High Plains Reader Editorial, John Strand Issue 12, Vol. 6

The University of North Dakota continues to defend the Fighting Sioux nickname in vain.

This week's feeble attempt to introduce a new, Native-friendly, Native-made logo for UND sports proves to be short-sighted. Or, it's an outright display of disrespect for Native Americans who are offended by the university's namesake. Or it's arrogance. Or it's money talking.

Cloaked in the utmost secrecy, UND officials bandied around campus last week with a file holding the new logo commissioned by the UND Foundation. One would think it was classified information. But, then again, it was.

First came the rumors, the speculation. Then came the actual confirmation that UND had, indeed, asked Native American Artist Bennet Brien of Belcourt to create a full color logo.

On Monday, UND President Charles E. Kupchella announced the approval of a request from UND Athletic Director Roger Thomas that UND sports teams be allowed to use the new image.

"We are very excited about this opportunity," Thomas said in a press release. "The symbol, a stylized Indian head to be used in multicolor, will represent UND sports programs, reflecting the spirit of the original inhabitants of this part of the world."

The new logo will not replace UND's geometric Indian head used since 1976.

According to the press release, Kupchella said the symbol "reflects the character that can be found in depictions created by artists throughout North Dakota, the region, and, indeed, throughout the United States."

Kupchella has indicated that UND's intent is to use the logo with the utmost respect.

But what about the nickname? What about calling a predominately white university the Fighting Sioux? Why the stubborn resistance to changing a policy that outright offends a small but significant percentage of the people, including many Native Americans.

If UND wants to honor Native Americans, that's fine. We should honor each others' culture and heritage.

But if UND insists on perpetrating prejudice, wittingly or not, there are other issues to be addressed.

Putting a pretty face on an ugly, old problem solves nothing. Quite possibly, it exacerbates the division of opinion.

Commissioning a Native American to participate in this sly maneuver is not very surprising given white America's propensity to dictate to Native Americans their way of life, and to utilize them to help disenfranchise each other.

But is that what's happening here? What are the underlying issues to this mascot debate? What is the trend across America? What is the right thing to do?

That "Fighting Sioux" is respectful is not assurance that it is a fitting name for a university in North Dakota and in a state that by and large still discriminates against Native people day in and day out.

Were Fighting Sioux a means to fostering greater respect and understanding, prejudice would not be what it is today, even in this state which bears the name Dakota.

Were the new, handsome piece of art commissioned by UND a means to truly cultivating understanding and harmony, people would not be so up in arms as they are over this issue.

But they've been hoodwinked, if you ask them. They've been insulted. They've been set aside for commercial reasons.

They're dispensable and so are their arguments, it could be debated.

UND has misread this entire issue and its magnitude. Certainly, UND's proud past and its many years presenting the Fighting Sioux to the world of academia and sports have been fortuitous and fruitful.

But times are changing. Times have changed. Everybody has changed with regard to civil rights in America, everybody but some of the old guard, it would appear.

When Native Americans truly feel proud to be on the UND campus, we will have truly resolved this painful chapter in the state's history and development. Until then, we need to listen to them. We need not offend them. We need to respect them.

The art is a great idea -- it should be placed in a museum dedicated to Native America's role in this great nation's history. We should commission more art like that, more than ever before imagined. It could be the beginning of new relations, new understanding. What a great concept!

As good as any art is, though, it should never be used to propagate prejudice, division, or misunderstanding of any people or peoples, period.

In the case of UND, that's unfortunately what it's doing, or, more accurately, that's what the Fighting Sioux nickname is doing. Like it or not.

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