For what seems like my entire time at the Washington Monthly, there was a legal case going back and forth about the University of North Dakota and its awkward mascot, the Fighting Sioux.
The NCAA prohibits racial mascots like that and so the school had to change the name or risk losing the ability to host lucrative tournaments.
By now it has been pretty much decided. Despite extensive opposition, the state voted to remove the nickname and the school apparently has no mascot until 2015.
But students have a funny way of remembering these things, even if they don’t quite get the message. And so we’ve got this information about those spirited UND students. Via Gawker, students have created T-shirts to commemorate their school’s former mascot:
That’s right: Siouxper Drunk.
Yeah, there’s no possible way this could backfire, right guys?
“Fighting Sioux” is dramatically less offensive than “Siouxper Drunk,” especially considering the incredibly high alcoholism rates in the American Indian community.
The reaction of the actual Sioux community, which, it’s worth pointing out, largely supported the school retaining its original name, has so far been unrecorded.
