I played for a college team named the Tribe and we had two Indian Feathers on our helmets. In 2006, due to NCAA regulations, the College was forced to remove the two feathers from the football helmets. It is crazy because our Tribe nickname was to honor the Tribe of Indians that lived in and around the Williamsburg, VA, area. In fact, part of the original college mandate included the education of and building relationships with the local Indians. They were accepted and befriended by members of the college.
The NCAA is on a power trip when it comes to monikers. They made the university of North Dakota drop the fighting Sioux nickname unless the two local tribes agreed through a referendum to allow them to keep it. You want to know how to piss off an Indian tribe? By telling them they have to do something that has nothing really to do with them. To sum up their position on it - they have many bigger problems on their reservation to worry about some college nickname that they already gave permission to use several years ago. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
I remember years ago this same issue came up in the media. At the time, Native Americans did not have an issue with the Washington Redskins nor the Atlanta Braves. I guess the media just stored the idea away until they could find a Native American who did have an issue or wanted his 15 minutes of fame by claiming he had an issue.
