(NAME-MCE) Tribal college leaders bow out of photo shoot, citing nickname

[Anselmo Villanueva]

The current and former presidents of five tribal colleges have refused
to be part of a photograph being used by the University of North
Dakota to recruit Native American students because the presidents
object to the continued use of the Fighting Sioux as the institution's
team name, the AP reported.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8VCKMOG6

Tribal college leaders bow out of photo shoot, citing nickname

The Associated Press - Thursday, March 13, 2008

GRAND FORKS, N.D.

Five current and former tribal college presidents have decided not to
take part in a photo shoot for a University of North Dakota student
recruiting campaign because of their opposition to the Fighting Sioux
nickname, a UND official says.

The first round of the Beyond Beads and Feathers campaign began about
two years ago with posters of nine American Indian UND graduates who
went on to successful careers. The posters were distributed to
reservation high schools and tribal colleges and displayed in the
American Indian Student Services house on campus, said Bob Boyd, a UND
vice president.

For a second round of the poster campaigns, UND had planned to take a
group photo of the 14 UND graduates who are past or present tribal
college presidents. Boyd said five graduates declined to take part,
citing UND's continued use of the nickname.

"These are all people for whom I have a great deal of respect," Boyd
said. "(The photo shoot) is something that would have a great deal of
impact on Native American students as they think about their own
university careers and the kinds of things they can accomplish. These
are people who have worked very hard to get to the point they're at."

United Tribes Technical College President David Gipp was one of the
tribal college presidents who declined to participate in the photo
shoot. In an e-mail, he praised UND's programs for American Indians,
but called the nickname "incessantly and increasingly a topic of
dissension among the various communities - tribal and non-tribal."

The other tribal college leaders who declined to participate in the
photo shoot are Cynthia Lindquist, president of Cankdeska Cikana
tribal college in Fort Totten; Laurel Vermillion, president of Sitting
Bull College in Fort Yates; Donald Day, president of Fond du Lac
tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minn.; and Elizabeth Yellow
Bird, former president of Fort Berthold tribal college.

UND still plans to do a second round of the poster campaign with
portraits of American Indian UND grads, Boyd said, but that group will
not include the tribal college administrators.

"The nickname is a complicating factor for many of our Native American
students and graduates," Boyd said. "And while they don't agree
universally on the issue, it's clear that it remains divisive."