2009
games will play up tribes' past
by Joey
Bunch
PARKER, CO—Wrestling
alligators. Catching arrows in flight. Throwing a tomahawk.
Fishing with spears. They are all North American pastimes,
played long before the arrival of Europeans, much less
the invention of baseball.
In July 2009, these sports of yesteryear will return,
all part of the first Native American
Indian Historical Games that will be held in Parker.
The games will unite tribes from across the United States,
providing a unique chance to reconnect Native Americans
with their heritage and offer a more accurate portrayal
of how they lived and played, organizers say.
“This
is an opportunity for us to describe who we are, where
we came from,” said Ken Klaudt, an elder in the
Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes, and commissioner of
the games.
Centuries ago, many of the games were played for entertainment,
honed from survival and battle skills. They formed the
basis for modern- day sports such as football, basketball,
hockey and polo.
Neil Cloud of Ignacio, a 73-year-old Southern Ute historian,
only knows these sports from books and research. Soon,
he will see his ancestors' way of life recreated when
the games are played.
“Seeing
it is believing it,” he said. “In some regards,
it's all about scientific observation, so that people
can see what went on in the olden days. If they're not
interested, then it may be lost to history.”
Arby
Little Soldier, 55, a Lakota Sioux who grew up on a reservation
in North Dakota, has spent the past 38 years on the professional
rodeo circuit, competing in steer-wrestling, calf- roping
and team-roping.
But now, he is recruiting athletes for several Indian
games, including buffalo robe keepaway, where 10 braves
on each team play a version of football on bareback, using
a bison hide as the ball, which they try to drape over
totem poles at each end of a 600-yard field.
Competitors can leap onto the carrier's horse to try to
wrestle away the robe, but if they fall, they have to
remount their own horse to continue playing.
The strenuous game has become a difficult sell to young
riders, Little Soldier admits.
“They
have watched so much TV that the ways of the Native Americans
seem weird to them,” he said. “They would
rather grow up to be Michael Jordan.”
Organizers are hoping to have 560 tribes represented at
the games, drawing athletes from local and regional meets.
Klaudt envisions the event drawing 150,000 people, music
stars and a TV audience to this wealthy, predominantly
white suburb south of Denver. The financial impact of
the five-day event is expected to be in the tens of millions
of dollars.
The games will shine a better light on Colorado's legacy
with Native Americans, said Parker Mayor David Casiano.
“This
state hasn't had the best history, in many cases, in how
it's dealt with Native Americans,” said Casiano,
a history buff.
Many Indians were driven off their ancestral lands to
make room for gold miners, white settlers and the railroad.
On November 29, 1864, territorial Gov. John Evans organized
an Indian-fighting regiment that massacred a Cheyenne
Indian camp, mostly women, children and the elderly, at
Sand Creek in what is today Kiowa County.
“Hopefully,
this (event) can help begin to heal some old wounds,”
Klaudt said.
The 2009 games will be a bookend to the unrelated North
American Indigenous Games to be played this summer in
several Denver-area venues. That event is an Olympic-style
competition for indigenous people of the U.S. and Canada
in 16 events, such as boxing, volleyball and soccer.
The Historical Games had been set for New York City next
year, but Klaudt pulled the event because organizers fell
behind in planning and promoting the games.
Parker beat out Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Billings,
Mont., for the event. Klaudt cited the town's support
in making the decision.
“Their
enthusiasm left little doubt that they were the best people
to have this,” Klaudt said.
The games will be played at Colorado Horse Park's 300-acre
campus.
Meanwhile, organizers will need the extra time to train
athletes, hold regional competitions and recruit sponsorships
as well as proffer the television rights, Klaudt said.
Klaudt, 62, a member of the Southern Gospel Music Hall
of Fame, says he will use his show- business connections
to expand the 2009 games into a major musical event. His
friends, including Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and the
Oak Ridge Boys, are expected to perform during the five
days of the Parker games.
“We'll
have exciting historical Indian games during the day,
and good old country and gospel music at night,”
Klaudt said.
©
2006, The Denver Post. Used by permission.
Return
to Top of Page
