Are "Indian" sports team nicknames
hurtful?
What more proof than this is needed?
In October 2001 the tee shirt pictured below was being sold by a Grand Forks business in conjunction with an upcoming football match between the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" and that school's arch rival the "Bison" of North Dakota State University.
Although UND's president, Charles Kupchella, has very publicly stated that the University will not tolerate items such as this one being worn at UND sporting events, eye witness accounts reported that UND fans attending the October 6, 2001 football match merely turned their shirts inside out for a brief moment and then reversed them again as soon as the school authority had passed by. These fans were said to defiantly tout their right en mass to wear the shirts as a Constitutional guarantee.
While UND would like to disassociate itself from blatantly hostile and racist practices such as are evidenced by this tee shirt, the University's continued endorsement of an institutionalized, race-related sports team nickname and logo is clearly at the root of the problem. Accordingly, UND, its president, and the North Dakota Board of Higher Education are both culpable and an accessory to the creation of a hostile racial environment that is fostered by the school's race-related nickname, logo, and the products and practices it spawns.