Blake Nicholson — Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Members of the Spirit Lake Nation likely will hold a referendum on whether to support University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname, the tribe’s leader said, saying members are weary of constant talk about the issue.
”It’s been something that’s not as important as our health care or housing or everything we’re faced with out here, but it’s been popping up all the time, and I think we need to put it to rest here pretty quick,” Tribal Chairman Myra Pearson said.
William Goetz, chancellor of North Dakota’s university system, said Feb. 2 that a reservation vote may help speed a resolution of the nickname dispute.
”If a vote is taken, certainly it will be a major step, one way or the other, in terms of an event that will, I think, determine the outcome one way or the other,” Goetz said. ”In my mind … that vote will, if it’s taken relatively soon, it should expedite the decision process.”
In October, the university settled a lawsuit with the NCAA over its use of the nickname and an American Indian-head logo. Its terms gave UND until Nov. 30, 2010, to obtain the consent of the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes to continue to use the nickname and logo.
If the tribes’ approval is not forthcoming, the logo must be retired. It still may be retired after November 2010 if either tribe revokes its consent, the settlement says.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has said it opposes continued use of the logo and nickname. Goetz said he had planned to meet privately Feb. 5 with the Standing Rock tribal chairman, Ron His Horse Is Thunder, to discuss the issue. The meeting was expected to be on the reservation, but a location had not been determined, Goetz said.
His Horse Is Thunder personally opposes the nickname, and the tribe’s governing council has approved an anti-nickname resolution, which was forwarded to the state Board of Higher Education.
Board members have directed Goetz to meet personally with Pearson and His Horse Is Thunder to discuss the nickname issue. He is supposed to report the results of his efforts at the board’s Feb. 21 meeting in Mayville, N.D.
Pearson could not say when a vote might be held on the Spirit Lake reservation. She said that if Tribal Council members gain enough feedback during upcoming district meetings, the wishes of the majority might be clear enough for the council itself to decide.
”Maybe it won’t even have to go to a vote,” she said.
Pearson said she personally opposes the nickname, but that ”I represent all of these [tribal members], and I have to see what they decide.” She said opinions about the nickname ”seem to be split” on the reservation.
A tribal resolution, adopted in 2000, did not oppose or endorse the nickname. It stated: ”As long as something positive comes from this controversy, [the tribe is] not opposed to keeping the Sioux name and present logo at UND.”
Pearson said she read the resolution as neither supporting nor opposing the nickname. Tribal officials did not respond to NCAA requests for clarification, and the association later deemed it insufficient to grant UND a tribal namesake exception to its policy banning Indian nicknames and imagery.
Other schools, including the Florida State Seminoles, have received such exemptions by getting approval from tribes.
UND sued the NCAA over a 2005 mandate that bars schools with Indian nicknames and logos from using them in postseason play or hosting playoff games. The NCAA considered UND’s nickname ”hostile and abusive” to Indians. UND said it uses the nickname with respect.
UND spokesman Peter Johnson could not be reached for comment.
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