Apr 19, 2014 - University of North Dakota and Time-Out Week 2014 by BJ Rainbow

Time-Out Week 2014

Indian Studies Association’s mission statement says that they are to promote a better understanding of cultures between students, faculty, staff and the greater grand forks region. To encourage communication among student and alumni members, faculty, staff and administration.

To establish a sense of community among all UND Indian studies majors and minors. To help with the recruitment and retention of students into the Indian studies department.

To foster a closer relationship between current Indian studies students and Indian studies alumni. Increase cultural awareness by providing workshops and other events throughout the academic school year.

http://arts-sciences.und.edu/american-indian-studies/_files/docs/isatimeoutflyer.pdf

Incident #1

I thought this year’s time-out week was going to be different for me because we do not have to deal with the whole FS nickname and logo issue so I thought. Monday afternoon was just like any other but this Monday was the beginning of a domino effect that was to carry a storm of negativity all the way to the weekend. I got a text right after lunch about a banner that was hanging outside of the same sorority (Gamma Phi Beta) that had the cowboys and Indians themed party in 2008, the banner said “you can take our mascot but you will never take our pride” with a drawing of the frozen four tournament logo on the bottom. I was like WTH! After a couple of my friends took some pictures the banner was taken down. Many of us American Indian students starting filling out complaint forms to turn into the dean of students office Tuesday morning. After thinking that this would be the only incident that would remind all of us of our troubled past another incident reared its ugly face.



Gamma Phi Beta’s mission statement is as follows; to foster a nurturing environment that provides women the opportunity to achieve their potential through life-long commitment to intellectual growth, individual worth and service to humanity. Gamma Phi Beta Sorority will be recognized among peer associations as a premier women’s organization exhibited by: developing campus and community volunteer leaders, providing innovative programming that addresses issues relevant to women and society, strengthening our resources, and managing the organization through volunteerism.

What was not put in the national media about this sorority was after the lesson these girls experienced, they did donate $250.00 to this year’s annual buffalo feed.

Incident #2

Our beloved student body president nick creamer who represents around fifteen thousand UND students tweeted about a shirt that was being sold for the frozen four hockey tournament. After, Nick also vetoed our student senate bill that would allocate $2,000 towards our annual buffalo feed on Saturday during supper break at the powwow. During an emergency meeting by student senate the environment was very intense. One senator kept reverting back to UNDIA mismanaging their money which is still yet to be understood exactly what was meant. This same senator was also discussing the impact of social media especially twitter. Come to find out after the meeting this same senator was tweeting during the meeting. One of the most disturbing things that were mentioned was when nick stated that he would personally donate money to this buffalo feed, how ironic, because were in that emergency meeting because he vetoed the bill to fund the buffalo feed in the first place. Another issue that presented itself was the UND administration’s lack of movement during these events.

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The events just kept going on and on with a tweet from our student body president #fightingsiouxforever. When approached about the tweet nick said that he was simply supporting the sorority girls from (GPB). Nick was also asked about the timing of the tweet he stated that “it was poorly timed however there is a huge hockey tournament going on this weekend”.

Incident #3

As the time-out week events continued through the drama I was part of a couple presentations including a session that explained the many beautiful regalia that people would see in the coming weekends powwow. Titled ‘powwow 101’ this session exhibitioned almost every dance category spectators will encompass during the powwow starting Friday evening. After this event and continuing right into another presentation of me and my brother’s recollection of our trip to pernumbuco, Brazil this past may for two weeks visiting a local tribe (Xukuru). As my brother was getting out of his vehicle there were mouth gestures and shouts of Go Sioux! Coincidence is that just a couple minutes before my brother was harassed my wife and my daughter heard the same sounds coming from the same house, from the same group of people. I had a choice to make at this moment; go right over to that house and give them a piece of my mind and other things, or file a complaint with the proper authorities.

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Sigma Chi (ΣΧ) is one of the oldest and the largest Academic and Social Fraternities in the world with 235 active chapters and nearly 300,000 initiates. Sigma Chi was founded on June 28, 1855 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Sigma Chi has seven founding members: Benjamin Piatt Runkle, Thomas Cowen Bell, William Lewis Lockwood, Isaac M. Jordan, Daniel William Cooper, Franklin Howard Scobey, and James Parks Caldwell.

Sigma Chi’s purpose is to promote the concepts of Friendship, Justice, and Learning; to build brotherhood and life-long membership among members from all walks of life. Its mission statement is to develop values-based leaders committed to the betterment of character, campus and community. Sigma Chi’s vision statement is “to become the preeminent collegiate leadership development organization—aligned, focused and living our core values”. These young men did come over to the powwow and volunteer their time and services where we needed them. They also came to the powwow Sunday afternoon to participate in an experience they will never ever feel in their whole lives by being recognized in the center (circle).

Conclusion

What do we all do from this point on? We can keep the misunderstandings going on to the next generations and keep the perceptions of each other going or we can make a choice to start and try and build a relationship with each other. Instead of going over to this fraternity house to fight my brother decided to go over carrying a medicine and having council with these boys to try to turn them into men and leaders as their mission statement mentions. We then decided to invite sigma chi and gamma phi beta to our celebration and show them how we interact amongst each other. We chose to kill them with kindness and compassion rather than get into a mudslinging match. By any means the relationship between the groups is not a sweet and loving one, we understand that we all have a long way to go, but it’s a start. So in a sense we went from no progress and understanding to starting a progress so that our future generations will learn from our actions.

Last Real Indians