June 2004

Dear Laura Heckaman,

Thank you for your letter of May 20, 2004 inviting members of the Grand Forks Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to participate as volunteers in the 1st annual Grand Forks Gus Macker basketball event at the Betty Engelstad Arena. Our members are free to participate, and some may choose to do so, but many have expressed concern over your invitation and have asked me to compose this letter. You will find their names on the reverse side.

Many of our members, including me, are in agreement that the past treatment and continued use of the current University of North Dakota athletic teams logo and names (“Fighting Sioux” and “Sioux”) by your facility in conjunction with a state institution are in direct contradiction to our first principle: “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Ours is a thoughtful congregation, and we do not make conclusions of this nature lightly. We have listened to and considered arguments on both sides of the issue, as I hope you have. I will not revisit those arguments in this letter.

We appreciate and applaud the charitable endeavors of the Gus Macker, but are dismayed that such an event would be held in a controversial venue, no matter the quality of its facilities. Placing reasonable people in the position of setting aside their ethics to enter a building that offends them to the core in order to participate in a charitable event that they may support is nothing short of cruel, and represents no kind of civilized choice.

Additionally, the unabashed use in your letter of the UND athletic teams logo and the terms “Fighting Sioux” and “Sioux” in reference to those teams (with no acknowledgement of the Sioux Nation) indicate that you may be unaware of the profound offense with which those symbols and words in that context are taken by many members of our community. Please keep in mind that this issue continues to distress a significant number of reasonable people, and will not simply disappear.

Please feel free to contact me personally at (701) 787-0164 if you have questions. For more information about the Unitarian Universalist Association, go to http://www.uua.org.

Sincerely,

Michael Wittgraf, President-Elect
Grand Forks Unitarian Universalist Fellowship