state run institution (i.e. scrapping the nickname and logo and causing financial losses through loss of merchandise sales). John Hoeven, et al should be taking a national stance on this sort of garbage, too, by voicing support of what the legislature is doing. I am no longer a resident of ND but has anyone bothered to call Hoeven's office to tell him to do something?

Excellent News!!!!!!!!!!

Great post! I agree entirely. The various professors'/administrators' concerns have more to do with establishing and maintaining PC cred among their "colleagues" who evidently laugh behind their backs in the elevator when they attend their conferences, etc. How intellectually numb, lazy or atrophied does one have to be so as to become fixated on a nickname and to concoct some hypersensitivity to it in order to appear "enlightened" or "astute" vis-a-vis like-minded so-called educators? I seem to recall an article about some professor at the U of Colorado who attended a basketball game against the Figiting Illini and was so "outraged" about that nickname that it took away from his appreciation/pleasure of watching the game. Note to said "outraged" professor: Hie thee to a mental institution, if you please.

Ah, the Vice President is a sociology professor. That explains a lot. What else would be expected from such a group? If anything, this vote should further firm one's resolve. On a different note, I wonder when the last time was that anyone in the English Department even heard of or lectured about Chaucer, Shakespeare, Melville, Hawthorne, Charlotte Bronte, Edith Wharton, Longfellow, Stephen Crane, etc. I suppose the winds of literature discourse have changed so as to require an intense focus on the shades of meaning of the various truly intellectually enigmatic rantings against the "Fighting Sioux" nickname and what productive academic benefits could be accorded thereby.

Absolutely. We are not getting a playoff game anytime soon at home anyway except for an act of God. Let it play out. Saying "Well, the deadline is passed now (even though we did nothing during that time period and actively worked against the name behind the scenes) there's nothing we can do now" is exactly the play Kelley and the anti-nicknamers had all along. Continue to fight for the name.

Don't count out "Fighting Sioux". My odds are 20:1 against it but I think I'll place my bet anyway.

I agree Mike. That would be a very stupid name and just the sort of name that the "stakeholders" would deem "resonates with the ENTIRE university community."

NOTE TO SENATOR HOEVEN AND REPRESENTATIVE BERG: It would be very nice if you would chime in and support this process. You're elected now so no need to worry about "backlash" from the .0002% of the ND political correct crowd for at least another 6 or 2 years. Just a public statement or two is all, if you please. No need to take too much time away from triage vis-a-vis the victimized and oppressed health insurance companies.

I thought that was to be determined by sales and $$$$$$$. If I were Scheel's Sports, I would have told whomever called them to pound sand. The shirts sell and money is made. What else needs to be said??

So, according to Means, it's ok for FSU to keep the nickname but just stop the horse and spear shenanigans? Yet UND, who has no such "offensive pageantry", must get rid of its nickname? Wasn't he "protesting" in Grand Forks at least a couple of times with the other freaks bused in from St. Cloud and elsewhere? Does anyone else see a contradiction here?

God, I hope you're right. That whole generation probably has about 400% more of a weirdo-factor than any other. Our Generation X is about 40% to 50% (I think) as big as that generation and they'll be bankrupting us soon. I say we help fortify social security and medicare by carving out certain groups from benefits. First and foremost among such groups would be tenured college professors. We may have played our Walkman at too high of a level or played Atari and Berserker until we gave ourselves carpal tunnel syndrome and "trigger finger" but at least we don't need a collective, generation-wide brain enema or transplant. The Baby Boomers may have rebelled against the WW II generation's conservatism but it looks like the shift is back the other way now. The Baby Boomer brain trust got important things like the collegiate nickname thing figured out but 13 trillion in national debt is no big worry. Thanks guys.

Yes, i know that but the broader point is that it will get morphed into the whole "Cowboys vs. Indians" theme and, therefore, will be objectionable at some point. The condom machines in many sleazy truck stops have depictions of a cowboy on a bucking bronco and once the future RRHIT's and David Gipp's of the region see things like that, all hell's going to break loose with the "Roughrider" nickname and we'll hear claims of BRIDGES people being "bullied" at hockey games and there will obviously be years of sleepless nights.

