"Northwestern shouldn't have the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk trophy. Quite frankly, the trophy shouldn't have been retired in the first place. But since it was, no school should have it.

Instead, we should bury the hatchet ... err ... tomahawk.

Let me explain.

For 63 years, the winner of the Illinois-Northwestern football game brought the trophy home for the year. But before this season's game, both schools determined Northwestern would take the trophy up Interstate 57 to Evanston. Not just for the year. For-ev-ver.

The decision was made by Illinois' Board of Trustees, who, through the chancellor's office, directed the athletic department to retire the trophy out of respect for the Native American community.

We're bound to disagree on whether or not the tomahawk is offensive. But we should at least take a page from the Native Americans' book in how we retire it.

We should take page 283 of the Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge. It says that at the end of Native American hostilities, the tomahawk was frequently buried as part of the peace ceremony to indicate the end of a disagreement.

I suggest we do the same.

Instead of laying the tomahawk to rest behind a thin plane of Plexiglas in some Evanston building, it should be deep inside the state's cold, choppy soil.

This seems to be a fitting way to retire the tomahawk, since it will give supporters and detractors of the trophy a chance to bury the hatchet after clashing over the issue for years."

Get the Story:
Allyson Kloster: Sweet Sioux trophy should be buried in Illinois soil (The Daily Illini 12/3)

Earlier Stories:
Illinois, Northwestern Retire Tomahawk Trophy (AP 11/24)
Sweet Sioux Tomahawk goes the way of Chief Illiniwek (The Chicago Tribune 11/22)