Chewey

Great post!

A lot of it came from one person but a lot of it came from people such as I, too.

People who now choose not to donate, such as I, can certainly do that. We talk with our pocketbooks. If there are people who are hurt by my not donating, look squarely at the administrators/professors, etc who did much to offend those who give the dollars. The logic is so asinine: We'll crap on you, we'll listen to 20 or so emotionally and physically dyspeptic professors around campus and YOU should feel guilty for not donating because of our insensitivity to your concerns and YOU should accept blame for people who are hurt by your not donating (translation...people hurt by our idiotic and short-sighted behavior). Where does/will the blame lay? Right with Kelley, Faison and the others who did not give a tinkers damn about alumni. Instructive analogy to make it clear: If a church bitches about lack of donations because one of its ministers sexually abused a kid and that same church says, "Well, by not donating you're hurting all of the charities that this church performs and all of the people that benefit from those charities." Well, the blame is not on those who now refuse to donate. Rather, the blame is with the minister and with the church that allowed the behavior. Maybe the person will now donate directly to those charities rather than using the church as a donation conduit or maybe the person does not donate at all. Regardless, the blame is not with that person - ever. To conclude otherwise is simply an exercise in equivocation.

What I object to is Faison and Kelley not even advocating seriously for keeping the name. Had the top administrators been on board, would it have made a difference at SR? Maybe or maybe not. However, a lot more who are in support of the nickname, especially the natives who support it, would have at least seen that they care about the nickname and would not have felt completely disrespected. As it was/is, Faison and Kelley care more about placating the few vocal and incendiary nut jobs on campus. This is what happens -- both as to Kelley/Faison and the academic lunatic fringe -- when people marinate for years in a disturbing brew of unimaginative academic redundancy, cerebral indolence and intellectual sloth combined with a pinch of self-aggrandizement and a massive dash of narcissism. What is the product when all is done? An intellectually inert paper pushing potted plant that finds some twisted expression of self-importance fed and stroked by something as mundane as a sports team nickname. I would bet that the professors who oppose the nickname have not had a single synapse truly stimulated in decades.

Faison and Kelley have been the biggest weenies in the whole show, other than the PC dolts.

Exactly. The issue is not over, however.

You really need to read your own posts. Reading comprehension??? Handsome is as handsome does (or writes) in your instance. yababy made the call.

Boy, you can sure tell that this guy knows nothing but hot air. Oh yes, a supposed contractual breach must automatically lead to criminal charges.

Siouxfan, I sent you a PM with a couple of names. Thanks for your hard work.

Yes but, presuming a nickname of "Spirit Lake Sioux" or some such other version, we would already satisfy the asinine "policy." The NCAA "objects" to NA imagery at sporting events but allows it as long as the "policy"/namesake tribal approval is observed. The 30 year agreement stuff is just baloney and is not even in line with the "settlement agreement" because the settlement agreement provides that the name must be changed if the tribe revokes namesake approval. The SBoHE is two-faced (not a big surprise at all, to be sure) in that it agreed to one thing and then demanded and continues to demand another. One of the purposes of the agreement was to give the tribes ongoing authority concerning the nickname. To agree to that and then say FU to the tribes by saying that a 30 year agreement should be rammed down their throats is nothing short of duplicitous and idiotic. Like Steve Fool Bear said, "let democracy run its course." Even as a fervent nickname supporter, it is not consistent to say that the tribes should vote on the issue and then, in the next breath, say that a 30 year agreement is mandatory. The SBoHE really have looked like fools throughout the last year or so with all of their silly deadlines and 30 year agreements and the like, especially in light of what they agreed to. Change the name to "Spirit Lake Sioux" and the agreement is nothing more than nasty wallpaper. We've already gotten permission from them. I suppose, technically speaking, we'd have to ask them for permission to be the "Spirit Lake Sioux" but one would think they'd be ok with that. Voila.....we have permission, we have observance of the "policy" we have continued use of the imagery and no November 30th deadline. November 30th comes and goes and we'll retire the "Fighting Sioux" nickname and transition to the "Spirit Lake Sioux" nickname.

Actually, I think the language of the "Settlement Agreement" would actually permit either option. The school only had to get the two tribes' permission to use "Fighting Sioux". If we're talking about Fighting Ojibwe or Fighting Spirit Lake Sioux, it's a new issue. I'll have to locate a copy of the agreement again to review it again but I don't seem to remember any language addressing anything other than the nickname "Fighting Sioux." Hell, even the November 30, 2010 deadline doesn't apply here. Why not suggest the North Dakota "Spirit Lake Fighting Sioux" or the North Dakota "Fighting Spirit Lake Sioux" or just the North Dakota "Spirit Lake Sioux"? Change the logo a bit and there it is; problem solved. I really am not high, as far as I can tell. I think Redwing is actually on to something here.