Well by the same logic when applied to the "Fighting Sioux" nickname, various Tribal elders and the Tribal Chairman of SR didn't object to the nickname in 1969 and so we "should" have been safe, right? If we adopt "Roughriders" and use the approval of David Gipp, RHHIT and Phil Jackson's approval as some sense of security that there will be no problems with it in the future, we are ignoring what has happened already. Who are the next nut jobs a la David Gipp, RRHIT and Phil Jackson (this guy is a genuine freak show and I don't care what kind of success he's had in the NBA with all of that talent and I don't care that he grew up in Williston) going to be? Will the next generation of nut jobs remember the "approval" of David Gipp, RRHIT and Phil Jackson? These troglodytes do not even respect a sacred ceremony fully in line with Tribal traditions concerning the approval of the Sioux nickname. Does anyone think that the next generation of troglodytes is going to care what David Gipp, RRHIT and Phil Jackson thought about the "Roughriders" nickname? How long does anyone think it would take for the next batch to lay unsubstantiated anecdotal claims of that nickname being "hostile and abusive" and how long does anyone think it would take for the next batch to lay claims of Roughriders having fought and killed NA's in the early 20th Century, etc.? The Roughriders did actually do that. It would be about 15 years until the whole "Cowboy vs. Indian" thing would be so viewed. If "Roughriders" who fought and killed NA's in Western ND is ok, what's wrong with "Fighting Cavalry"? I like the latter one better. Hell, that should not even be perceived as "hostile and abusive" since the Cavalry got it's butt kicked at the Little Big Horn.

Speaking of Hoeven, now that he's been elected to the Senate there is no need to be "political" about this issue. He needs to speak out in favor of retaining the name. He's in a position of power and needs to exhibit some independent backbone as contrasted with Dorkan, et al.

I can't seem to figure out how to insert these images, PDF or otherwise, but if anyone wants them PM me and I will email them to you. Excellent letters to NCAA by Spirit Lake. They're exactly right: The NCAA's folly is that its attempt/process to prevent the Native Americans from being assaulted by the hostile and abusive nature of the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo has itself become hostile and abusive in the purest and most cynical sense.

i guess i don't have a copy of that agreement at hand and i don't have the time right now to look it up again but i do not recall seeing a mandate that it has to be changed to or replaced by anything in particular. i believe the agreement just says that the name needs to be retired. even if it says "changed" it could be "changed" to "north dakota." i say market that if the name does not stay.

The legal avenue at SR is to force recognition of what happened years ago. Namely, the Tribe granted permission, there was a huge ceremony, a pow-wow, the university president was given a beautiful headdress, the sides had the peace pipe, etc. There's all kinds of stories about it in the old papers which were dug up out of the archives. I went up there to do some research myself but I could not find anything either at the Thormodsgard law school library or at the Chester Fritz. Whomever dug them up is a lot better at doing that than I am. In any event, it was worth a day off of work and a weekend up there. Permission already has been granted over 40 years ago. With the ceremonies performed, that permission is not subject to being revoked, as I understand it. That permission must be recognized by the Tribal Council. If they don't, that denial is the worst form of betrayal and racism as against the customs of the Tribe and their forebears. Archie, Steve Fool Bear, Eunice Davidson, Tom Iron and many others too numerous to name here are the true heroes and the true warriors. Many on this very site have just thrown up their hands and said, "Well, it's inevitable anyway. What can we do?" Well, it's not inevitable and it never has been. That is what's wrong with out political framework today. You must fight against wrongdoing (See years-long imperious NCAA PC "mandates" about school nicknames). You must fight against absolutism. (See racist, liberal UND faculty/administrators and the racist 5% of the natives who do not like the name and who label anyone who disagrees with their racist rantings as a "racist" and a "bigot" irrespective of the facts that their claims have little to no logical support and absolutely no factual support, except various, factually unsupported anecdotes by the opponents themselves). That's what all of this is. It's wrongdoing, it's absolutism, it's the squelching of free speech and the abuse of economic power (See NCAA monopoly) and it's both the cynical misuse of administrative/political authority and the cynical failure to assert political muscle (See spineless fish Earl Pomeroy, Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad and, to a lesser degree, John Hoeven. Thank God ND got sensible and got rid of the first. Had the second run, he would have gotten scorched. Hopefully, the third will realize defeat in 2 years; that seat should still be occupied by Mark Andrews anyway). Throwing up our collective hands, as we've all been wont to do in this country for so long, is just a massive slippery slope and we're all seeing play out both nationally (see cow-towing to special interest groups instead of advocating for a constituency, the hi-jacking words and phrases by the national "sensitivity" police) and locally (See brain atrophied PC administrators and faculty dictating things at UND and the NCAA). Nationally, we are ripe for the taking because of all of this crap. Too many are focused on a bunch of garbage like school nicknames and which words need to be eliminated because they offend this or that group and which person can "marry" and which one can't instead of economic policy, national security, etc. All of this garbage should not even consume anyone's focus and mental/creative energies to begin with as it's all purely negative energy. To hell with that.

