When the NCAA began its official crackdown on American Indian mascots as "hostile and abusive" symbols in 2005, some schools gave way by dropping the Indian iconography or adopting new nicknames altogether. Others with mascots representing specific local tribes —�the Florida State Seminoles, Central Michigan Chippewas, Utah Utes, etc. —�sought and received endorsements from the tribes to keep their mascots, logos and nicknames as a symbol of honor. None have matched the University of North Dakota's fight to remain the "Fighting Sioux."
In 2007, the university reached an agreement with the NCAA to gradually retire the Sioux mascot, logo and nickname by July 1, 2011, if it failed to receive an endorsement from both of the largest remaining Sioux tribes. One of the tribes, Spirit Lake, voted "overwhelmingly" to keep the mascot in 2009; the other, the Standing Rock, has held fast in its opposition. Representatives from eleven Great Plains tribes, including Standing Rock, also voted unanimously to support the NCAA's ban earlier this month.
With the deadline for clearing clearing shelves of the Fighting Sioux logo coming fast and the writing on the wall for its future, the North Dakota legislature did the only thing it could do: It passed a law in March mandating that the university's teams must continue calling themselves the "Fighting Sioux" until further notice: "Neither the university of North Dakota nor the state board of higher education may take any action to discontinue the use of the fighting Sioux nickname or the fighting Sioux logo in use on January 1, 2011." If statutory law can't put the NCAA in its place, then nothing will.
The NCAA's response to the school on Tuesday? Sorry, but nothing will:
BISMARCK, N.D. — A new state law that orders the University of North Dakota to keep its Fighting Sioux nickname won't shield the school from penalties for continuing to use a moniker the NCAA considers hostile to American Indians, an NCAA executive told the school Tuesday.
The law, which says UND must use the nickname and a logo featuring the profile of an American Indian warrior, "cannot change the NCAA policy" against using American Indian nicknames, logos or mascots that are considered offensive, said Bernard Franklin, an NCAA executive vice president.
In a letter to UND President Robert Kelley, Franklin said the university must follow an agreement it made in October 2007 to discontinue using the nickname and logo by Aug. 15, 2011, unless it received approval from North Dakota's Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes.
The rock: As it stands, the university literally can't drop the name —�as it says on the inevitable t-shirts floating around campus, "Fighting Sioux — It's the Law." The hard place: If it doesn't drop the name by the end of the summer, all UND teams will —�like schools in South Carolina punished under the NCAA's Confederate flag ban — be barred from hosting postseason games sanctioned by the NCAA, won't be able to wear the nickname or logo in those contests and could face the cold shoulder from schools wary of (or perhaps actively discouraged from) adding an officially sanctioned team to the schedule. In other words, the NCAA is effectively stating its right to impose its bylaws in defiance of state law —�or, in a punitive sense, as punishment because of the law —�based on the preexisting contract.
Commence icy stares from across polished board room tables. Lawyers, start your briefcases.
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History of the Fighting Sioux logo via Orwick's Fighting Sioux Hockey page.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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