Media Stories on the Sioux Name

[dagies]

Fortunately, Vernon Bellecourt's opinion really doesn't matter. Weren't we told that UND shouldn't use the logo because the artist was Ojibway? and not Sioux Indian? Therefore, I guess Bellecourt's opinion isn't relative to this discussion either.

[PCM]

Fortunately, Vernon Bellecourt's opinion really doesn't matter.  Weren't we told that UND shouldn't use the logo because the artist was Ojibway? and not Sioux Indian?  Therefore, I guess Bellecourt's opinion isn't relative to this discussion either.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good point.

[Let'sGoHawks!]

Last night on CNN, Lou Dobbs blasted the NCAA for its nickname ruling. He said basically that there are much bigger issues than this silly one for the NCAA to tackle, but why would they do that when they haven't in the past. He ended his segment with 3 quotes on the issue, one was from what he said was a UND rep that said "we still don't know what their criteria is". Lou mentioned the "Fighting Sioux" nickname as well.

[KnowtheFacts]

I think I'm going to barf the next time I hear the cliche "politically correct."

[PCM]

I think I'm going to barf the next time I hear the cliche "politically correct."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To a certain extent, I agree with what Issac Bailey says in his column. Far too many people use political correctness as a reason to immediately dismiss a viewpoint with which they disagree. And some of those viewpoints do have merit.

However, that doesn't mean that there is no such thing as political correctness or that it can't be carried too far at times. Bailey's thinking goes astray when he says:

Just say we are on a slippery slope and soon no one will be able to utter a discouraging word.

This is a strange statement coming from someone who readily admits that:

You can't remove all offensive language and images without putting unacceptable limits on free speech. And the surveys I've read have said most American Indians aren't bothered by the mascots.

Just because somebody labels an action or idea "politically correct" doesn't mean that those who are advocating the idea or action are automatically shut out of the public debate. All it means is that they have to work harder in the court of public opinion to convince people of the merits of their case and demonstrate why the position they're advancing isn't politically correct.

In the case of the NCAA's attempt to ban American Indian nicknames, mascots and imagery that it considers "hostile and abusive," the organization is acting as judge, jury and executioner to force its will upon members it admits it has no authority to control. And it is engaging in censorship for the express purpose of limiting free speech.

Which is more disturbing? The "politically correct" label being attached to the NCAA's action or the NCAA's blatant attempt to censor free speech? For me, it's not a tough call to make.

I understand completely Baily's point. For example, when I attempt to advance a controversial conservative idea, I've had liberals label me a "Rush Limbaugh disciple" or a "neo con." The truth is, I don't listen to Rush very often, and when I do, I sometimes disagree with his ideas and the tactics he uses to advance them.

I don't even know what "neo con" is. But I do know that many liberals think it's game, set and match when they attach that label to me without giving any serious thought to the merit of my argument.

Does that mean that I have to shut up and take whatever they're dishing out? No. It just means that there will always be people who argue without thinking -- on both sides of the political spectrum.

Edited August 25, 2005 by PCM

[ScottM]

A pretty pointed attack on the NC$$'s flip-flop on FSU.

Link

The NCAA just didn't want to get kicked around with a powerful and rich member that was itching to fight this out in public.

You can bet if Grambling were to call itself the Fighting Irish, the NCAA would undoubtedly address the issue. But the NCAA wouldn't dare go after Notre Dame.

What the NCAA didn't anticipate was one of its heavy hitters screaming, "Bring it on, if you want to find out who really wields the power."

Big money still talks and BS still walks.

[PCM]

Add Louisiana-Monroe to the list of schools filing appeals with the NCAA.

Louisiana-Monroe will appeal to keep Indian mascot

[PCM]

This shot at the NCCA for granting FSU an exemption comes from Cindy Fairfield who is sports editor of The Muskegon Chronicle and part Cherokee.

About face shows NCAA the loser over nicknames

The NCAA crumbled under the power of Florida State, granting that school a reprieve, but it has not rescinded its policy. Colleges with less influence will have little recourse. Universities such as Central Michigan, Illinois, Utah and North Dakota are still subject to the new rules regarding the use of Indian nicknames and mascots.

The hypocrisy, of course, is blatant. And further proof that the NCAA needs to stay out of affairs at the local level.

[star2city]

Minneapolis S/T Editorial:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5579700.html

North Dakota's story is more complex. The university has taken many conciliatory steps over the years to keep its prized Sioux nickname. Cheerleaders no longer wear buckskin costumes. Images of tomahawks have been removed from hockey jerseys. The school has had no Indian mascot. Its logo is a handsome Indianhead designed by a noted Native American artist.

