Victory for nickname
It looks like UND's Fighting Sioux nickname got overwhelming support from Spirit Lake voters. Nickname supporter Eunice Davidson said preliminary results show 774 "yes" and 378 "no." I know WDAZ has slighting different numbers, but they had their Devils Lake bureau reporter at the polls and we couldn't stick around. The election judge I called decided to turn the cell phone off, so I'm out of luck.
The overwhelming results, though, means we can report that the nickname won. I'd known that earlier in the day because I spent about three hours talking to voters, found 11 in three different places, including by the side of the road -- You'll understand when you see the pictures. -- and not one was for against the nickname. (Update 2:41 a.m. April 22, 2009: Oops. I really meant "against." Was in a hurry to leave work as it was maybe my 12th hour on the job.)
There were tons of people wearing Fighting Sioux gear, too, which impressed me. I tried to envision what nickname opponents must think seeing that and it would be like a black man in blackface.
Now I'd known that the rez is pretty pro-nickname haven't having spoken to people out there and confirmed it with nickname opponents, but I hadn't guessed the extent of the support. One of my colleagues in the sports department said he could've told me that a long time ago. Just go to a high school basketball where a team from the rez plays, he said, you'll see tons of people wearing Fighting Sioux gear.
Nickname opponents are saying that voters just haven't been educated, as they'd been saying all along. If they'd had the time and the resources, they could've won.
One thing they've told me several times is that many voters had been oppressed so long, they couldn't see that the nickname and logo are racist symbols imposed on them. There are Indians who fight back and there are Indians who accomodate the white majority, they said.
I had a funny conversation with Erich Longie, one of the nickname opponents, where I told him I didn't really agree with him that there could be people who are oppressed but don't know it. That, he said, is because him I'm one of the accomodationists.
He was nice about it and told me not to get offended, but that's the truth.
I wasn't because I like the guy and thought his point of view so unusual that it's like talking with someone in a parallel universe. Perhaps we'll talk more about this in the future.
I'm sure we will because Erich's not giving up. I told him tonight that I admire his "fighting spirit." He kind of said that's cool, until he and I realized I'd used the word "fighting." Heh.
It's been a long day/night so I'll cut this short. Beer's a-waitin'. (Update 1:38 p.m. April 22, 2009: Sorry for all the screwy grammatical errors, which I crossed out above. I was really, really tired yesterday when I posted this.)
Posted by: Tu-Uyen on 4/21/2009 at 10:57 PM | Comments (40) | Permalink
Tags: fighting sioux nickname, spirit lake dakotah nation, tribal issues, und
