Sioux Logo Retired by State Board

CHN Staff Report

North Dakota's State Board of Higher Education decided today to retire the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux athletic team logo, ending a saga that was years in the making, the Grand Forks Herald is reporting. With the decision, the Board advised school Chancellor Bill Goetz to immediate begin the transition.

The school is expected to retain the name and logo for 2010-11, and change it after that.

The door was opened to the move when the North Dakota Supreme Court struck down an injunction today that had been granted to the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe stopping the retiring of the logo.

The board originally voted to retire the name in May 2009, but the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe was granted the injunction. After the N.D. Supreme Court made its ruling today to lift the injunction, board president Richie Smith re-introduced the logo issue at the end of today's scheduled meetings.

There was a motion offered to reconsidered, but it was not seconded, and consequently, that logo was officially retired, the Herald reported.

The issue has been controversial for years. The NCAA originally mandated that all schools with Native American-related nicknames, mascots and logos to change them, or else not be allowed to host NCAA events. This led to most of the schools changing their nicknames.

But North Dakota, with the support of numerous local fans and athletic alumni, was granted a reprieve when it received the backing of the local tribes.

The board later decided to make the move anyway.

Ralph Engelstad, a major athletic department benefactor and namesake of the hockey team's arena, had threatened, before he passed away, to pull funding if the school changed its logo. The school ultimately decided to keep it at that time, but Engelstad poured all of his contributions directly to a new hockey arena, resulting in the palacial Engelstad arena the team now calls home.