A Team Named Sioux and The Fighting Illini

[WildSioux]

While searching for some information on Native American Bennet Brien and the Indian head logo he designed, I came across this article..."A Team Named Sioux"

Before I begin, I attended UND from 1998-2002 for Commercial Aviation. I feel the same as many of you do on the name and feel it should remain The Fighting Sioux. I also feel the NC$$ has overextended their authority of power and this political correctness lunacy has to stop. With that said, I am sorry if this certain topic has been discussed before since I don't come on the boards much.

If you go down to the bottom and click on Read Responses It will bring you to where people have left comments. I was reading through them and found a response titled "Round Up the Usual Suspects by Joseph R. Martan - Western Springs, Ill. It reads...

Remember the poll taken by Sports Illustrated a few months ago? That poll established that 83% of the Native Americans polled found nothing offensive about the use of "Indian mascots"--indeed, many came out and spoke positively of the practice. So just who are the protesting malcontents? The "usual suspects," that's who.

And who are the "usual suspects"? I invite everyone to consult the University of Illinois Alumni Association website--specifically that portion devoted to the ongoing controversy about the use of Chief Illiniwek as the school symbol and athletic events participant. The site contains the testimony given at the public hearings held by a retired Illinois circuit court judge hired by the university to prepare a report and recommendations. From the testimony, the "usual suspects" were revealed to consist of two distinct groups: (1) a handful of Native American activists who were in a snit because they couldn't have a university-funded Native American house and discretionary funding programs like other favored minorities, and (2) the liberal-left academicians who, in their own midlife crisis, tried to flex their radical protest muscles just they had back in 1969.

Their arguments were cheesy three decades ago--aging them didn't help one bit. Moral of the story: Those who are protesting are simply irrelevant and are accorded influence all out of proportion to their numbers by sympathizers in the media and a collection of spineless academic administrators and vote-hungry politicians.

Now, seeing that it relates to the University of Illinois Fighting Illini and their schools symbol Chief Illiniwek I became interested since I had a cousin who graduated there a few years ago and an uncle who used to teach there. And as you may know, the NCAA placed Chief Illiniwek on its list of "hostile and abusive" mascots in August '05. My mother is from that area and we go back each year to visit relatives. We have discussions about both the Sioux name and the Fighting Illini name since they too follow up on the Sioux name debate.

I went to the UofI Alumni site to search for the public hearings described above. I found a few stories on it and about judge Garippo who headed those hearings. I couldn't find the exact thing he described above, so I searched Google for and found this The Chief Illiniwek Dialogue - Intent and Tradition vs. Reaction and History.

As this is getting quite long already, I will cut it short. Again, I couldn't find the two "Usual Suspects" as described above. It may not be stated as such in this report. But I believe there are groups (activists, and the liberal left driving this madness) out there behind this agenda of changing names and mascots.

After searching a little more on the UI website, I found this. Dialogue on Chief Illiniwek on the Board of Trustees page. In the actual dialogue itself, there is many instances where they mention The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux and is also mentioned on this board of trustees website.

I will end for now...But I will come back and write who the real "hostile and abusive" people/groups are in all of this. St. Cloud is a start...

[WildSioux]

I thought this would have generated more discussion. Oh well, if the admin of this site feel it neccesary to delete this thread then by all means do it.

But at the end of my first post I mentioned about who the real people/groups are who are indeed "hostile and abusive." When I was up at UND back in '98-'02, I went down to St. Cloud a few times for the UND vs. STC games (I had friends and a girlfriend there at the time). I will never forget wearing my Sioux jersey walking into that arena and getting heckled by the protestors. They were the ones yelling racist remarks, and had signs up, up all directed to defaming the Sioux name and directly offending not only myself, but the Sioux Native American Indians along with others. I am not a Native American. But I felt offended just for the fact they were being hostile and abusive torwards us.

That happened every time at the UND vs. STC games I went there. I proudly wore my Sioux jersey and didn't let it bother me too much. I just walked right past them and smiled. Inside it was much of the same. And I am not sure if you have been to St. Cloud. But there are a lot of punk teenage kids there who act like gangsters. One time, the whole game these kids a few rows back swore and threw things at us. I also saw this at the Xcel Energy Center this past WCHA Final Five series. The first night when St. Cloud was playing there were a bunch of college age kids a few rows in front of us. Directly behind them were a few UM Squirrel fans. Again, the STC fans were being idiots, standing the whole time, swearing, flashing gang signs, etc... Well, the Gopher fans didn't like it and almost started a fight but it was settled down buy the X staff and STP PD.

It has been instances like these where I have realized who the real "hostile and abusive" people are. It is disrespectful to do all of these things and not even acknowledge a group of Native Americans who made this country what it was before our ancestors arrived. Yes, there are good STC fans. But they have no class compared to what UND fans are by the actions of a few.

I have been to the DECC in Duluth for a UND vs. UMN Bulldog series, been to Marriucci for a UND vs. UM game, and to a few UND vs. Mankato games there. Other than the usual razzing that a good rivalry has. It was nothing like what I have experienced at St. Cloud.

Hey NC$$, don't you realize that this false PC culture you have created is causing more harm than good? You sir, Myles Brand, is a disgrace to this country and you are defaming Native Americans everywhere. There is no honor in what you are doing and I am stating it here that you need to step down from your duties as President of the NCAA.

Fight on SIOUX!!!!!!!!

[Chewey]

The Usual Suspects: The odd President of SCSU, the neo-hippie knobs at the UWis and UofMN, "I can't act"Russell Means, "I could not make it in the real practice of law so I thought I'd teach" Jim Grijalva (sp?), etc.

[Fetch]

Good Info & I applaud your zeal - this needs to grow like a prairie fire

[Chief Illiniwek Supporter]

From the testimony, the "usual suspects" were revealed to consist of two distinct groups: (1) a handful of Native American activists who were in a snit because they couldn't have a university-funded Native American house and discretionary funding programs like other favored minorities, and (2) the liberal-left academicians who, in their own midlife crisis, tried to flex their radical protest muscles just they had back in 1969.

Here's my memories: Various activists were in a snit long before the issue of a so-called Native American "House" was raised. I'd say the first time the issue was raised it was talked about in the context of "we have a program for Hispanics on campus, but the people Chief is supposedly honoring do not have a house". So IMHO, the chain of events here was not "Native American funding turned down: Chief protested" but rather "Chief protested, a lack of Native American funding used as further proof of a lack of respect".

The academics: we have a cell biology professor who in the past has contact football and basketball recruits in order to persuade them NOT to enroll at Illinois because of Chief. He found no success with this campaign and AFAIK he hasn't done this in years. Needless to say, he provoked a lot of response from alums and fans.

Also, one of the "creative nonfiction" professors on campus wrote a book titled "Halftime Dancing" or something like that. She made a few bucks and got some speeches, etc. out of her noteriety. There's probably more individual academics, but those two are the first I can think of. Additionally, the faculty Senate as a group at Illinois is on record as opposing Chief.

BTW, I didn't know universities had any sort of program in creative nonfiction. Shouldn't we be striving to teach ACCURATE nonfiction?

More protestors-I think it was late 2004 when Illinois suffered a 60's style sit-in of our administration building. I'd chalk that one up to a few students, but far more unattached anarchists in search of a cause.