While Florida State’s use of a Native American nickname has been blessed by local leadership, North Dakota’s has not. The school will soon have to change its Fighting Sioux name and logo.
North Dakota Fighting Sioux Forced To Drop Nickname For 2012 NCAA Hockey Tournament
That the NCAA has cracked down on college athletic programs which use “hostile and abusive” Native American nicknames is not fresh news. They’ve been doing it since 2005, and several schools have abided by the rules since.
One that hasn’t is the University of North Dakota, wrapped in an awkward battle between NCAA interests and state politics. The North Dakota legislature passed a law in 2011 stating that the school must keep their Fighting Sioux moniker, while the NCAA has said they must get rid of it or face sanctions.
Read Article >North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux Nickname Entering Final Weeks
The debate over whether the University of North Dakota keeps its Fighting Sioux nickname has embroiled other universities, the Big Sky athletic conference, and even the North Dakota state government. The university’s self-imposed deadline to change the name is Aug. 15, but the state government’s lawmaking body has complicated things, according to the Associated Press:
Unlike the Florida State Seminoles, UND hasn’t gotten approval from the local Sioux tribes, so it must accord with the NCAA’s 2005 crackdown on nicknames based on Native American tribes. St. John’s long ago changed its name from the Red Men to the Red Storm and the Syracuse Orangmen dropped the “men” from their name, but apparently the Fighting Sioux are more of a brand name to UND’s state congress than those.
Read Article >
