BISMARCK, N.D. � A North Dakota Senate committee has decided to support allowing the University of North Dakota to drop its Fighting Sioux nickname this summer, a decision that sets up a potentially climactic Senate vote next week.
The Senate Education Committee voted 5-2 Tuesday to recommend the defeat of legislation that would require the university to permanently keep its nickname and a logo that depicts the profile of an American Indian warrior.
The NCAA considers the nickname and logo hostile to American Indians, so if the Legislature requires UND to keep them, the school would be barred from hosting NCAA-sanctioned postseason events, and its teams would not be able to wear uniforms with the nickname or logo in any postseason play.
UND officials also worry the dispute will complicate the school's plans to join the Big Sky Conference next year. The Fighting Sioux currently compete in most sports in the Great West Conference, which unlike the Big Sky does not have an automatic bid to NCAA postseason play for its champions.
The committee's decision followed a five-hour hearing Monday on the bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Al Carlson, R-Fargo, the North Dakota House's majority leader.
Education Committee member Sen. Tim Flakoll, R-Fargo, said Tuesday he was influenced by UND student opposition to keeping the name and logo.
"The students were exemplary in their testimony, and how this impacts them," Flakoll said. "We don't want to damage the student. We don't want to damage the student-athlete. We don't want to damage the educational atmosphere of the campus."
A full Senate vote won't happen until early next week at the earliest, said Sen. Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, the Senate's majority leader.
The university had been planning to retire the nickname and logo in August. No successor name has been chosen.
Supporters of keeping the nickname and logo believe the potential consequences for doing so are being exaggerated and resent what they regard as NCAA bullying.
"I felt strongly about, especially, out-of-staters really dictating to us that we had to get rid of that logo and name," said Sen. Layton Freborg, R-Underwood, the Education Committee chairman. "I like the logo. I think it's great. And I think we ought to keep it, regardless, and see what happens."
The legislation got two-thirds support in the North Dakota House, but senators say its backing in the Senate is not as robust. Gov. Jack Dalrymple has not said whether he would sign the legislation.
The bill was supported by Freborg and Sen. Gary Lee, R-Casselton. Committee members joining Flakoll in asking the Senate to vote down the legislation were Sens. Larry Luick, R-Grand Forks; Joan Heckaman, D-New Rockford; Richard Marcellais, D-Belcourt; and the committee's vice chairman, Donald Schaible, R-Mott.
Heckaman's district borders the Spirit Lake Sioux Indian Reservation, where 67% of tribal members who voted in an April 2009 referendum backed keeping the name and logo. Marcellais, who will present the legislation on the Senate floor, is a former chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
Schaible's rural south-central North Dakota district includes the North Dakota portion of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation, which extends into South Dakota.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribal council has appealed to UND to drop the nickname, although the name's supporters gathered about 1,000 petition signatures asking the council to schedule a reservation referendum on the issue. None has been held.
"My position is, even if you don't agree with how or why they didn't vote, they have a right to do what they see fit," Schaible said.
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