What's in a name?
Oct. 27th, 2007 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhetley(Continuing the Shakespearian title theme)
Noted in today's sports news, that a certain university gets to continue using "Fighting Sioux" as a sports-team title for three years, but must discontinue if they can't get approval from the tribal powers.
Okay. I am not aware that any Native American tribal complex self-identifies as "Sioux"...
I could be wrong. That has happened before. But I had the impression that "Sioux" was applied to the group by its enemies, and was considered an insult.
Above and beyond that, if the collective tribal group is anything like the ones I know better, it has many separate and not-necessarily-friendly governments. Maine tribes, all collectively Wabanaki, have five or six competing tribal governments. Even the subset known as Passamaquoddy have two, for a few thousand members.
This, besides the question of why "Fighting Sioux" should be considered more offensive than "Fighting Irish."
Noted in today's sports news, that a certain university gets to continue using "Fighting Sioux" as a sports-team title for three years, but must discontinue if they can't get approval from the tribal powers.
Okay. I am not aware that any Native American tribal complex self-identifies as "Sioux"...
I could be wrong. That has happened before. But I had the impression that "Sioux" was applied to the group by its enemies, and was considered an insult.
Above and beyond that, if the collective tribal group is anything like the ones I know better, it has many separate and not-necessarily-friendly governments. Maine tribes, all collectively Wabanaki, have five or six competing tribal governments. Even the subset known as Passamaquoddy have two, for a few thousand members.
This, besides the question of why "Fighting Sioux" should be considered more offensive than "Fighting Irish."
