Ron His Horse Is Thunder, tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, knew it was going to happen — and it did. He says the ink had hardly dried on a settlement between the National Collegiate Athletics Association and the University of North Dakota (giving the school three years to get the OK from Sioux tribes to keep calling its sports teams the Fighting Sioux) before members of the tribe were being wooed by people siding with the university.

“They came down and took a crew of (Sioux) veterans to entertain them,” he says.
It’s a situation that Sioux leaders in North Dakota are preparing themselves for as UND tries to keep the school’s nickname and logo, and Sioux leaders try to safeguard their culture.

It all stems from a 2005 NCAA decision to ban member schools from using American Indian nicknames and logos, deemed hostile and abusive, during championship competition.

The University of North Dakota — a school of more than 12,000 students, including 400 American Indians — was among 18 schools across the country using American Indian symbols as mascots, nicknames and logos that fell under that definition.
Some, like Florida State University, which goes by the Seminoles nickname, got the affected tribes to give their “namesake approval,” thereby allowing use of their name and imagery.

According to the NCAA, UND didn’t.

UND challenged the NCAA’s rule in court, particularly the way the NCAA has gone about enforcing the rule. The nearly three-year battle has now come down to a settlement in which UND has until November of 2011 to get namesake approval.
In December of 2000, the Spirit Lake Dakota Sioux tribe passed a resolution giving its approval to use the name Sioux. But Ron His Horse is Thunder says the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been firm on its position.

“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.