Gamma Phi Beta University of North Dakota Punished for Showing School Pride

[IrishLake]

Here's a question I have about this, since I'm a Tribe fan and have been paying attention to what's going on. I legitimately don't know.

Do the few accurately represent the whole? At what point does the objections and voices of the few count for the whole? What if the majority don't feel the same as the vocal minority, but just aren't as vocal? Does the opinion of vocal minority trump that of the indifferent majority just because it's what we deem as "right?"

I guess I'm playing Devil's Advocate. I KNOW members of the First Nations (Canada) who do not care that their images/history/ideology are used as school/team mascots. I have a friend who married into a First Nation family in Ontario, and another who is a biological FN Member in BC. This is something we've talked about years ago. My own great-grandmother is a full blooded Shawnee (Kentucky) woman. My Grandma's opinion is that the vocal minority of her mother's clan do it for attention. My grandma is a die-hard Indians fan, and told me once when I was a kid that she would shun all of major league baseball if they took away Chief Wahoo. (Granted, I have no idea what great-grandma's thoughts would be on the matter).

While I would be sentimentally sad if Cleveland did away with the "Indians" and renamed them something else, I would understand.

I always thought "The Eries" would be a cool team name. But Erie was a tribe of Indians themselves... so I suppose that wouldn't work, even though the lake shares the name?

Which brings me to a new thought, though it's extreme. Does that mean businesses that are named for Native tribes should change their name? What about cities and geological features? If they have Native based names that the Native people themselves didn't designate, should they be changed? Should Miami Valley Plumbing change its name? Miami University? Cuyahoga Valley National Park? What about the Chillicothe Paints baseball team? (The Paint is a breed of horse that is commonly associated with Natives)? Tecumseh Serveying? Is the naming of a place or business acceptable, the line is crossed only when it's depicted as a mascot?

Just thinking aloud at this point.