Who Owns the Buffalo?

For some years now, there have been arguments about the use of Indian names and imagery by sports teams. Historically, a lot of teams have had Indian-themed names, for the same reason that teams have been named after lions, bears, eagles, Vikings and Trojans. I believe it is accurate to say that polls have shown most Indians understand this origin and generally don’t have a problem with Indian names and mascots. But here, as in so many instances, activists who don’t necessarily represent anyone but themselves have seized the opportunity to bully others.

The results have been mixed. Washington’s Redskins are now the Commanders–a far more sinister name–while Cleveland’s Indians are now the Guardians, an awful name, and the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux are officially the Fighting Hawks, although I’m not sure anyone calls them that. At the same time, many Indian names and mascots survive.

Here in Minnesota, the far-left Tim Walz administration has ceded extraordinary power to Indian activists, even though Native Americans constitute only 1.1% of the state’s population. The driving force has been Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who has found it politically advantageous to emphasize the Indian, rather than the more obvious Irish, element of her ancestry.

Thus, a committee largely dominated by Native Americans revised Minnesota’s state seal and state flag to delete, among other things, the Indian who formerly was one of just two figures depicted. You might think this weird, but actually it is typical: the effect of anti-Indian symbol agitation has been to make Indians more invisible than ever.

That is a long prelude to this story from Minnesota, which you need a little background to understand. Under recently-enacted legislation, a unanimous vote of the “Tribal Nations Education Committee,” purporting to represent 11 tribes, is necessary to permit a “name, symbol, or image that depicts or refers to an American Indian Tribe, individual, custom, or tradition to be used as a mascot.” Well maybe, but a buffalo?

Rochester’s Dakota Middle School will have to change its mascot before September of 2025, after the district’s appeal to keep its Bison mascot was denied by tribal leaders across the state.

The school, which opened in 2022, chose the name Bison after working with the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee. The school’s Bison logo was created by a native artist.

So this brand-new school went out of its way to coordinate with the Indian community to name its teams the Bison. What could possibly be wrong with that?

The school is one of more than two dozen that Minnesota’s Department of Education says might need to change mascot names to meet Minnesota’s new law, which prevents schools from adopting a name, symbol, or image that depicts or refers to an American Indian Tribe, individual, custom, or tradition to be used as a mascot.

14 schools, including Dakota Middle School, appealed to Minnesota’s Tribal Nations Education Committee. State law states all 11 tribes on the committee need to unanimously vote for a mascot to stay in place which happened at least once when the Warroad Warriors retained their name. The Warriors of Wheaton Area Schools, however, must also change their mascot.

So whether you can be the Warriors depends on….something. But the bottom line is that this new middle school in Rochester can’t name its teams the Bison. How can that possibly make any sense? Apparently no one wants to say:

Minnesota State Senator Mary Kunesh, who was the lead author for the law, declined an on-camera interview and declined to provide a statement about school name changes.

Minnesota’s Department of Education also declined to provide a statement and could not provide information on rulings for schools that had appealed name changes.

Minnesota’s Tribal Native Education Committee also declined to provide a statement as to how a district that worked with native leaders to create a school mascot could still be forced to change names under the new law.

Rochester Public Schools declined further comment on how much a name change will cost, or where that money will come from.

It’s a great democracy we live in! An unelected committee gets to decide whether a bunch of middle school kids can call their teams the Bison, and if you have any questions about that process, forget it: not a single elected official feels obligated to explain. Presumably because the decision is so Goddamned stupid that no one dares try to defend it.

But this is what I can’t get past: I understand that if you call your team the Indians, or the Seminoles, or the Fighting Sioux, it is an Indian reference. But Bison? Bison are animals. How do Indians have a veto power over a bunch of kids calling their teams the Bison? The Indians rode horses, too (although, of course, only after Europeans brought horses to the New World). Does that mean that a team can’t be called the Broncos, the Colts, the Mustangs or the Ponies, without unanimous clearance from an Indian committee?

Is there, in other words, any point at all, at which this madness will end? No, there isn’t. Not until the people who promulgate such nonsense are repudiated decisively, once and for all, at the polls.

Two footnotes: First, it was Rochester’s Dakota Middle School that wanted to name its teams the Bison. The Dakota are, of course, an Indian tribe or group of tribes. The Dakota name is widespread: it includes two states, and Dakota County in Minnesota, which happens to be where I live. Is the use of “Dakota” now subject to an unelected committee, or otherwise verboten?

Second, the University of North Dakota was forced to give up its venerable and universally-respected–especially in the world of college hockey–Fighting Sioux nickname. No doubt some partisans of arch-rival North Dakota State University, whose Bison have won an astonishing 17 national football championships, including nine between 2011 and 2021, chuckled at their rival’s discomfiture, assuming they were safe from left-wing activism. But are they? If Dakota Middle School’s Bison nickname has now been vetoed, is NDSU safe from liberal agitation?

Stay tuned.