Campus controversies like the one that has festered at the University of North Dakota for the past two decades are rare. That much was clear years ago.
“Oh, it’s strange,” a university spokesman, Peter B. Johnson, told The Chronicle in 2001. “It could be a movie script.”
If it were, these would be some of the characters: An eccentric casino owner (and reported host of two parties to celebrate Hitler’s birthday) who threatened to withdraw his $100-million donation if the university ditched the “Fighting Sioux” name; an administrator who shot off a letter to faculty members stating that their public opposition to a name widely criticized as offensive could make some students feel “unwelcome”; and the former Bismarck mayor who, in an attempt to preserve the name, tried to trademark the five possible replacements.
At the center of the saga is a disagreement over what, exactly, is in a name. Opponents of the “Fighting Sioux” say it demeans Native Americans and trivializes their culture. Supporters, including some Native Americans, say the name is a source of pride and a celebration of the region’s history.
The argument between the two sides has raged on and on, but it might soon recede. Students, faculty, and staff are voting this week to choose a new mascot among five options: Fighting Hawks, Nodaks, North Stars, Roughriders, and Sundogs. A winner could be announced as soon as next week, bringing the controversy to something resembling an end. But a brief recounting of the controversial history casts doubt on the idea that the “Fighting Sioux” name can ever be completely blotted out.
The controversy began in earnest in 1999. That year state lawmakers proposed a bill that would have gotten rid of the image of a Sioux warrior with which the university had branded itself for nearly a century. That proposal ultimately failed, but tribal leaders and students also protested the name. The university’s president at the time, Charles E. Kupchella, got the message and formed a commission to study the issue.
At the center of the saga is a disagreement over what, exactly, is in a name.
But Ralph Engelstad wasn’t going to wait for the university’s decision. Mr. Engelstad, a casino owner who had pledged $100 million to build a hockey arena bearing his name, threatened to withdraw the gift if the university nixed the name. Almost immediately, the State Board of Higher Education voted unanimously to stay “Sioux.”
The episode became even more embarrassing when critics got wind of Mr. Engelstad’s apparent affinity for Nazi paraphernalia. Among many other things, Mr. Engelstad once owned plates that were used to print bumper stickers reading, “Hitler was Right.”
Elizabeth Hampsten, then a professor of English, once toured Mr. Engelstad’s hotel as part of a university delegation and was surprised to find Nazi memorabilia — including a bust of Hitler wearing Mr. Engelstad’s hat — in his office. She told The Chronicle in 2001 that the visit had convinced her that “we should have put a stop to it then.”
But the Ralph Engelstad Arena was built. Though the man himself died in 2002, his insistence on the nickname lived on. The arena, which he legally owned even after it was completed, at one point featured the Fighting Sioux logo in an estimated 2,400 places.
Opposition From Within
The next flash point came in 2005, when the National Collegiate Athletic Association banned the university — and 17 others — from hosting postseason events because of their American Indian mascots. The university’s bid to reverse the ban fell on deaf ears, so it sued the association, in 2006.
As the university waited on a verdict, its mascot began causing problems elsewhere. In response to criticism from Native Americans in the Dartmouth College community, the Dartmouth athletic director, Josie Harper, apologized for inviting North Dakota’s hockey team to play in a tournament.
Mr. Kupchella did not take kindly to that, and responded by publicly accusing Ms. Harper of trying “to direct your problems onto the University of North Dakota.” He explained: “Your athletic director and perhaps others on your campus are possibly unaware that since the Sioux actually call themselves ‘Sioux,’ hardly anyone considers the term to be inherently derogatory or stereotypical.”
Yet the fiercest opposition to the nickname’s use continued to come from within. In 2007 four campus departments sponsored a newspaper ad opposing the “Fighting Sioux” name as a trivialization of Native American culture. In response, the campus’s affirmative-action officer, Sally J. Page, sent a letter to faculty members warning that taking a public stance on the issue could leave the college open to a civil-rights lawsuit. She said asserting that the mascot makes some students feel unwelcome might, in itself, make students who supported the name feel unwelcome.
That same year, the NCAA settled with the university, saying that if the institution won the support of the Sioux community, it could keep the name. Only one of two required Sioux groups signed off, however, so the university agreed to retire the nickname.
But the fight continued for years. A long series of challenges all failed: State legislators passed a law prohibiting the university from changing its name. The law was repealed. Supporters of the Fighting Sioux sued the NCAA. The suit failed. A statewide referendum put the issue before voters. They voted to kill the name, once and for all.
The Potato Diggers?
With the matter settled, the university devised a process to pick a new name. It would begin by taking suggestions from the public. Because the university is a public institution, the full list is a public record. Among the options suggested? “Narwhals,” “Abdominal Snowmen” (yes, abdominal), and “Potato Diggers.”
Among the options suggested? ‘Narwhals,’ ‘Abdominal Snowmen’ (yes, abdominal), and ‘Potato Diggers.’
The most-submitted option? “North Dakota,” apparently as a form of passive resistance to ditching the former name. “A nickname other than Fighting Sioux is not acceptable to this alumni,” one person wrote. Another: “because if we can’t have sioux we don’t want anything!!” And another: “Dakota means Sioux. So F the NCAA, am I right?”
A committee identified its five finalists for the new nickname, which are up for a vote this week. If no single choice wins more than 50 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff election between the top two vote-getters.
“We’re very, very pleased to be at this point in the process,” said Susan B. Walton, the university’s vice president for university and public affairs, in an interview with The Chronicle this week.
Mr. Johnson, the spokesman who likened the university’s struggles with its nickname to a movie script, still works there. Today he shies away from dwelling on the eccentricities of the decades-long fight over the Fighting Sioux name. “Whatever the name had been,” he said, “I think you would’ve found that there is a definite passion here for the University of North Dakota.”
Andy Thomason is a web news writer. Follow him on Twitter @arthomason.
