By now you are all aware of the settlement between UND and the NCAA over the “Fighting Sioux” nickname.  Basically, UND now has three years to get some sort of Sioux tribal authority to endorse the name or else they can’t keep it.  To me that seems like a pretty shoddy settlement.  After all, years ago UND got permission from one of the Sioux tribes to use the nickname.  The problem is that, much like Congress in Washington DC, tribal leadership is elected.  And the leaders elected often have widely varying opinions about the nickname issue.  So how, exactly, does UND go about securing a permanent endorsement when the people they make the deal with could leave office and be replaced by people who revoke the deal?

It’s a tenuous situation, but a question almost nobody seems to be asking is: Where is North Dakota’s elected leadership on this?  The North Dakota media tells us all the time about how influential Dorgan, Conrad and even Pomeroy are in office by dint of their having been entrenched in their seats for so long.  Now, every single public opinion poll in the state has indicated that a majority of North Dakotans support the nickname, so why aren’t Dorgan, etc. helping out?  I mean, Dorgan chairs the Indian Affairs Committee for crying out loud (something that got him some nice perks from Jack Abramoff, though I digress).

I think the problem Dorgan, etc. have is that they’re stuck between their far-left national party leadership and their right-of-center constituency.  If they come out in favor of something as un-PC as the Fighting Sioux nickname they’d lose face with their national party.  But if they leave the issue along, they’re not exactly serving their constituency.

The choice they’ve made in this is clear.  They care more about their standing with the national party than respecting the wishes of North Dakotans.  Which is to be expected, given that most of the money they use to get themselves re-elected all the time comes from out of state anyway.