Taking on the "Fighting Sioux"| Native American mascots & logos in sports

TAKING ON THE "FIGHTING SIOUX" - MORE THAN A SIMPLE PROTEST
Monday, March 28 2005 @ 01:00 PM PST
Contributed by: Oread Daily
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050328130057540

Holding signs that read: "For a better University of North Dakota (UND), people not logos," about 100 demonstrators, including representatives from North Dakota and various tribes around the country, gathered in front of the arena there just before the noon NCAA Elite Eight Division II basketball game protesting UND's use of Fighting Sioux nickname and logo outside the Ralph Engelstad Arena. BRIDGES (Building Roads Into Diverse Groups Empowering Students), a UND student organization, was a co-sponsor of the protest.
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"Appeals to the dominant white society to abolish the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo typically are framed in terms of respect for the dignity and humanity of indigenous people," Jensen said. "That is the appropriate way to address the question, but it has failed-at least in North Dakota-to persuade most white folks."
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Jensen believes there is a simple subconscious motivation behind the mainstream's objection to changing the name of the Fighting Sioux.
"A power dynamic is at the core of white resistance to the simple act of dropping nicknames such as Fighting Sioux," he said. "Indians don't get to tell white people what to do. Why not? Polite white people won't say it in public, but this is what I think many white people think: 'Whites won and Indians lost. It's our country now. Maybe the way we took it was wrong, but we took it. So get used to it. You don't get to tell us what to do.'"
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"It's the behavior that accompanies all of this that's offensive," Clyde Bellecourt a national leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM), has said "The rubber tomahawks, the chicken feather headdresses, people wearing war paint and making these ridiculous war whoops with a tomahawk in one hand and a beer in the other-all of these have significant meaning for us. And the psychological impact it has, especially on our youth, is devastating."
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The University of North Dakota "Fighting Sioux" compete next week at the (all WCHA!) Frozen Four NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

from the Univ of N. Colorado--The Fighting Whities!

Office of the President

Mailing Address:
Dr. Charles E. Kupchella
University of North Dakota
Centennial Drive
Twamley Hall, Room 300
PO Box 8193
Grand Forks, ND 58202

Tel: 701.777.2121
Fax: (701) 777.3866
URL: http://www.und.edu/president/
Email: c_kupchella@mail.und.nodak.edu

I'm a graduate of UND. In my youth, I was a rabid Sioux fan. I honestly didn't know any better and I'm ashamed of that now.

I'd like to see the offensive "mascot" replaced.

The problem is...Englestad, who was a Nazi (really), was equally as rabid that the offensive logo remain in his "Taj Mahal" of hockey.

If you visit that arena..they have planned it so that you literally walk on the image of the Sioux.

It's a disgrace.

Here's one proud alum who votes for change.