If the Sioux Indians want to have their names stand at UND, then so be it. Is it not their RIGHT also to say YES or NO?
Or does the NCAA control all aspects of free speech and discrimination. In Mississippi they cannot host a Regional Cross Country Championships as dictated by the NCAA because they have a Confererate Flag on their state flag. But guess what they allow all other sports to conduct a championship there because they are not decided upon for a site a year in adavnce (predetermined). Now thats a farce, one can and other cannot? that is discrimination at its best! Lete the Sioux and UND keep their names and mascots, its a proud heritage in that part of the country!

The NCAA is out of control. Those individuals need to removed and replaced with individuals that have less political views. If you notice, the majority of the NCAA staff now have legal backgrounds and less of a student development mindset. The diversity office at the NCAA started all of this and they aren't very diverse themselves. Take a look at the staff they have in place. Not one of them has ever worked on a college/university campus. But, they love to tell University/College's they are being discriminating, racist, or degrading history.

I hope the federal government steps in and forces them back in the educational mindset. Too many backdoor deals and unethical activity taking place. UND is a piece of history in North Dakota! Leave them alone. As for the NCAA spokesperson. Guess what, you are discriminating against student-athletes of all origins when you disqualify them from a National Championship!!! Just to make it clear, it's not all NCAA staff at the headquarters in downtown Indianapolis. GO FIGHTING SIOUX!!!

Why are the Seminoles allowed to keep their name?

We have taken their land, their homes, their way of life and their pride. Erasing the name of these great people is the last injustice. This is a despicable and hateful act. As an American, I am proud of the people that lived here before my ancestors. The NCAA is being anti-American and racist in erasing the names of the people of this great land. If it's not racism, then I look forward to banning the other UND, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Also ban Illinois, Florida State, Utah, etc. from hosting any post-season actiities. While they are at it, they should stop hosting tournaments in cities like Miami that are named after Native Americans also. Even better, perhaps the NCAA should just stop having anything to do with athletics, they seem more interested in protecting their revenue streams than the student athletes anyway.

For one this Sioux nation doesn't represent all Sioux. The Fighting Sioux perpetuates the stereotype of First Peoples being savages while the Seminoles are celebrating a people. If they were called the Sioux or even better the Lakota (since the name Sioux was put on the Lakota by white people and another tribe) it would probably be celebrated as well.

Let's see, how are mascots selected? A school picks out someone or something that they think is brave and strong to represent their strength in battle (as in football and basketball for example). The Fighting Sioux just indicates that the Sioux were/are strong and admirable.

Also, I think it is interesting how one ethnic groups 'sensitivities' are somehow sacrosanct and not another ethnic groups 'sensitivities.' In our area there were Indian names (almost all erased) but if I followed the mantra of some of the tribes around here, 'we are people not mascots' I would be mightily miffed since I'm Nordic by heritage that they have still allowed the 'Vikings' to be mascots in many areas.

Are we doomed to follow the ridiculous 'owls' and 'ducks' mascots of certain teams you all know who?

Take it as a compliment like I do when I hear the roar for the 'Vikings.' Chosen of course because they were strong and brave in the fight just like the Sioux.

If all uses of ethnic groups as mascots were as positive as you're suggesting, maybe there wouldn't be an outcry. I wrote a story for a local newspaper about this issue 15 years ago, and a Wisconsin State Senator described to me how a white student would come out before every football game at a particular high school ('the Redskins') and make a complete mockery of native American rituals on the 50-yard line, and he asked me, 'Can you imagine a white kid in blackface coming out and gyrating before all Blackskins games?'

You'll say that the Sioux are proud and strong and brave, and that the teams honor them. Maybe it's meant that way. But for a lot of people, it's a co-opting of their cultural traditions. Oh, and by the way, about that genocide...

Maybe because your Viking ancestors were vanquishers leads you to see them as heroic, not as marauders or raiders. The descendants of the Sioux don't have that luxury where the white European settlers are concerned.

This is total irony. The very people that this is supposed to protect are being victimized. The NCAA has no place in this and should go about the business of athletics, not dictate the direction of a tribe or state approach to its culture. Give me a break. The Seminoles spoke and now the Sioux have done the same thing. The NCAA needs to get out of the political arena and help institutions with their athletics programs.

They forced Eastern Michigan to change from the Hurons to Eagles.. the whole area at EMU is still Huron Country litterally! Yet Central Michigan is still called the Chippewas and the community embraces it!

Don't let the NCAA push you around. Stand up and fight this idiotic bunch of money changers. Go Souix.. Go Hurons! Squash Chips!

