“We’ve already said we don’t want UND to use us on their logo,” he says. “It’s disrespectful.”
He points to the sometimes derogatory references to Sioux by fans during athletic events and even a recent study that found that logos and images can sometimes lead to negative perceptions inside and outside of a particular group.
Athletics are very important at UND, a Division II school making the jump to the more prestigious Division I next season. The football program is very successful and has only had one season of six or more losses since 1989. Its hockey squad is perennially ranked among the nation’s top college programs and plays in the sparkling Ralph Engelstad Arena, which is regularly filled with nearly 12,000 fans.
The arena is operated separately by an independent corporation that allows the university to use it at no cost, but the plan is to turn it over to the university in a couple of decades. But that arena is fully adorned with logos and references to the Fighting Sioux. Now, university supporters are working hard to keep them there.
UND spokesman Peter Johnson says university and state officials are still talking about how they plan to approach the Sioux tribes. But the corporation running the arena has already been doing some things, since it isn’t officially part of the university, he says. Officials held a meeting in early November with Sioux veterans where Ron His Horse is Thunder says they were entertained.
“We have brought in groups of Native Americans from North Dakota reservations over the past two years in efforts to build communication relationships,” says Chris Semrau, who helps run the arena.
Semrau says the meetings were only for Sioux members to ask questions and get answers about that and other issues. The November meeting was planned far in advance, he says.
Ron His Horse Is Thunder’s take on the meetings: “Basically they were trying to buy them with trips and mementos and plaques.” He worries that the university will be trying to woo and cajole Sioux tribal leaders into changing their minds.
