Stone Buddha

In our country's history, Indian people have always been depicted as warlike savages because this characterization allowed the Europeans to wipe them out. It was genocide. The U.S. Army and bands of heavily armed "settlers" marched across the country and killed most of the Indians and rounded up the rest. Indians were no more warlike than any other group of people -- it was a convenient stereotype that was used to justify and make it Politically Correct to kill Indians. That is one reason that American Indians object when those historical stereotypes are used today. The second reason is that the stereotype hurts the current generation. If all of you have the idea in your brains that Indian people are noble savage warriors - reinforced by thousands of sports images -- are you going to hire an Indian as a computer programmer, or go to an Indian accountant or dentist? Nope.

Yep, and I've been studying tribal politics. This isn't going to happen.

I don't believe the tribal councils at Standing Rock or Spirit Lake are ever going to endorse the name. The polls on Native American opinion on this issue are really unreliable. Native mascots are not a big priority given all the other things they have to worry about, so when asked in a casual poll they are relatively indifferent. But, when Indian people focus on the issue and learn more about the specifics, their opposition gets very strong. This is a fairly common phenomena in all democratic politics. Trying to convince the tribes will be a big waste of time. They made up their minds a long time ago, and their opposition will only get stronger the more attention they pay to it.