Posted on 11/25/2006 12:58:17 PM PST by BronzePencil
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.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
If Fighting Sioux are bad then Cowardly Sioux are good?
Dartmouth's athletic director is a womyn? Which locker room does she spend more time in? Feh.
FMCDH(BITS)
Dartmouth's founders had a very different attitude about Indians as did the terrified townspeople. The arrival of the "fighting Sioux" would be met with militia.
Excuse me, but what kind of wussy school has a woman AD?
How does the lady stand to watch hockey, anyway? It's all so....violent!
P.S. I wonder if she calls the penalty box a "time-out"...
LOL
From Ivyleaguesports.com - Harper is Dartmouth’s seventh athletic director and the first woman to hold this position both at Dartmouth and in the Ivy League.
Wonder when they'll ban football.
Don't worry... she is a stand up pi$$er...
I wonder who finds the Idaho Vandals offensive...
Her ignorance of history is as appalling as her political correctness.
That's OK, let them keep up this nonsense. It just drives more and more people into the Republican Party.
The Dems and politically correct east and west coast elites show once again how little they have in common with Americans.
The great majority of us find this kind of chicken $--t funny. These folks should charge a fee for the entertainment.
Didn't I read somewhere a while ago the UND mascot is used with the support of the Sioux?
Six sick Siouxs suing six sows sewing in the sewer.....
IIRC, They took a vote or did a survey of local Indian tribes before they could use the name, and the Indians were overwhelmingly supportive.
Gee, I hope Notre Dame's not playing.
I find Dartmouth's mascot "Big Green" extremely insensitive to my people the Irish.
As a Mick "Big Green insinuates that I am well endowed and puts a lot of pressure on me.
Funny, they don't look Sioux-ish to me.
Apologising when no apology is needed.
Nobody asked for an apology, its seems the only ones offended are the NCAA and I dont believe they are led by the Sioux.
Just looking for trouble where there is none.
That's just not good enough. He needs to pay them a lot of money as well and that will make it all better, whatever it was.
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