By Richard N. Velotta
<velotta@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN

Imperial Palace casino owner Ralph Engelstad and his North Dakota hockey arena have become entangled in a long-running controversy over a university's Indian nickname and logo.

Engelstad, of Las Vegas, in 1998 committed $100 million to the University of North Dakota for the hockey arena and other projects. He owns Imperial Palace casinos in Las Vegas and Biloxi, Miss.

An Engelstad company is now building the 12,000-seat arena and has a contract to own and operate it for 30 years, the Grand Forks Herald newspaper reported. The newspaper said Engelstad has pledged to give the arena to the university in the "foreseeable future."

But in building and marketing the arena, Engelstad's company has used the university's controversial Indian head logo and an official of Engelstad's arena company says it also wants to use the school's "Fighting Sioux" nickname.

Engelstad was asked last month not to use the logo bearing the likeness of an Indian in marketing the arena, UND President Charles Kupchella told the Herald. Engelstad complied, he said.

Kupchella has banned all use of the university logo until a decision is made on whether to keep it.

But this week a representative of Engelstad's construction company touched off a new debate by telling students that the $100 million gift was conditioned on the university keeping its Fighting Sioux nickname and the Indian head logo.

The Herald reported Tuesday that Ralph Engelstad Arena Inc. Vice President Reggie Morelli made comments to students Sunday that were broadcast by a Grand Forks television station.

"The money Mr. Engelstad gave -- the $100 million -- (was) on basically three conditions," Morelli said in a transcript the Herald said it received from WDAZ, the ABC television affiliate serving Grand Forks. "The logo was one. The 'Home of the Fighting Sioux' had to stay. And No. 3, the building was supposed to stay self-sufficient."

Kupchella denied the Engelstad gift had any strings attached in a letter to the editor published by the Herald Wednesday.

"I never have seen anything in writing that spells out any conditions," Kupchella's letter says. "I certainly never have agreed to keep the nickname in exchange for any part of Engelstad's gift. We have an agreement in place governing the construction of the hockey arena and it makes no mention of the nickname or the logo."

Kupchella, hoping to resolve the controversy that has pitted Indian tribes and civil rights activists against the university and its alumni, in February appointed a 16-member commission including two former North Dakota governors to draft a report recommending whether the Fighting Sioux name and the logo are appropriate or should be banned as racially insensitive.

The commission is scheduled to give Kupchella its report Nov. 20.

Engelstad, who was a goalie for the University of North Dakota hockey team in the 1950s, has stayed out of the fray personally.

But his critics, complaining that he has taken a racially insensitive stance on the logo issue, have brought up an incident that led to him being fined $1.5 million by the Nevada Gaming Commission in 1989.

Engelstad housed a room with a collection of Nazi war memorabilia at the Imperial Palace hotel-casino in Las Vegas and held parties honoring Adolf Hitler in 1986 and 1988. He was fined for disgracing Nevada and he issued a public apology for showing "poor taste" for housing the collection at the resort and for having the parties, which he called "stupid and insensitive." He also denounced Hitler.

A North Dakota publication serving Indians, Native Directions, this spring ran a cartoon charging Engelstad "amassed his fortune on the broken dreams of blue collar gambling addicts." The cartoon showed Engelstad saying his donation will "ensure that the racist paraphernalia of my old hockey team will live on."

The cartoon quoted Engelstad about the Nazi parties.

"I now realize that I was wrong. My conscience finally helped me to see the light. As did the $1.5 million fine from the Nevada Gaming Commission," Engelstad is quoted as saying in the cartoon.

Neither Engelstad nor Morelli nor could not be reached for comment on the North Dakota controversy.