Watch out with this one. With all of the anti-semitism expressed by all of those "enlightened" college professors and administrators at virtually every university in the country, the UND professorial yahoos (and for those who know Gulliver's Travels, you'll know how apropos that word is) would be complaining that we're honoriing all of those big bad Jewish people who, having been persecuted historically, hypocritically love to persecute others now. You might see some Molotov cocktails being thrown at games, if that happens. If you want to see a group of Jewish hating Helen Thomas clones, just go to the UND English Department. I surmise the anti-semitism among certain factions of the UND faculty is at least as high as at any other university.

Very true. Well stated.

That's a great article and all too true, which is why it likely inflamed this fellow. I would also add to it in that Western universities faculty members, no doubt, suffer from chronic boredom and banal routine. Intellectual and creative atrophy is rampant but reactionary, knee-jerk manifestations of racism are sure plentiful. Hence, the fixation on issues involving sports team nicknames, accusations of "racism" as against those who disagree, etc. A case in point is that UND anthropology professor who, about a month ago in the Grand Forks Herald, compared people who support the nickname -- yes, even the 67% of natives and Spirit Lake who support the nickname (I know, the irony is compelling isn't it?) -- to people who supported Hitler and the Third Reich. Evidently, if one is a "politically attuned" college professor, one can just vomit forth any reactionary nonsense and then cry "racism" when people point out how stupid that reactionary nonsense is. If they had to exercise their collective creative muse to cover overhead or design an ad campaign to attract and retain a client base, I doubt we'd see such a pandemic of intellectual vacuity.

wasn't there supposed to have been another Tribal Council meeting yesterday? I wonder if that happened (probably not). Archie's Facebook page doesn't say anything about it.

I'd like his email address, too, if you wouldn't mind PMing it to me. Thanks in advance.

Well, at least things are moving forward. It sounds as if Charles Murphy, regardless of his position on the nickname, wants to see SR vote on it at least. I guess I am grateful that I do not understand the PC logic, thus: We have elected representatives that are supposed to look out for SR people, yet it is completely understandable and "how stupid of you to not 'get it'" that the Tribal Council would not take action in the face of over 1,000 signatures. If over half of MN signed a petition to have the state legislature look at something, you can better believe that the state legislature would do it. The lack of logical thought and the complete lack of respect concerning representative democracy on the part of the anti-nicknamers just evinces how maniacal and senseless their positions are. On a good note, there was a great link off of Brad's blog to the Calgary newspaper which had an excellent piece about George Pelawa. He was from Bemidji and would have been on the 86-87 team. Pelawa never played a game for the Sioux but he is part of the Sioux hockey tradition/family and his story is still remembered 24 years later.

Let's see the anti-nickname folks open their wallets. Oh wait, they're probably all still in school after 20 years or on government assistance or just got laid off due to government cut backs necessistated by the economy and less tax revenue or just completely incapable of employment at all because they're "genteel sensibilities" are too easily offended. Never mind.

Krago, You are engaging consummate knobs who just stir things up and are probably just anti nickname "plants". My only concern is this: Why are you wasting your time?

Everybody says that until they get the insurance company not covering a medical expense or damage to the house or the car or from someone driving drunk and rear-ending them, etc. Everybody says that until they get pulled over for a DUI. Everybody says that until they get screwed over by their employer who lets them go because of their age or their neighbor who insists that two feet of the yard is really his property. Everybody says that until the mortgage lender/credit card lender holds the payment until 5 days after the due date or falsely reports something on one's credit report or does not supply all of the required TILA notices. Everybody says that until they're injured by a Toyota product with faulty brakes, etc. Everyone says that until the house they bought has subsidence and the basement collapses. When our predecessors were drafting the Constitution, the doctors' predecessors were putting leeches on people.

I want a T-Shirt, too. It's pretty simple: Don't Jews who play sports have to jump? What can possibly be wrong with "Jumping Jews"? I like the team name for one school in New York (I forget the name) - The Maccabees.

A significant part of Kelley's task is also to maintain good relations with the alumni, for obvious reasons. Not one peep out of him publicly (at least from what I've see) in support of the nickname which the vast majority of the alumni feel passionate about. He has failed miserably in this regard and that will come to bite the whole university in the ass.

A lot of these nascent nickname experts and purveyors of entirely sterling insights about what UND should do are simply anti-nickname plants, in my opinion. Some, like FourWindsBoy, are obvious about it at least.