I may be wrong, but I believe that our school has made arrangements with the Ute Tribe for use of its name. I have also seen several reports of the Seminole Tribe making arrangement for their name to be respectfully used. To me this should be the final word. The Tribe should own its name. The NCAA should stay out of the Tribe’s business. On the other hand if a Tribe is offended by a misuse of name they should have the right to remove its endorsement of the school. Then I would support the NCAA sanctioning the offending school. Furthermore a close relationship between a Tribe and an institute of higher learning can be a very positive thing; especially if this relationship encourages or even supports members of that Tribe gaining an education.In conclusion I believe that the NCAA’s move to sanction schools with Native American mascots is much more offensive by supposing it knows better then the Tribes themselves. Let us instead concentrate on issues that actually affect the Native American community such as education.
Jared Shane EllissAlumnus, Sociology
