Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: "Robert Eurich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dec 5 1999 http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=81154078 <clipped> State rejects plea of recall targets Statewire MILTON, Wis. (AP) -- The state Elections Board has rejected an appeal from two school board members who face a recall election because they voted to oust a popular high school nickname some found insensitive. Wilson Leong, a school board member targeted for recall, learned Friday of the Election Board' s conclusion. He said he may bring the matter before Rock County Circuit Court in Janesville. A community group launched a recall campaign after the school board voted to retire Milton High School' s nickname " Redmen" and a logogram depicting an American Indian. Critics said " Redmen" excluded Indians and women. Students were given a short list of alternative nicknames, and selected " Red Hawks." A recall election that overhauls the school board could open the way for a referendum on the choice of a name, Menomonie school board members Ron Mikesell and Greg LaPean told a Milton rally Oct. 2 at the high school. Three years ago, Mikesell and LaPean were part of a recall campaign in the Menomonie School District that removed school board members and reinstated " Indians" as Menomonie High School' s nickname. Petitions with 2, 154 signatures were filed Oct. 22 with the Milton school board clerk, naming Leong, Dale Beaty and Michael Pierce. An election is scheduled Jan. 4. Leong and Pierce challenged the petitions, arguing the documents did not specify a reason for a recall. The petitions accuse board members of " breach of public trust." " Breach of public trust" does not, by state statute, constitute a reason for recall, says David C. Moore, a Janesville lawyer representing Leong and Pierce before the Elections Board. The board insists the " breach of public trust" is adequate. <end excerpt> >>>>>>>>>>>>><><<<<<<<<<<<<< From: "Robert Eurich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Published: Sunday, December 5, 1999 http://www.northscape.com/news/docs00/1205/27141DD.htm This is a pretty detailed history of the 28 year controversy at the UND. Also note this excerpt from another source which clarifies the "ice sculpture incident" mentioned in the current article. "In the 60s and early 70s the university's "Greek" houses sponsored a winter festival in which each house created an ice sculpture for homecoming week. In 1972 one of the houses created a sculpture of a topless, Native woman with a sign pointing to her bare breast, saying, "Lick em Sioux". A Native American student found the sculpture offensive and took an ax to it. A full scale riot broke out with members of the Greek houses and Native students fighting each other. The Native student with the ax was the only person arrested. The next day the university president, at the request of members of AIM, dropped the charges against the Native student and banned the winter festival." http://members.tripod.com/earnestman/und.htm <clipped> Badge of honor . . . or disgrace? Nickname and controversy have long history at UND By Ian Swanson Herald Staff Writer When UND two weeks ago unveiled a new Indian-head logo created by a Native American artist, controversy over the school's Fighting Sioux nickname was re-ignited. But this was far from the first chapter in the Fighting Sioux nickname debate at UND. Although many believe the controversy surrounding UND's nickname and Indian-head logos is a 1990s phenomenon, the debate actually has a 28-year history. It's a debate, and a history, that has had almost as many chapters as UND has had Indian heads. Sammy Sioux UND's Fighting Sioux nickname has a long, rich history with the school. Its use dates back to the 1930s, and for most of the decades between the 1930s and 1970s there was little if any debate over its use. Those decades were a different era at UND. During the 1960s and early '70s, the campus was painted with a collection of Native American images and logos used by student and staff organizations. In the 1960s, basketball cheerleaders at UND wore head feathers and fringed dresses, and it wasn't uncommon for students to dress in war paint for athletic events. It would be years before universities began trademarking and licensing their logos. "It's hard to imagine the way it was back then. The campus was covered in things," said Dave Vorland, executive assistant to UND's president, who will wind up a long career at UND this spring. Vorland was a UND faculty member from 1968 to 1970, and returned to direct UND's Office of University Relations in 1974. He assumed his current duties in 1993. Many of the Indian images seen on UND's campus in the 1960s and 1970s were caricatures. They included Sammy Sioux, a cartoon character used on the jackets of the Golden Feather spirit club. "I don't think anyone ever approved it," Vorland said of Sammy Sioux. "People thought it was nifty, and pretty soon folks in food service were putting it on Styrofoam cups and stuff. Those were days when there weren't a lot of controls over that sort of thing." Another important social change was also taking place: More American Indians were beginning to study at UND. "All of a sudden this campus had 200 or 300 Native American students, where in the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few," Vorland said. Sculpture controversy The King Cold carnival was another tradition of the time. Every winter, fraternities and sororities built huge ice sculptures to celebrate the carnival. Many of those sculptures paid homage to UND's Fighting Sioux nickname. The old traditions and the new students came into conflict during the winter of 1972, when one fraternity built an ice sculpture that was enormously offensive to some Native Americans. Vorland said he couldn't remember exactly what the sculpture depicted, but he said that "whatever it was, it enraged the Indian students." Eventually, a group of Native American students went to the fraternity and kicked down the offending sculpture. That led to a fight that received national attention. The American Indian Movement was just getting under way, and members of that organization visited UND's campus to protest the sculpture and the treatment of Native American students. <end of excerpt> <<<<=-=-= =-=-=>>>> "We simply chose an Indian as the emblem. We could have just as easily chosen any uncivilized animal." Eighth Grade student writing about his school's mascot, 1997 <<<<=-= http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/ =-=>>>> <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER!!!=-=-=>>>>
