Whose Culture Owns the Bison?

That is a long prelude to this story from Minnesota, which you need a little background to understand. Under recently-enacted legislation, a unanimous vote of the “Tribal Nations Education Committee,” purporting to represent 11 tribes, is necessary to permit a “name, symbol, or image that depicts or refers to an American Indian Tribe, individual, custom, or tradition to be used as a mascot.” Well maybe, but a buffalo? ...

It’s a great democracy we live in! An unelected committee gets to decide whether a bunch of middle school kids can call their teams the Bison, and if you have any questions about that process, forget it: not a single elected official feels obligated to explain. Presumably because the decision is so [expletive] stupid that no one dares try to defend it.

But this is what I can’t get past: I understand that if you call your team the Indians, or the Seminoles, or the Fighting Sioux, it is an Indian reference. But Bison? Bison are animals. How do Indians have a veto power over a bunch of kids calling their teams the Bison? The Indians rode horses, too (although, of course, only after Europeans brought horses to the New World). Does that mean that a team can’t be called the Broncos, the Colts, the Mustangs or the Ponies, without unanimous clearance from an Indian committee?