Still, many Indians and others resent that a wealthy benefactor successfully used a lavish new hockey arena to blackmail the university into keeping its nickname and logo. The state's two Sioux tribes disagree over the university's sensitivity on these matters.

Illinois and North Dakota might do well to scrap the unofficial "Fighting" part of their nicknames, and, as the NCAA rightly demands, all schools should make sure that Indian names and images are used with permission and respect. If that's the teaching moment that the NCAA had in mind, it's a good one.

[PCM]

The Associated Press has a story about UND's appeal to the NCAA in which Kupchella is quoted as saying that he's optimistic about the university's chances.

The school plans to file an appeal within the next few days, Kupchella said. The NCAA changed its mind about the Florida State Seminoles nickname after that school lodged a complaint.

"We going to use a similar approach ... obviously since that one worked," Kupchella said.

Sebastian Braun, an assistant professor of Indian studies at UND, says the Spirit Lake Sioux might withdraw their support of the nickname and logo.

The NCAA said it ruled in favor of the Florida State nickname because the Seminole Tribe of Florida supports it. Kupchella said UND has the backing of the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe, which signed a resolution supporting the nickname.

The Spirit Lake tribe may reverse that decision, Braun said.

"I'm not sure if they will do so, but they have scheduled some meetings," Braun said. "If that comes out negative, then the university will have no more tribes to take that position."

[PCM]

Still, many Indians and others resent that a wealthy benefactor successfully used a lavish new hockey arena to blackmail the university into keeping its nickname and logo. The state's two Sioux tribes disagree over the university's sensitivity on these matters.

Ah, yes. For the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, it's still all about Ralph Engelstad. Except that time has moved on and there are two glaring problems that don't fit into the Trib's script.

The first one is that Ralph is no longer with us. The second problem is that the primary alleged victim of Ralph's bullying and blackmailing -- Charles Kupchella -- is now fighting to keep the Fighting Sioux name and staring down the NCAA.

So who's doing the blackmailing now? Who blackmailed dozens of newspaper editors and columnists across the country into taking UND's side on this issue? Who blackmailed the radio and TV commentators who've criticized the NCAA for its action? Who's blackmailing the Chippewa tribe in Michigan? Who's blackmailing the Seminole tribe in Oklahoma? Who's blackmailing the Seminole tribe in Florida? Who's blackmailing the Cherokee tribe in North Carolina? Who's blackmailing the Ute tribe in Utah? Who's blackmailing the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe in North Dakota?

It seems that the vast majority of Americans have decided who's truly being unreasonable, hostile and abusive. And once again, many of the tribes that are supposedly the victims of the hostility and abuse that the NCAA alleges are saying that they either support or don't mind the practice of college sports teams using American Indian nicknames, mascots and imagery.

But never mind all that. The Strib knows best. It just knows that American Indians need to protected from abusive names and image. It also knows that the "larger public" also needs this protection. Unfortunately, we're all just too stupid to realize it.

[star2city]

Daily Illini: North Dakota, Utah to appeal NCAA ruling

"We hope to have (our appeal) in the hands of the NCAA by the close of business Friday," Harmeson said.

While the University of North Dakota acknowledges that it does not have full support from every member of the Sioux Nation, Harmeson says his school is confident the support it has, coupled with the extensive array of programs for American Indians and 3 percent American Indian enrollment, will give it a strong case.

[Ruffian]

Grand Forks Herald

Kupchella said, if Florida State can win an appeal despite having a white student dressed in stereotypical Indian garb on horseback carrying a flaming spear as a mascot; then it's hard to imagine that UND, which has no mascot, won't also.

"And if we can't ... the world is just not right," Kupchella said.

Unfortunately in many instances like this we find the world is just not right. I hope this time it is.

[YaneA]

Every time I hear someone say that the word "Fighting" in our name or Illinois' is the problem, I want to hand them a dictionary and tell them "Look it up." Is the ONLY possible denotation for the word "using blows or weapons to achieve an advantage"? Being "warlike"? Punching someone? No. In our case, it means to struggle, to keep moving forward, to be tenacious, to keep trying, be determined.

This part of the argument reminds me of the reaction a couple of years ago when somebody used the word "niggardly" in reference to the education budget and people decided they'd heard a racial slur uttered and went off the deep end.

"My opponent is a well-known homo sapien and his wife is a thespian in the arts community."

Sheesh! A newspaper's lifeblood is words. You'd think the Trib wouldn't be prone to so literal--and wrong-- an interpretation of this particular word.

