It seems that the University of Minnesota is refusing to schedule athletic contests against the University of North Dakota in protest for their use of the “Fighting Sioux” team nickname.

OpinionJournal’s James Taranto notes that their ‘principled’ stand against scheduling home events with schools that use American Indian mascots loses something, because hockey is exempted from the prohibition.

I previously saluted North Dakota’s stand taking on the NCAA over their dubious enforcement of a ban on American Indian mascots. As an alumnus of the University of Illinois, I would rather keep the Chief over the NCAA!

But I also found this interesting:

Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa are Big Ten Conference schools with policies against playing nonconference teams with American Indian mascots.

My suggestion for the Golden Gophers, Badgers, and Hawkeyes is that they close the loophole they’ve left in their policies. Go ahead and forfeit all of their games against the Illinois Fighting Illini!

P.S . Maybe someone should tell the University of Iowa that “Hawkeye” is atribute to indian leader Chief Black Hawk. An American Indian. And I know their mascot is a silly cartoon bird, but they really should be consistent with the desire to eliminate all references to American Indians in our culture and a “bizarre” tribute to them.

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