Opinion

Opinion: 'Fighting Sioux' nickname an insult to Native Americans

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

"You see, the word Sioux was created by French trappers/colonials who chopped the “sioux” part off of the already existing Algonquin word Nadouessioux and used it as an obscenity to demean Native Americans.

Now for the sake of discussion, we’ll say that the word “Sioux” means enemy or snake. But in reality, and in the context of the time, the meaning of the word was meant to be much more degrading and the real translation could not be written here.

At the same time they conveniently clumped 12 tribes, the Oglala, Hunkpapa, Brule, Santee, Sans Arcs, Minnwkonjou, Mdewakantonwan, Yankton, Yanktonai, Wahpekute, Sisseton and Wahpeton, each of which has additional subdivisions, into that “Sioux” category, effectively demeaning them all with one, big, easy swipe.

Which is a little like taking all of the Norwegian, German, Swedish, Danish, Ukrainian, Russian, English, Icelandic, French, Finish Irish and Czech homesteaders who settled the upper Great Plains in the late 1800s, with all of their different dialects and customs, and calling them all baboons or something much worse.

And that, you see, is the origin of the concern shown by many Native Americans over the use of the word “Sioux” by the University of North Dakota for its athletic teams. Then, when you add “Fighting” to the word Sioux, you’ve essentially accented the insult. Because then, it’s a little like referring to those settlers that I just mentioned as not only baboons, but …obnoxious baboons; which is a name that one would hardly want to be associated with and in the case of “Fighting Sioux,” a name that is also absolutely, historically inaccurate. Thus, if you ask a Native American if they are a member of the Sioux tribe, the answer has to be “no” simply because there’s no such thing."

Get the Story:
Kevin Holten: No such thing as Sioux (The Dickinson Press 3/2)
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