[PCM]

Aug. 26, 2005

From the Lansing State Journal:

Nicknames: CMU, take note -- NCAA mascot policy was ill-conceived

All in all, the NCAA has overreached. It would have been smarter to work with individual schools when problems arise, instead of issuing an ill-conceived blanket policy.

From TownHall.com:

Mascot mayhem

The NCAA has shown itself to be more condescending, dismissive, and prejudiced when it comes to Native Americans than the folks who have spent years loving teams with Native American mascots. If there are problems, tribes and schools should work them out

[dagies]

Every time I hear someone say that the word "Fighting" in our name or Illinois' is the problem, I want to hand them a dictionary and tell them "Look it up."  Is the ONLY possible denotation for the word "using blows or weapons to achieve an advantage"? Being "warlike"?  Punching someone?  No.  In our case, it means to struggle, to keep moving forward, to be tenacious, to keep trying, be determined. 

This part of the argument reminds me of the reaction a couple of years ago when somebody used the word "niggardly"  in reference to the education budget and people decided they'd heard a racial slur uttered and went off the deep end. 

"My opponent is a well-known homo sapien and his wife is a thespian in the arts community." 

Sheesh!  A newspaper's lifeblood is words.  You'd think the Trib wouldn't be prone to so literal--and wrong-- an interpretation of this particular word.

I agree. I've never quite grasped why removing "Fighting" from the nickname should make it better.

[PCM]

Sheesh!  A newspaper's lifeblood is words.  You'd think the Trib wouldn't be prone to so literal--and wrong-- an interpretation of this particular word.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's one of the big problems with this issue. Some people choose to interpret words and symbols in specific ways that offend them. For example, I had an American Indian with a Ph.D. tell me, "UND isn't the Fighting Sioux. It's just a bunch of white kids playing hockey."

Obviously, the "white kids playing hockey" (or black, Hispanic or Asian athletes in other sports at UND) don't think of themselves as being real Sioux Indians any more than Brett Favre thinks of himself as being a real meat packer.

What reasonable person would think this way? But to be offended by white hockey players with the Sioux name and logo on their jerseys, this otherwise intelligent person chose to apply an extremely literal interpretation to UND's intent and motive for using the Sioux name.

I can't tell people to not be offended if that's the way they truly feel. But I can make a judgement about whether or not their reasons for taking offense are reasonable.

[fightonsioux]

Check out badeagle.com.

This is a website by David Yeagley, Cherokee, who has been very vocal about keeping Indian nicknames.

If you go to his forum and then editorials you can read his opinion on this issue. He had a mailbag letter in the Herald on Saturday also.

You will really enjoy Betty Ann's comments about the white professors at UND.

[ScottM]

Err ... Dr. Yeagley is actually Comanche. Better I tell you, than having him tell you.

[PCM]

From the Texarkana Gazette:

Mascot rule is NCAA blunder

If native Americans allow their tribal designations to be associated with gambling casinos, why would a football for basketball team mascot bearing their name and likeness upset them?

[HockeyMom]

From the Texarkana Gazette:

Mascot rule is NCAA blunder

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

*sings* come on, come on listen to the money talk

[PCM]

From www.pbs.org:

NCAA BANS INDIAN MASCOTS

TOM LIVINGSTON: When you would burst forth from a hidden position into fifty or sixty thousand people, it was like soaring over a cliff and up into a thundercloud. I mean, the energy, the electricity you felt not only as the person portraying Chief Illiniwek, but also the person observing it, either in an arena or in the stadium, and I think that makes people feel very strongly about it, very attached to it.

ELIZABETH BRACKET: But the chief's performance does not evoke the same feelings in everyone who watches. In 1989 Charlene Teeters, a Native American graduate student, launched a solitary protest against Chief Illiniwek. In the documentary, "In Whose Honor," she says her protest began after taking her two young children to an Illinois game.

CHARLENE TEETERS: My kids, my kids just sank in their seats. My daughter tried to become invisible. My son tried to laugh. With me is the sadness that still won't leave me. But the sadness turns to anger just like that.

[PCM]

From Inside Higher Ed:

[url=http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/08/26/mascot]Following in Florida State

[fightonsioux]

Err ... Dr. Yeagley is actually Comanche.  Better I tell you, than having him tell you.   

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My bad. I got him mixed up with a friend of mine from Oklahoma who is Cherokee.

He always made us call him Big Chief, because he was 6 foot 7.

Thanks.

[kfah1]

PCM,

Many thanks for continuing to provide the links to these media articles!