Controversy at University of North Dakota

By Joseph Marks
Grand Forks Herald

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A spokeswoman for North Dakota’s top higher education official said Wednesday he is in the process of scheduling a meeting with leaders of the state’s two Sioux tribes to discuss the future of UND’s Fighting Sioux team nickname.

North Dakota University System Chancellor William Goetz pledged in late December to visit tribal chairpeople at the Standing Rock and Sprit Lake reservations as the first gesture in what he hopes will be a larger nickname negotiation involving North Dakota state government leaders and members of the state’s congressional delegation.
Goetz said he would report back to the board about that visit at its regular meeting Feb. 21. As of Wednesday, a precise date for the tribal visits had not been scheduled, spokeswoman Debra Anderson said.

A negotiated settlement in a legal battle with the NCAA requires UND to retire its nickname and Indian head logo in three years if it cannot win tribal support.

In what may have been a signal to the tribes that he is willing to be flexible, Goetz pitched his tribal visit to the state board, in part by listing the long-controversial nickname’s deleterious effects. Those included: “negative impacts on student enrollment and student perception,” “a divisive environment perpetuated by positions taken on the issue,” and “impact on alumni-foundation relations.”

Goetz’s concessions may yield little fruit at Standing Rock, where the Tribal Council has officially opposed the nickname since 2001 and voted in November to reaffirm that opposition.

Tribal Chairman Ron His Horse Is Thunder has spoken several times in strong opposition to the nickname, most notably at a presentation on UND campus in late November. He also sent a copy of the tribes’ resolution opposing the nickname and a brief letter to the state board at the December meeting where Goetz proposed his tribal visit.
Spirit Lake’s 2000 resolution states the tribe will not oppose the nickname if “something good comes of it.” Chairwoman Myra Pearson has said she reads that resolution as neither supporting nor opposing the nickname.

When the state board agreed in October to settle its yearlong legal battle with the NCAA, North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem called for a high-level delegation to engage in “government-to-government” negotiations with the tribes over the nickname’s future.

After the November Standing Rock vote and His Horse Is Thunder’s UND presentation, though, Goetz and board President John Paulsen both floated the idea of abandoning the delegation and simply giving up the nickname. That plan met with strong opposition from other board members and some state leaders, who cautioned against rushing a decision, and Goetz and Paulsen quickly endorsed the idea of a slow, deliberative series of meetings.

Goetz worked with both His Horse Is Thunder and Pearson in his previous job as Gov. John Hoeven’s chief of staff and has said that existing relationship may help him when he visits.