-The NCAA should get out of the political correctness business. There are plenty of people that carry that carry that torch uneccessarily every day. My wife is an American Indian (and she hates the tern 'Native American') and thinks this all just a bunch of PC garbage. As she correctly points out, mascots are named for something people ADMIRE. Naming a team or school after the great Indian warriors is a not somehow degrading. I have NEVER talked to one of my wife's relatives, nor any other American Indians who thought naming teams after tribes was the least bit insulting. And obviously the local Sioux don't think that either.If this is truly an issue
then we we must ask all Greeks if they are offended by Spartans, and Scotsmen if they are offended by Highlanders, and what about those nasty Fighting Irish?
When will someone in power finally stand up to all this PC garbage?

Can we please STOP this INSANITY??? When are we going to get over the past and realize that today's generations had NOTHING to do with the 'genocide', enslavement and subjugation of previous generations. We are so mired in attempting to atone for past wrongs, that we are forgetting how much each culture has given to our modern society. Let's celebrate the diversity and the amalgamation and drop all the stereotypes - let the stupidity die.
Andrew Cohen needs a new job - as Editor, he should have enough sense to know the difference between hero and raider is purely which end of the sword you're on (and can you get any more asinine?). Besides, with the name 'Cohen' at some point in his family tree, there is a Celt or Viking as well as a few Saxons, so his casting of stones is doubly ridiculous. Oh, and about the warriors of the plains . . . I bet the Utes and Shoshone would view the Sioux as the marauders.

Anne-Marie: Who said today's generations had anything to do with the genocide? We're talking about whether a team's nickname, logo and rituals demean or honor Native American tribes.

You're right about the Utes and Shoshone...but you're wrong about 'Cohen.' It was a name made up by Ellis Island workers to tab certain incoming Jewish immigrants of the Kohain ('Priest') tribes. My great-grandparents — Bushman and Bialystovsky (from around Kyiv, now in Ukraine), Solovei (from Odessa, then in Russia) and Aranofsky (from Talinn, Estonia) would be rolling in their graves to hear themselves described as Saxons.

That's it, being of Irish descent, I'm suing Notre Dame for 'perpetuating the stereotype of the Irish being drunken savages.'

Seriously, what is missing in my psyche that I'm not the slightest bit insulted by the nickname 'Fighting Irish,' and in fact am quite proud of it? I don't get the victim mentality.

Andrew: So being a Russian raider is better? You effectively proved my point about the tip of the sword. Sorry for the misinterpretation of your name.
Now, there are several statements in this blog referring to the past subjugation and stereotyping of the indigenous peoples, hence my comment about current generations and all that. If you look at attempted legislation regarding reparations for slavery and the usurpation of native lands, you will realize that current society is being held responsible for the past.
The NCAA, in it's pursuit of political correctness isn't taking into account what the school, players, supporters and most importantly, mascot source want in this issue. Political correctness needs to die and sensitivity training needs to involve the 'sense' of knowing how to treat people in general and not based on race or gender. I'm personally more offended because of preferential treatment due to the way my skin stretches or what color it happens to be. We need to treat each other on our own merits and not because of laws or perceived wrongs from the past. That includes the changing of a team name based on the idea it may be insulting. The more we try not to offend, the more offense is taken.

Anne-Marie: I haven't proved your point.

The NCAA has taken into account what *some* people want in this issue. The fact that the protesters are a distinct minority -- and thanks to European settlers of a couple hundred years ago, they are always going to be a distinct minority -- doesn't make the NCAA's actions 'political correctness.'

When Stanford gave up the 'Indians' name and their objectionable mascot and rituals, it was because members of their board listened to the reasoning of American Indian students and staff, and supporters of the American Indian Movement, and decided that, although they could count 40 years of history as the Stanford Indians, they couldn't justify continuing to demean a race of people, not while members of the Stanford community were offended by the way their people and their religious rituals were being portrayed.

One of the founding principles of American society is that there are checks on the 'tyranny of the majority.' It's why the courts sometimes step in to uphold the rights of minorities in the face of laws that favor majorities. It's how women won voting rights; it's how segregation was defeated; it's how most of our cherished civil rights were won.

Andrew: Being from Wyoming, I'm fully aware of how women won the right to vote as we played an instrumental role in attaining women's suffrage.
Pretty much over this whole conversation, but you obviously are so enamored with your own opinion you can't see another point of view. It's past time for our 'civil rights' to be re-evaluated and a little common sense applied. When we cater and pander to one group or ethnicity at the sacrifice of another, there is nothing just or right about the situation. If you want to take up the civil rights banner for a group of people being defamed and mocked, how about supporting the LGBT community who still have fewer rights than the Native Americans, women and other minorities. They are in the same position as African-Americans in the 60s, Native Americans throughout our history, women, Hispanics, but because they are unacceptable to society they don't deserve equality. We all need to suck it up and realize that embracing our stereotypes is the only way to change them. Creating controversy only increases resentment and angst. When we stop labeling ourselves as anything other than American, we can truly have equality and 'civil rights'.