FORT YATES - The Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council on Thursday tabled discussion on the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux nickname, but not before two leading tribal officers called for each other's removal.

The NCAA has declared UND's nickname "hostile and abusive," and barred the school from holding postseason tournaments,wearing its Fighting Sioux uniforms or displaying the American Indian image in postseason play.

UND has lost two appeals to the NCAA, the most recent one last week. Walter Harrison, the NCAA executive committee chairman, cited a letter sent by Standing Rock Chairman Ron His Horse Is Thunder opposing the nickname.

"We're against it," Tribal Councilman Frank White Bull said Thursday in making the motion to table the matter. "That's the bottom line. Let's move on."

White Bull said the tribe had "heard hours and hours of testimony on both sides."

"Now, it's a moot issue," he said.

Archie Fool Bear, chairman of the Standing Rock judicial committee, also sent a letter to the NCAA last week. It said a majority of districts on the reservation had voted "overwhelmingly" to support UND's use of the nickname.

Fool Bear and His Horse Is Thunder on Thursday each called for the other's removal from office. His Horse Is Thunder said the dispute involved the nickname "among other things."

The Tribal Council said it will address that matter later.

Tribal member Patty Kelly called the day's events "foolishness."

"The main issue is our survival," she said in an interview. "We need to address poverty, law and order, water issues."

UND was among 18 schools on an NCAA list deemed to have hostile and abusive nicknames, logos or mascots. Some schools have won their appeals, in large part because they have the support of namesake tribes.