A district judge in North Dakota has thrown out a lawsuit filed by a group of Spirit Lake tribal members who want the University of North Dakota to keep its Fighting Sioux nickname in the university’s sports teams. The dispute after the National Collegiate Athletic Association found the nickname and the Indian head logo sported by UND’s teams hostile and abusive. This leaves the naming of the teams in the hands of the State board of Higher Education in North Dakota.

The board’s president, Richie Smith, said that the board should be deciding in January whether to retain the Fighting Sioux nickname or not. Mr. Smith said he expected the board to meet Jan. 21 in Grand Forks. The Spirit Lake group filed the lawsuit in hopes that the board would wait until Nov. 30, 2010 to make its decision on the name change. The date was included in a state lawsuit settlement against the N.C.A.A. that has allowed the university to keep the nickname temporarily.

On his side, Mr. Smith applauded the decision by Judge Michael Sturdevant of Northeast District Court. “There were greater issues in the lawsuit than just the name and logo,” Mr. Smith said. “It challenged the authority of the board to run the schools. It would have established a terrible precedent.”

Judge Sturdevant in his final ruling has thrown criticisms at the board for failing to seize upon the opportunity to preserve an honored tradition. However, he adds, “[since] the board has persistently declared [that it has] a constitutional right to set its own course of action, it may well be time to accept that truism.”

The board had voted in May to retire the nickname and logo unless it received 30-year agreements from the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Sioux tribes for their use. Board members then agreed to delay a decision to accommodate elections on the Standing Rock reservation.