Sioux Logo Opponents: We Lost Spirit Lake Vote Because The Indians Weren’t Educated Enough
I note with no small amount of satisfaction that the tribal members of the Spirit Lake reservation voted overwhelmingly in favor of the University of North Dakota’s “Fighting Sioux” nickname. As might be expected, opponents of the nickname who have invested years of their time and untold amounts of money fighting the nickname are feeling some sour grapes. While that’s to be expected, I certainly didn’t expect this sort of a reaction as described by the Grand Forks Herald’s city beat reporter Tu-Uyen Tran:
Nickname opponents are saying that voters just haven’t been educated, as they’d been saying all along. If they’d had the time and the resources, they could’ve won.
So…what does that mean exactly? That the Indians of the Spirit Lake reservation weren’t educated enough to know that the UND nickname should offend them?
I’m not even sure how to respond to that.
