Tribes are leery about what’s to come over the next three years as the University of North Dakota tries to seek approval to keep the “Fighting Sioux” logo and imagery.
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.
