Post by SirSaxa on Nov 26, 2005 10:54:52 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2005/11/26/sports/hockey/26sioux.html
The above link is to an article in today's NY Times (Sat. 11/26/05) on the situation involving the U. of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
Regardless of which side of the discussion you favor, you can gain some insights from this article. It is well-researched and very illuminating. And guess what.... SURPRISE! $$$ is at the root of the issue.
N Dakota has already appealed to the NCAA and been turned down -- unlike UTAH, Florida State and others.
There is a long history (1930) of N. Dakota using the Fighting Sioux nickname and as far back as 1969 the University received permission from a SIOUX delegation. But of course there is much more to the story.
EXCERPT:
Every night that the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux men's hockey team plays in its $104 million arena, thousands of fans walk across the likeness of the handsome Sioux face in profile, with its four eagle feathers attached to the crown of the head.
It is humiliating to many of the school's Indian students and faculty members who consider eagle feathers sacred.
"We see the eagle as a messenger," said Margaret Scott, a sophomore nursing student from the Winnebago tribe in Nebraska. "It flies so close to the heavens, he carries the messages and prayers of the people to God. In our culture, eagle feathers can't touch the ground.
"It's like if you put a cross on a shot glass. What they're doing is sacrilegious."
Excerpt 2.
(University President) Kupchella said the university uses the logo and nickname with respect.
"I don't have a clue why anyone would take offense to something done respectfully and clearly meant as a honor," Kupchella said in an interview in his office, where he displays a small framed Sioux logo on a wall near his desk.
"O.K., you say you don't like it. But why? There's never been an explanation that satisfied, I don't think, any of the real proponents of keeping it."
Excerpt 3:
The university is basing its appeal to the N.C.A.A. on a 2000 resolution by the Spirit Lake Nation, which said it would not oppose the nickname and logo if the university established a zero-tolerance policy toward racism and if it created a cultural awareness course. But Myra Pearson, a tribal chairwoman of the Spirit Lake Nation, said in a recent interview that the university had not kept those promises.
... And the United Tribes of North Dakota, which includes all five Indian tribes in the state, backed the N.C.A.A.'s position in September.
The above link is to an article in today's NY Times (Sat. 11/26/05) on the situation involving the U. of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
Regardless of which side of the discussion you favor, you can gain some insights from this article. It is well-researched and very illuminating. And guess what.... SURPRISE! $$$ is at the root of the issue.
N Dakota has already appealed to the NCAA and been turned down -- unlike UTAH, Florida State and others.
There is a long history (1930) of N. Dakota using the Fighting Sioux nickname and as far back as 1969 the University received permission from a SIOUX delegation. But of course there is much more to the story.
EXCERPT:
Every night that the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux men's hockey team plays in its $104 million arena, thousands of fans walk across the likeness of the handsome Sioux face in profile, with its four eagle feathers attached to the crown of the head.
It is humiliating to many of the school's Indian students and faculty members who consider eagle feathers sacred.
"We see the eagle as a messenger," said Margaret Scott, a sophomore nursing student from the Winnebago tribe in Nebraska. "It flies so close to the heavens, he carries the messages and prayers of the people to God. In our culture, eagle feathers can't touch the ground.
"It's like if you put a cross on a shot glass. What they're doing is sacrilegious."
Excerpt 2.
(University President) Kupchella said the university uses the logo and nickname with respect.
"I don't have a clue why anyone would take offense to something done respectfully and clearly meant as a honor," Kupchella said in an interview in his office, where he displays a small framed Sioux logo on a wall near his desk.
"O.K., you say you don't like it. But why? There's never been an explanation that satisfied, I don't think, any of the real proponents of keeping it."
Excerpt 3:
The university is basing its appeal to the N.C.A.A. on a 2000 resolution by the Spirit Lake Nation, which said it would not oppose the nickname and logo if the university established a zero-tolerance policy toward racism and if it created a cultural awareness course. But Myra Pearson, a tribal chairwoman of the Spirit Lake Nation, said in a recent interview that the university had not kept those promises.
... And the United Tribes of North Dakota, which includes all five Indian tribes in the state, backed the N.C.A.A.'s position in September.