Say Anything Blog

Many of us are shocked that all of a sudden the State Board of Higher Education (appointed by the Governor) acted so quickly to drop the Fighting Sioux Nickname.

UND’s chances of entering the Summit League athletic conference may require the state to resolve the controversy over the university’s Fighting Sioux nickname sooner than expected, said the chairman of a state committee working on the issue.

“I look at the Summit League as an intervening issue,” said Grant Shaft, who will report to the State Board of Higher Education today. “It might lead the board to move our timeline up.”

But according to a statement issued by the Summit League that’s not the case:

This has been a long-standing issue between UND and the NCAA and it is hopeful that the two parties will work together to finalize this matter. It has not been, nor should it be, a Summit League issue to address or intervene in a solution that both UND and the NCAA agree upon.

According to the timeline set up by the Board of Higher Education the committee was supposed to work on this issue for the rest of the year.  When the Attorney General negotiated the terrible settlement with the NCAA he said that he and the governor would meet with the tribes to settle this matter.  Of course they never did.  Specifically John Hoeven isn’t going to address a controversial subject if he can possibly duck it.

This committee headed by Grant Shaft was formed last year and met one time.  According to their schedule they were to meet four times.

They only met once.  Grant Shaft says that the Summit league membership was on the line.  The Summit league said that wasn’t the case.  So why did they have to decide now.

The settlement with the NCAA was set up so that the Fighting Sioux name would just go away without the local self-appointed elites being blamed.

But then something happened.  A local group on the Spirit Lake Tribe decided they didn’t agree with the elites.  They like the name.  They brought it to a vote on the reservation and it passed overwhelmingly.

That left getting a vote of the members of the other Sioux Tribe in the state. 

That’s why there was a hurry.  The Board of Higher Education was afraid that members of the Standing Rock Tribe would force a vote and approve of the nickname.  And then where would those self-appointed elites be? 

So rather than stick to the original schedule AND rather than stick to the NCAA settlement the Board of Higher Education had to manufacturer a reason to justify ending it as soon as they could politically. 

Just for good measure they stuck in that we had to have a 30 year agreement with the tribes or it was no go. That is over and above the NCAA settlement.  It’s also impossible to get.  You can’t negotiate a contract through the referendum process.  The political agenda of the tribal leadership doesn’t include having the Fighting Sioux nickname at UND. 

We know that the public, the students and the Spirit Lake Tribe are overwhelmingly in favor of the Fighting Sioux Nickname.  With the Indian Tribe’s referendum in favor of the nickname there is no reason whatsoever to lose the name. 

But, the political correctness movement which consists of the illegitimate UND President, much of the UND faculty (those with no ties to the state) and John Hoeven’s Board of Higher Education don’t care what we think.  They know oh so much more than the rest of us.  They’re made up stories aren’t going to change that.