The Wake

The University of Minnesota’s athletics department has taken a firm stance that they will not be playing teams with American Indian nicknames and mascots that are regarded as offensive. Well, except for the eight games the men’s and women’s hockey teams will collectively play against the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux this year. And then there was the football team’s homecoming match against the University of Illinois Fighting Illini earlier this month, along with the matches against Illinois that most Gopher athletic teams have on their schedules.

In fairness, those examples might be tough to avoid, since Illinois plays alongside the U in the Big Ten Conference, while the University of North Dakota (UND) is a conference rival of the Gopher hockey teams. Still, in glancing at the men’s basketball schedule, we find upcoming non-conference games against the Central Michigan University Chippewas and the Florida State University Seminoles. The women’s basketball team has a non-conference match-up against the University of Utah Utes scheduled for December 8.

Members of the University’s U’s Advisory Committee on Athletics left a meeting late last year with the idea that they would more strictly enforce a 2003 policy limiting competition against non-conference teams with American Indian nicknames. That doesn’t seem to be happening.

The issue of American Indian nicknames and mascots is a hot one in the world of sports these days. While most nicknames are not as blatantly offensive as Washington’s pro football team, the Redskins, and most mascots not as unabashedly degrading as the Cleveland Indians’ cartoonish “Chief Wahoo,” controversy has swirled around the general use of American Indian tribes and traditions for sports team monikers.

The University of North Dakota has found itself trapped amidst this controversy. Its “Fighting Sioux” nickname has been one of the most contested in college sports, and in 2005 the NCAA made a move to ban the school’s teams from competing in postseason play after labeling the nickname “hostile and abusive.” This has led to an ongoing debate, but in late October a lawsuit was settled that will allow UND a three-year period to use the nickname while working to change the minds of local tribes who oppose it.

The NCAA publishes a list of teams with “approved” nicknames that purportedly have not raised objections from American Indian communities. Florida State and Central Michigan are on this list, while UND is not. That, according to U of M athletic director Joel Maturi, is why the University schedules games against teams like the Seminoles and Chippewas.

“Hopefully this will also happen at North Dakota so we can play them in all sports,” Maturi says.

Until then, however, the U will stand by its policy of not playing UND in any sports other than hockey, even after North Dakota makes a full transition to Division I competition next year.

In spirit, this is a nice effort and it’s pleasant to see the University’s athletic department taking a stand on a controversial issue. Yet the U’s stance comes off as flimsy and hypocritical when you consider that they will continue to compete against North Dakota in hockey, where a popular (and lucrative) rivalry has existed for many years. Make a strong statement, or don’t bother making one at all.