Fans who want the University of North Dakota to keep its “Fighting Sioux” nickname saw their cause advance this week as members of the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe signaled their approval in a referendum, the Associated Press reported, but the battle is far from over.

The NCAA forbids college teams to use “abusive or hostile” American Indian imagery as nicknames or logos, but in the settlement of a lawsuit agreed that North Dakota could retain the Fighting Sioux symbols without penalty if the university won the approval of the two prominent Sioux tribes in the state.

The Spirit Lake tribe’s vote, announced today, went overwhelmingly in favor of retaining the Fighting Sioux imagery, 764 to 371. The other tribe involved, on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, has not scheduled a vote, but its leaders have opposed the nickname and logo.

Grant Shaft, chairman of a state committee that is studying whether to abolish the Indian imagery, called the Spirit Lake referendum “the first direct voice we’ve heard from the reservation,” but he acknowledged that the vote did not resolve the issue. And William Goetz, chancellor of the North Dakota University system, told the AP that the vote was just one issue that the nickname committee would consider in its decision. —Charles Huckabee