There is still legal activity going on at Standing Rock and it is not insignificant.

Very wise thing, MK. Don't acquire brain leprosy from this troll.

Yes, the funds are coming from average Joe's like me and others and I've been proud to do it and I will do more. It's convenient propaganda for the anti-nicknames to try and portray that REA are the only folks who want to see the name stay. I am a lawyer in MN and I've given the names of a couple of attorneys in ND who are very familiar with Indian law.

That's prescient of you. Excellent foresight. Actually, MSU-Mankato is laying off 82 faculty and administrators. A lot of us Minnesota taxpayers are the beneficiaries of the MnSCU enema. MnSCU is known in MN for its bloat and there's nothing that remedies bloat and waste and spurs ingenuity like a bad economy. Not to worry though, SCSU will cut football, economics, and accounting positions before they cut the absolutely essential whiteness studies and gender equality studies positions or the legion of intercessory sensitivity liaisons that "mediate" the traumas experienced by minority group members there.

This is what I've been saying about Minnesota. Maybe the faculty being laid off or forced into early retirement can peddle for loose change by the National Hockey Center when they protest the Fighting Sioux nickname again. I'd sure hate to see SCSU cut FB because there is a lot of tradition there. Why would they build a big beautiful stadium a couple of years ago only to cut FB now? I don't think it's going to happen and this is a lot of scare tactics to get alumni to pony up. If you ask me, they should focus squarely and only on the faculty and administration for cuts. Think about it. Each one draws a salary of at least $60K, gets retirement contributions from SCSU, gets health insurance through SCSU, etc. I am sure there is all sorts of duplication that could be cut out.

Very eloquently stated. I couldn't agree more.

There are 2 main reasons why I am ready to move on if a miracle doesn't happen to save the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo. First, there are much more important issues in this country than a college sports nickname. I don't care if it is the best, most unique nickname ever created. Losing that nickname is nothing compared to people losing their lives, losing jobs, losing children, natural disasters, and a huge list of other issues. I think it is a great nickname and logo. But I believe that my time and efforts are better spent making a difference in my community. I think I've done my small part to do that and I plan to continue trying to make Grand Forks and North Dakota better places to live. If you want to spend your time writing blogs about how a nickname should be kept, go ahead. Just don't put me down because I'm doing something else that I think is more important. Hmmm. Perhaps, and I don't mean this sarcastically, one of your social action causes should be to attempt to explain all of this to the creative-impaired busy-bodies who made a simple college sports team nickname into an issue in the first place. I think you're being a bit of a Pollyanna and that is no insult, mind you. Sure, the university and even the sports teams will live on and nothing will be killed outright but, with much of 80 or so years worth of tradition ripped out, they will live on with half a heart and half a lung. The various Captains Ahab and the rest of the Pequod have pursued their white whale now since the 60's and it is only a natural consequence of things that there will be fallout. Of course, there are more things important than a sports team nickname. However, it's that inscrutable weirdness that got the nickname to be an "issue" in the first place and the blithe acquiescence to that weirdness which only reinforces and sustains it that are the issues of concern. So, all of this is a much larger issue than just a sports team nickname. This weirdness and conceit, as is manifested at UND by various peoples' fixation about a "racist" sports team nickname, is the same thing that causes a day to day change in vernacular or a monthly change in Webster's Dictionary or a minute to minute change in reading materials so as not to offend certain affected groups' genteel sensibilities.