Interesting issue.
Dartmouth AD: UND mascot 'offensive and wrong'GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- A Dartmouth College official who disagrees with the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" nickname has publicly apologized for a hockey tournament that is to include the UND team.
"I must offer a sincere apology to the Native American community, and the Dartmouth community as a whole, for an event that will understandably offend and hurt people within our community," Dartmouth athletics director Josie Harper wrote in a recent letter to the editor that was published in the college newspaper, The Dartmouth.
The UND men's hockey team is scheduled to play Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., on Dec. 29. Harper said that when the scheduling was done nearly two years ago, the UND nickname and American Indian head logo were not considered. "I deeply regret that we didn't," she wrote.
UND spokesman Peter Johnson referred questions to the attorney general's office, which is handling a lawsuit for the university against the NCAA. The office was closed Saturday.
The NCAA listed UND among a handful of schools with American Indian nicknames and logos that are considered hostile and abusive. Those schools are barred from holding postseason tournaments, or from using their logos during any playoff games.
UND is suing the NCAA over the restrictions, and recently won a preliminary injunction against the NCAA until the matter is decided in court. A trial is scheduled for April 24.
Harper called UND's position "offensive and wrong."
Her letter was published the same day as an article in The Dartmouth about a string of incidents at the college this fall that many Indian students viewed as racist. One of them was a crew team party with a "cowboys and Indians" theme.
College President James Wright on Monday apologized for the incidents.
Harper, in her letter, offered the support of the athletic department "in playing a leading role to combat racial, ethnic and sexist ignorance and intolerance on our campus."
Dartmouth discontinued its unofficial Indian mascot in the 1970s, but some students and alumni have continued to use it.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2675315
