A state Supreme Court ruling and a Board of Higher Education decision have retired for good the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux nickname after a four-year legal battle.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5068989

Under the settlement, the board and UND agreed to begin retiring the nickname if they couldn't obtain permission from the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes by Nov. 30.

Spirit Lake tribal members have voted to support the nickname, but the Standing Rock tribal council has resisted calls for it to change its bylaws to allow a vote on the issue.
"With the makeup of the board right now, I don't think we have the opportunity to bring it back for reconsideration,"

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

That's stupid. One of my favorite nicknames and jerseys in college sports.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I think that it's sad that the people of the tribe are OK with it, and have said that, but the tribal council won't allow the will of the people to be heard.

They should change their name to something even more "offensive."

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

It's official, political correctness is killing great traditions in sports. FUCK anybody who thinks "Fighting Sioux" is racist or inappropriate. It's a fucking team mascot, and team name. If anything it keeps the Sioux relevant, as most people don't even know what tribe they are, if they aren't living on that reservation. Case in point, Salamanca; anybody know off the top of their head what Indian tribe they are? I sure as hell dont, and I lived 20 minutes away from there, for the vast majority of my life.

I'm guessing that nobody would be up in arms if they were the ND "Drunken Boxing Irish" (see what I did there?) and I'm 99% sure that any reasonable animal rights person isn't too pissed about the Florida Gators, or the Georgia Bulldogs, and so on and so forth?

Whats next the weather channel suing Carolina for being the hurricanes? Or how about we get the IRA to sue Notre Dame over being the Fighting Irish...or even better we stop allowing mascots and team names all together. They can just be team 1, and team 2...oh wait team 2 would get their feelings hurt for not being listed first. How about Team 1 and Team A...nobody feels bad, except for the guys who hate numbers...maybe go with symbols, Team & vs Team % yeah thats the solution!

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"She's like plan C after an 18 pack"

Squanto 7/27/2010

But then there would still be team & thinking they are better then team ^ so you would have to make matching jerseys all saying TEAM on them, and people would get so confused that nobody would win because they wouldn't know where to go and what to do when they got the ball/puck. Not to mention you would have to take out winning and losing all together. Make it like tee-ball used to be in my town, everyone bats no matter what, everyone gets on base, everyone scores. NOBODY WINS and NOBODY does the L word.

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"Call a cop he robbed Delmore blind!!!"
Rick Jeanerette after Marty Biron's diving save back in 2000.

"I'm going to go to the spa and have a hot tub and massage and relax," Miller said. "That's it, and it's back to work tomorrow." Ryan Miller after clinching the North East division.

Salamanca is the Seneca nation.

I only know that because my dad was born there and I lived in Bradford.

It's sad the tribe won't vote on it, if the people in the tribe don't care, don't change it.

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"Go out and run 'em."
- Lindy Ruff, 23 Feb. 2007

Considering that the tribes don't find it offensive...

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

My father-in-law, with a heritage being as WASPy as you can get (Mayflower, descendants settled NYC - from Holland and England) was an authority on Colonial American culture and Indian culture, specifically English Country Dancing and music.

Yes, I said it - INDIAN. Most actual Indians prefer that to the "First People" and "Native American" crap. How do I know?

My dad-in-law wrote books and made musical recordings (in giftshops at various major historical sites), and was a reenactor (made and wore the "traditional" style Indian regalia, and he was a Colonial Dancing Master, on the British side, as in Tory . . . Boooo!). For over 50 years, he was immersed in Indian culture, and he and his wife were honored by several tribes to lead the grand entry for pow-wows. Over the years, he taught many Indians who had been ignorant of their own culture.

Imagine my shock, marrying into this clan. I thought the in-laws somewhat odd, but I came to appreciate and become comfortable in these "different" pursuits and passions. We have camped in authentic teepees (park one on your front lawn, with a fire in it, and watch the cars skid to a stop in front of your house ) and have participated in pow-wow ceremonies. Both my newborn sons were strapped to a cradleboard and danced around the pow-wow ring to "present" them to the gathering (the parents get money slipped into their hands ).

It seems that we, well-meaning palefaces or non-redskins , seem to be trying unnecessarily hard to overcome our guilt.

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"Go out and run 'em."
- Lindy Ruff, 23 Feb. 2007

I don't ever say Indian or Native American, I just stick to saying "Native". But you're right, Birdman and 'Zilla - they don't care and prefer Indian anyways (at least all my friends don't).

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mechaphil

Yeah, from what I've experienced they prefer Indian. Most preferable is to call them by their tribe name (which is why I don't see the reasoning behind the issue in the OP at all, besides the fact that they themselves don't care), but in the absence of that, I've never heard of someone who is actually native take offense to being called Indian. I have seen it on rare occasions with the term Native American.

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

Saying "Native American" is a lot of work...same thing with saying "African American". In public I'll say Native American, but usually I just say "Indian".

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

Well, I'm a Redskins fan, so I guess I'm a bit biased, but I don't have a problem with it. My rationale is that the Redskins portray a very noble, tough looking Native American on thier helmets that is no way disrespectful. Remember that goofy-ass looking bucktooth guy on the Cleveland Indians caps a while back? That was not only offensive, but just plain stupid.
Having said all that, "Redskins" sounds far worse than "Fighting Sioux". So why no more Fighting Sioux and no talk of the Redskins changing their name? The answer is that piece of shit organization that we all love to hate - the NCAA. They can not keep their grubby paws off of anything! My question to them is if Fighting Sioux is now unacceptable, why is there no talk of eliminating the Fighting Irish? It is exactly the same thing to me. They are worthless fucking hypocrites (the NCAA not Notre Dame)!

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

True that, Jael, on the tribal thing. If I'm not speaking in generalizations, I will specify Seneca or whatever (most of my native friends are Seneca, with one being Oneida).

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mechaphil

The NCAA made St. John's change their name when they were the Redmen. They were the Redmen not because they wanted to offend Native Americans. They were the Redmen, because they wore red uniforms! It's no different with Syracuse. They're the Orangemen. Isn't that offensive to people with hepatitis, or Carrot Top fans, or oompa-oompa's?

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

SU changed to Orange due to gender issues with their women's teams if you didn't know. They did have an Indian mascot up until the late 70s or so

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

Bagboy, the Orange are/were named after an Irish Protestant Fraternal organization.

Their mascot, the Saltine warrior came into being due to the salt deposits in the area. Salt City.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

This is ridiculously stupid. That's their name. They're the freaking Fighting Sioux! What are they going to call them now? The Fighting Butterflies? How freaking stupid.

Even stupider is that the native American peoples are fine with the name, and they still have to change it.