Minnesota's Tomahawk Chop

[sieve]

HYPOCRITE: Pronunciation: hi-po-krit ; a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

http://www.music.umn.edu/marchingband/history/skiumah.html

Ski-U-Mah

Princeton graduate Thomas Peebles was coach of the first Minnesota rugby team in 1884. When his squad would push over a touchdown, he would announce the fact to the world with a "Sis-Boom-Ah, Princeton". Thinking to retaliate when the opportunity was presented, some of the players decided to compose a yell of their own.

John W. Adams and his roommate, "Win" Sargeant, determined to devise a yell with a characteristic Minnesota flavor. Naturally, "Rah, Rah, Rah: was an obvious necessity in an effective college yell, and as something with a distinctive Minnesota flavor, he adopted the word "Minnesota," dropping one syllable and pronouncing it "Minn-so-ta". Two three-syllable lines needed a third, and he cudgeled his brains for a three-syllable Indian word that would express exultation.

The memory of a race between four Indian boys in two canes, which he had seen the year before at Lake City, Minnesota came to mind, and he recalled how, as soon as one canoe pulled across the finish line ahead, one Indian put up his hand and yelled, "Ski-oo". Mr. Adams, who was somewhat familiar with Indian life in his younger days, remembered that this cry was almost invariably used by young Indians when winning an athletic contest of any kind and that the Sioux children generally used this exclamation to express exultation or pleasure.

Another syllable was necessary to make it harmonize, and Mr. Adams added "Mah," to rhyme with "Rah" and "ta". As the yell was originally planned, the emphasis was placed on the second syllable of each line as follows:

"Rah, RAH, Rah

Ski OO Mah

Minn SO ta"

The yell was printed for the first time in the Ariel of 1885 in the following form:

Rah, Rah, Rah

Ski U Mah

Minn-so-ta

About six or seven years later, the original yell was pronounced deficient in noise-making qualities, and a committee was appointed to revise the yell. The characteristic feature of the old yell, the "Ski-U-Mah" was retained, and the emphasis on the remainder was changed and a few new syllable added as follows:

Rah, Rah, Rah

Ski-U-Mah

Hoo-rah, Hoo-rah

Varsity, Varsity

Minn-so-ta

With the emergence of Go Gopher Victory in 1925, the phrase was modified, eliminating the words "Varsity, Varsity" and adding the fourth syllable to Minnesota. The words Rah, Rah, Rah and Ski-U-Mah have found their way into a number of songs and yells

[PCM]

Sounds like cultural genocide to me.

[PCM]

Here's another interesting historical tidbit to keep in mind.

The Santee's (Sioux) arrival in the northeastern Missouri River region in Nebraska completed their tragic removal from their homeland in Minnesota to South Dakota and finally to Nebraska. The prejudice exhibited by the Minnesota people coupled with deceptive government treaty negotiations brought the Santee to Nebraska, a place they did not choose to make their home.

All treaties with these Indians have been abrogated, their annuities forfeited, their splendid reservation of valuable land in Minnesota confiscated by the government, their numbers sadly reduced by starvation and disease, they have been humiliated to the dust, and in all of these terrible penalties the innocent have suffered with the guilty. - Nebraska Indian Commission

Ridding Minnesota of the Sioux is apparently a long, proud tradition in Gopher land.

But never fear. Some have discovered a way that Minnesotans can right the injustices of the past.

Mona Smith says many people think the term "city Indian" is supposed to be ironic, but in the case of her new exhibit, it's quite serious. Smith grew up in Red Wing, Minn. Yet she says she always felt more at home in the Twin Cities. It was only as an adult that she figured out why.

"This is where the Dakota people began," says Smith. "This is where a huge part of our history is and is centered. The confluence of the two rivers is where we actually originated as a people."

Artist Mona Smith is enrolled in the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Community in South Dakota. She's a multi-media artist and her latest work, at the Ancient Trader's Gallery in Minneapolis, seeks to give back the Twin Cities to the Dakota and Ojibwe people.

Sure, this means that the University of Minnesota will have to relocate, but I think UND, the state of North Dakota and our congressional delegation should fully support Smith's efforts to return the Twin Cities to their rightful owners. What better way to end the racial hostility and abuse that exist there?

The centerpiece of the City Indians exhibit is the back half of an automobile that's been made to look like a police car. The trunk lid is open. It's an allusion to the 1993 incident in which police officers stuck two full-grown Indian men into their trunk to transport them to the station.

My comments here are, of course, strictly tongue-in-cheek because I know many Gopher fans support UND's efforts to retain the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo. I simply wanted to illustrate how easy it is reverse the ox goring and give away something that belongs to someone else in the name of correcting historical injustice.

[happy]

Mona Smith says many people think the term "city Indian" is supposed to be ironic, but in the case of her new exhibit, it's quite serious. Smith grew up in Red Wing, Minn. Yet she says she always felt more at home in the Twin Cities. It was only as an adult that she figured out why.

"This is where the Dakota people began," says Smith. "This is where a huge part of our history is and is centered. The confluence of the two rivers is where we actually originated as a people."

Artist Mona Smith is enrolled in the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Community in South Dakota. She's a multi-media artist and her latest work, at the Ancient Trader's Gallery in Minneapolis, seeks to give back the Twin Cities to the Dakota and Ojibwe people.

Sure, this means that the University of Minnesota will have to relocate, but I think UND, the state of North Dakota and our congressional delegation should fully support Smith's efforts to return the Twin Cities to their rightful owners. What better way to end the racial hostility and abuse that exist there?

The centerpiece of the City Indians exhibit is the back half of an automobile that's been made to look like a police car. The trunk lid is open. It's an allusion to the 1993 incident in which police officers stuck two full-grown Indian men into their trunk to transport them to the station.

mona smith just made that up, the Dakota people did not originate in Minnesota.