Opinion: Tribes gave permission to keep 'Fighting Sioux'

Tuesday, May 31, 2011  

"Now that North Dakota’s chattering class and its allies are taking a breather from bashing supporters of the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux symbols, maybe we can introduce some facts and logic.

Let’s first dismiss some of the nonsense critics of the Sioux emblems have spread. Because the Standing Rock Tribe’s elders in 1969 gave UND formal permission to use those emblems (April 17, Forum) as did the Spirit Lake tribe two years ago in a popular vote, using them isn’t an insult to the tribes. Another criticism takes a different but equally absurd tack: As a semi-autonomous entity, the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe could change its mind at any time about permitting use of the logo.

Well, we make treaties with independent nations and contract with each other constantly. Any contract can be broken at any time by any party. Therefore, we should never make contracts at all?"

Get the Story:
Ross Nelson: Replace absurdity with fact on logo issue (The Fargo Forum 5/29)

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