Editorial
I Nebraskan
University ot Nebraska-Lincoln
Curt Wagner, Editor, 472 1766
Mike Reiiley, Editorial Page Editor
Diana Johnson, Managing Editor
Lee Rood, Associate News Editor
Bob Nelson, Wire Page Editor
Andy Pollock, Columnist
Micki Haller, Entertainment Editor
I Think big, Lincoln
I Commission should lure Olympic Festival
Think big.
That’s what the proposed Sports Industry Commission needs
to do if it‘s approved today by the Lincoln City Council. The
commission, recommended by a task force formed by Mayor
Bill Harris last October, is expected to face little, if any,
opposition from the city council.
If approved, the 13-tnember committee would try to attract
more sporting events to the Lincoln area, thus promoting eco
nomic activity.
The commission lias outlined several minor goals, such as
improving existing sports facilities and improving administra
tive procedures in organizing events.
While these are noble goals, the commission needs to focus
on attracting a big event if it really wants to increase economic
activity in the area.
The commission needs to do what a similar group did seven
years ago in Raleigh, N.C. It needs to promote the area as a
possible site for the U.S. Olympic Festival,
In 1981. a group of sports enthusiasts in Raleigh organized a
I non-profit organization in an attempt to lure the festival to the
area The two-week festival happens every summer except the
Olympic year and features competition in 34 sports.
The group, which later named itself North Carolina Amateur
Sports, stressed the resources of the Triangle area (Raleigh,
Durham. Chapel Hill) to the U.S. Olympic Committee, which
awards the festival sites.
The main selling point was the area’s three major colleges -
North Carolina, Duke and North Carolira State - that could
house a majority of the sports. Other gymnasiums, fields and
country clubs in the area also offered to play host to events.
It took several years of hard work by the commission, but
the Olympic Committee eventually took the bait and awarded
the 1987 festival to North Carolina.
Raleigh made it a success, too. The games drew several big
name athletes such as diver Greg Louganis and basketball
| player J.R. Reid.
For two weeks in late July 1987, Raleigh was the sports
capital of the United States.
And that meant big bucks for area businesses. Ken Smith,
the committee’s executive director, said the Olympic Festival
brought an estimated $35 million to the Triangle area.
It has paid off in other ways, too. Since the festival, the
j amateur sports commission has lured several events to the
| Raleigh area: Olympic boxing and Tae Kwon Do regional
trials; USA-Cuba volleyball exhibition; USA-Taiwan baseball
? exhibition; Canoe and kayak national championships; and Zone
diving championships.
The U.S. Olympic Committee traditionally awards the
1 festival to medium-sized cities that are capable of hosting large
events, Smith said. Past festivals have been in Baton Rouge,
La., Houston and Syracuse, N.Y.
The 1989 festival will be in Oklahoma City. Minneapolis
gets the 1990 games and Los Angeles will be the site of the
1991 festival.
And there s no reason why Lincoln couidn t be a contender
for the 1993 festival.
“ The national governing bodies arc looking for places to
organize these things,” Smith said. ‘‘Everyone was amazed at
the huge crowds we had here. I can’t see why Lincoln couldn’t
try the same thing we did. ’ ’
Although it doesn’t have three major colleges like the
Triangle area, Lincoln docs offer a variety of venues for
Olympic events: Pershing Auditorium (boxing, ice skating and
ice hockey). Holmes Lake (kayak, canoe racing), Seacrest Held
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Policy inflicts pain on Indians
Practice of dig gin g up dead people without prior consent is wrong
Imagine what it would be like if
someone stole the bodies of
your dead grandparents from
their graves.
Imagine yourself politely asking
someone to give the remains back so
they could be buried properly.
Imagine being told the remains
have become government property.
It seems impossible that this can
happen to someone, but it’s exactly
what’s happening to the Pawnee
Indians.
The Nebraska State Historical
Society has the remains of nearly 20()
Pawnee Indians and the artifacts that
were buried with the bodies. The
remains were discovered by land
owners and anthropologists.
. Members of the Pawnee’s Okla
homa tribe have asked the society to
return the remains of their ancestors
so they can give them a proper burial
in accordance with their religious
beliefs.
Members of the Nebraska Indian
community want legislation passed
to stop this from ever happening
again.
