ShareThisBy CHUCK HAGA
Friday, November 17, 2006
It was a good weekend for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
The UND football team _ surrounded by images of the Sioux logo _ defeated South Dakota 33-26 Saturday, securing a share of the North Central Conference title and a spot in the NCAA Division II playoffs.
And late Saturday, North Dakota District Judge Lawrence Jahnke told attorneys representing the university and the NCAA that the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo may stay until a court rules otherwise.
The NCAA has declared UND's use of the Sioux name and a logo depicting a Sioux warrior "hostile and abusive" to American Indians, and threatened to deny the school the right to host postseason games or participate in postseason road contests if the name and logo aren't changed.
UND, denying that it has been hostile, abusive or disrespectful toward Indians, sued the NCAA. The state Board of Higher Education authorized the lawsuit, to be paid for by alumni and other donations, and directed Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to lead it.
Stenehjem, noting UND and its players would suffer irreparable harm if the NCAA ban were allowed to stand while the case is litigated, sought the preliminary injunction.
With the injunction that Jahnke granted, UND will enjoy home-field advantage in its opening-round playoff game Saturday against Winona State University. The pairing was announced Sunday afternoon.
Jahnke's decision also could untangle possible postseason circumstances through next spring for other Fighting Sioux teams, including the Division I hockey team.
Jahnke has set April 24 as the tentative starting date for the logo trial.
"All we were ever asking was to retain the status quo while we proceed with the lawsuit," Stenehjem he said. "We still have the actual trial to go through" for a final resolution of the dispute.
Neither Jahnke nor Wick Corwin, a Fargo, N.D., attorney representing the NCAA, returned phone calls seeking comment Sunday.
In asking for the injunction at a hearing Thursday in Grand Forks, Stenehjem said the state believes the NCAA had violated antitrust laws and its contract with member school UND. The university also maintains the athletic association didn't show good faith in denying an exemption for its Indian nickname and logo but granting exemptions to others, notably the Florida State Seminoles.
The NCAA countered that it must have authority over its own championships.
"We have a legitimate case and a good case," Stenehjem said, including "the official approval (for using the nickname) from the Spirit Lake Tribe," the nearest Dakota, or Sioux, tribe to UND. "There is a valid resolution of support, and they have declined to revoke it" despite repeated suggestions.
On the other hand, said Mike Eshkibok, 59, an Ojibwe from Canada and a doctoral student in UND's School of Communications, "the vast majority of tribes don't support them, and they want all these logos removed because they're racist."
Eshkibok was among about two dozen Indian and non-Indian protesters outside the Grand Forks County Courthouse before Thursday's hearing.
"Justice delayed is justice denied, and this is really taking a long time," he said. "UND should have come up with a compromise solution a long time ago. When people mock our culture by making us caricatures, we are kicked out of the arena of real life."
Stenehjem said the university has been open to working out a compromise solution outside of court.
"There have been attempts already, and I would prefer to resolve this outside of court, but I can't say at this time" what the chances are of that happening, he said.
