I went to the PSU game with a guy who used to be (don't know if he still is) Loyalty Circle and had been on Guenther's speed dial for RG's entire tenure. He's still got connections and communication with big players, and he states unequivocally that Kingfisher isn't going to happen, and also that Chief's return is never going to happen. I had a great conversation with him and learned a lot about some of the politics in play.
This guy happened to have taken part in a gathering somewhere out west (not sure of the timeline, but I think it was post-Chief retirement) that included a bunch of UI high-rollers and leaders from a number of tribes, with the purpose of having a dialogue and to see if there was a path to an agreement similar to that between the Seminole and FSU. The leaders from the Peoria (the last vestige of the Illini Confederation) were adamantly opposed to even discussing Chief, wanted the university to return the regalia to the Sioux, and wanted the image of the Chief to go away forever. Their basis for this was a) Chief's regalia and war paint was nothing like what any of the Illiniwek would have worn--the headdress in particular; b) Chief's dance was more related to "fancy dancing", which Illiniwek did not engage in; and c) the image/logo of Chief was also inauthentic due to the headdress.
The discussion of "honor" came up a time or two, and reps from several tribes made comments to the effect of "we don't need white people to honor our heritage, we can do it ourselves and do it correctly."
Well, there's always the option of dropping all references to Native Americans, including "Fighting Illini" and "Illini," which are ineluctably the name of a group of Native Americans so of course hostile and abusive. (If we are going to be consistent "Illinois" has to go as well). The songs "Illinois Loyalty," "Oksee-wow-wow", "March of the Illini" (from the Three-in-One) need to go as well.
I'm still partial to the Winged Hussars, which certainly would not be offensive to Polish-Americans or Poles, and would certainly be the opportunity to have a dramatic pregame ceremony, similar to the Seminoles but with a white guy in white guy regalia, and would have the advantage of being related to a culture that gave us Marie Curie and Copernicus, plus literature and music (Chopin and a host of others). And the Winged Hussars, in their era, were undefeated, certainly something we could be excited about. So let's hear it for a white guy so no one will be offended.
The Winged Hussars