GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The judge in the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux nickname lawsuit belonged to a UND student group that wore a cartoon American Indian mascot on its jackets and helped to outfit cheerleaders in stereotypical Indian garb.
Judge Lawrence Jahnke was a member in the early 1960s of UND's Golden Feather pep club, a group limited to 30 male members each year, UND yearbooks show.
The group, founded in 1956, is credited with creating "Sammy the Sioux," a cartoonish mascot that was discontinued in the early 1970s, according to UND archives.
UND is suing the NCAA over a 2005 mandate that bars the school from displaying its nickname and logo in postseason play.
In court, Jahnke has emphasized that the core issue of the lawsuit is not whether the nickname is hostile and abusive, but whether the NCAA followed its own rules when it adopted the policy.
ADVERTISEMENT
The NCAA has filed a motion asking to expand the scope of the case to include UND's interactions with the state's Sioux tribes.
The Forum received information Tuesday about Jahnke's ties to Golden Feather and confirmed the information through official UND archives.
The newspaper tried unsuccessfully Tuesday to contact Jahnke.
His clerk said it's his practice not to comment on an ongoing court case.
No one answered the door at Jahnke's house Tuesday evening. Attempts by The Forum to reach him by phone, both at work and at home, also were unsuccessful; his message in-boxes were full.
Jahnke appears in the Golden Feather group photo in the 1962 yearbook. In 1964, the year he earned an undergraduate degree, the yearbook lists Golden Feather as one of his activities, along with several others including the athletic board, baseball board, orientation chairman, homecoming and prom committees and student senate. It's unclear how long he was a member of Golden Feather.
The men wore black jackets with a large golden feather on the upper-left lapel and a Sammy the Sioux logo on the left sleeve.
Members of Golden Feather selected cheerleaders for football, basketball and hockey and chose their uniforms. A 1962 yearbook shows basketball cheerleaders wearing feather headdresses and fringed buckskin dresses.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sammy the Sioux was an American Indian caricature with big ears, pigtails and a headdress.
Golden Feather "promoted various kinds of 'rah rah' activities centered, naturally enough, on Indian themes," writes UND alumnus David Vorland in a historical and contextual summary of the Fighting Sioux name and logo, found on UND's Web site.
University archives said the club had its constitution temporarily revoked in 1970 for harassing several campus sorority houses. The club was reinstated and changed its name to the UND Feathers in 1971 in order to shed a tarnished image. The club was disbanded by the university in 1977 due to financial problems.
In a ruling on Monday, Jahnke reasserted that court files in the UND-NCAA lawsuit remain sealed to help the two parties reach a settlement. He denied a Forum Communications Co. motion to unseal the documents.
In his ruling, the UND alumnus chastised the media for paying too much attention to the issue's divisiveness and not enough on UND's "strong and continuing efforts" to promote cultural diversity.
"The university's INMED (Indians Into Medicine) program and the law school's Northern Plains Indian Law Center are but two examples, both of which have provided enormous benefits to our Native American brothers and sisters," he wrote.
© Copyright 2007, The Forum
Readers can reach Forum reporter Amy Dalrymple at (701) 241-5590
ADVERTISEMENT
Judge's Sioux ties run deep Amy Dalrymple 20071024