It should be easy for the society to
respond to the Indian community’s
requests: Start with an apology for
taking the remains, return the
remains and goods as soon as possible
and promise to never do it again.
But the issue has become contro
versial because of the collection’s
scientific value. Representatives
from the Smithsonian Institution
have said scientists are rapidly
discovering new ways to research the
remains. Smithsonian officials say
Nebraska’s collection of Indian
remains could answer a multitude of
mysteries surrounding the history of
the Indian people.
Neither the historical society nor
the Smithsonian, however, has told
the Indians how long the collection
will be kept before, if it is ever,
returned.
The patient Indians, who have
refrained from suing, continue to
suffer another injustice while the
Nebraska State Historical Society’s
all-white executive directors put
themselves in charge of the fate of
Indian dead.
Reba Whiteshirt, executive
director of the Nebraska Indian
Commission, told commission mem
bers Friday that the fight for Indian
burial rights has been one of the most
emotional, insulting experiences of
her life.
Whiteshirt worked on a com
years to study the Pawnee remains.
The Pawnee collection makes up
only 20 percent of the historical
society’s collection. One of the most
fundamental of Pawnee religious
beliefs is proper burial rights.
Nolone Indian sits on thcsocicty’s
executive board. Yet, if you look
through the society’s museum, or its
promotional materials, much of the
society’s claim to fame has been
derived from the Indian culture.
As one Indian commission mem
ber said Friday, “They ’vc built them
selves a reputation on our remains..
. and we can’t even get anyone on the
board. It makes me embarrassed to
come from this state.”
Whitcshirl said the society’s work
“incomplete isolation and disregard”
is a slap in the face to the Indians.
“It’s just outrageous, it seems so
clear,” she said. “It’s a question of
equal dignity.”
But after witnessing the deter
mination of Indian representatives,
it’s clear that the issue will be
resolved. Whitcshirt has said she will
dedicate the rest of her life to the
burial-rights issue.
While the collection may oiler
fame and prestige to the society,
members cannot deny the pain and
suffering they’ve caused the Indian
community. Someday they will have
to accept their moral obligation to
return the remains and admit that the
practice of digging up dead people
without prior consent is wrong.
Harrison Fields, a member of the
Pawnee tribe, said Saturday that
when the Indians retrieve the remains
they will take them to a Indian burial
site in Oklahoma—to bury them 25
feet deep and cover the graves with
cement so no one can dig them up
again.
Just imagine it
Rood Is a senior news-editorial
journalism major and a DN editorial
columnist
miucc of representatives from the
commission, the historical society
and lawyers to come up with a
suitable bill for the Legislature that
would solve, once and for all, the
question ot burial rights in Nebraska.
The committee had been working
for months and finally came out with
a suitable third draft, only to find out
that the historical society had been
working on one of its own.
The society never informed the
Nebraska Indian Commission,
according to Whiteshirt, that they had
been working on their bill and they
hadn’t asked for Indian input.
According to Whiteshirt, the society
even failed to inform its repre
sentative cn the committee.
After an emotionally charged
meeting with Indian representative
and lawyers, society members, pro
fessors and Smithsonian anthro
pologists, the historical society’s
executive board tabled any action on
the issue until members have time to
gather additional information.
Meanwhile, time has been running
out to write a bill before the Nebraska
Le * iture starts its session.
historical society has had
Signed staff editorials represent the
official policy of the fall 1988 Daily Ne
braskan. Policy is set by the Daily Ne
braskan Editorial Board. Its members are
Curt Wagnei, editor; Mike Reilley, edito
rial page editor, Diana Johnson, manag
in£ editor; Lee Rood, associate news
editor, Andy Pollock, columnist; Bob
Nelson, wire page editor; and Craig
Heckman, columnist.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers are
the regenu, who established the UNL
Publications Board to superv ise the daily
production of the paper.
According to policy set by the regents,
responsibility for the editorial content or
the newspaper lies solely in the hands of
its student editors.
teite&EEE——
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interested others.
Letters will be selected forpublication
ness and space available. The Daily Ne
braskan retains the right to edit all mate
rial submitted.
Readers also are welcome to submil
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discretion.
Submit material to the Daily Nebras
kan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St.,
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