November 2011 CUJ - Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian ...

Tribal colleges hope to lure kids to hoopsBy MYERS REECE, Flathead BeaconKALISPELL, Mont. (AP) - On theFort Belknap Indian Reservation, a landriddled with devastating poverty andperpetual unemployment, there are noscholarships. Basketball is played, as thesaying goes, for the love of the game.Fort Belknap’s Aaniiih Nakoda Collegeis one of five Montana tribal collegesto officially form basketball programswithin the last two years, joining SalishKootenai College on the Flathead IndianReservation and the Crow Agency’s LittleBig Horn College.The others are Stone Child College inBox Elder, Chief Dull Knife College inLame Deer, Blackfeet Community Collegein Browning and Fort Peck CommunityCollege in Poplar. Aaniiih Nakodais in Harlem.Now all seven of the state’s reservationcolleges have basketball programs,playing in a league called the MontanaTribal College Athletic Association. Theorganization was called the MontanaTribal College Basketball League lastyear, which was the organization’s first.The regular season begins in Novemberand the league tournament is held inFebruary.While the tribal colleges have longhad loosely formed teams, the school’sathletic directors say the league givesthe teams a real game schedule, a claimto legitimacy and, most importantly,an incentive to attract young AmericanIndians to college and keep them there.``It gets more students to our campusbecause Indian people love basketball,’’Gerald Stiffarm, league commissionerand Aaniiih Nakoda College’s athleticdirector, said. ``It’s just what makes Indiancommunities tick.’’Some of the greatest prep players toFind all yourNixyaawiiapparel...~ Celebrating 32 years in business ~Good luck to area teamsentering playoff time!Nixyaawii Letterman’s JacketsNixyaawii hooded sweatshirts in cardinal,gray and blackNixyaawii T-shirts in cardinal and grayNixyaawii hats (4 styles) and visorsNixyaawii beanies and stocking capsEagles muffler with “N” for NixyaawiiDean Fouquette’sever take the court in Montana have beenAmerican Indians. The names border onlegendary in knowledgeable basketballcircles: Jonathan Takes Enemy, Elvis OldBull, Larry Pretty Weasel and J.R. Camel,to name a handful. Camel is an assistantcoach on the Salish Kootenai men’s team.But the transi t i o n o f f t h ereservation intocollege life hasbeen rocky fora number of thestate’s top nativeplayers, if theyleft home at all.It is with this inmind that tribalc o l l e g e p r e s i -dents founded theleague with threef u n d a m e n t a lgoals, accordingto Stiffarm: studentrecruitment,student retentionand developing ``the concept of the NativeAmerican-student athlete.’’The state’s tribal basketball teams aremade up of enrolled members of theirrespective tribes who attended nearbyhigh schools, except in the cases of LittleBig Horn and Salish Kootenai, whichhave more established programs andrecruit players from around the countryin addition to locals. Little Big Horn is amember of the National Junior CollegeAthletic Association.Basketball players must meet certainacademic requirements and they mayalso garner outside recruiting attention- two realities that help foster improvedperformance in the classroom. At AaniiihNakoda, Stiffarm hopes the sport encouragesstudents to buckle down for theirendleton Athletic249 S. Main - Pendleton / 541-276-6988‘It gets more studentsto our campusbecause Indian peoplelove basketball. It’sjust what makes Indiancommunities tick.’two-year degrees, and then maybe more.``We want to do things for our youthsto encourage Native American peopleto go into four-year programs,’’ Stiffarmsaid.For all the passion and support behindthe game, operating a basketballprogram on a reservationdoes notcome easy. It isGerald Stiffarm, league commissionerand Aaniiih Nakoda College’sathletic directortrue that if youbuild it they willcome, but enthusiasmalone cannotmaintain a program.The moneyquestion weighsheavily, even onthe Flathead IndianReservationwhere the economicpicture ismore positive.The U.S. Bureauof Indian Affairspegs the unemploymentrate on some reservations athigher than 60 percent. On Fort Belknap,located in north-central Montana, Stiffarmsaid the jobless rate at times soarsabove 80 percent, while a little under halfthe population lives in poverty.``Money is damn hard to get,’’ Stiffarmsaid. ``But we just dig deeper andwe raised money to get those uniforms.’’In addition to securing money forthe teams’ uniforms, the college’s 20student-athletes - out of 143 enrolledstudents -must raise a combined $14,200to pay their way and for cheerleaders,Stiffarm said.``With a community with that high ofa poverty level, it’s quite a task to raisethat money, but we do it,’’ Stiffarm said.Michelle Spang, the athletic andactivities director at Chief Dull KnifeCollege in Lame Deer, said her schoolonce had a junior college men’s teambut in recent years the college has onlyfielded teams to play in the AmericanIndian Higher Education Consortium(AIHEC) tournament in March. That hasbeen the case for other tribal colleges inMontana as well.The Northern Cheyenne studentathleteswho try out for the Chief DullKnife team must endure odd and oftenlate practice hours based on the availabilityof gym time at the local elementaryschool. Many of the players - some nontraditionalstudents - are single parents,all without scholarships.Spang, who is the women’s coach,can relate. As a college basketball playeryears ago, she had a baby her freshmanyear.``They played in high school and theywere good and then they did what I didand went and had a child,’’ Spang said.``Now they’re able to be a part of anorganized college basketball program.They’re able to travel and meet newpeople and go to other schools and experiencethat lifestyle, something theymight never get to do otherwise.’’The socioeconomic conditions at SalishKootenai College in Pablo are lessbleak. As a whole, the reservation is moreeconomically developed while the fouryearcollege is reputed for its academicintegrity. And the basketball programis among the most successful of all 36AIHEC tribal colleges and universities inthe nation, for both men’s and women’s.Though the college has had basketballsince the 1980s, it’s only been in the lastdecade that the program has becomea national powerhouse. Both the menand women have regularly won AIHECnational championships since 2000. Theteams practice and play in the $5.5 millionJoe McDonald Health and FitnessCenter, which opened in 2007 and wasconstructed with the help of grants.Zachary Conko-Camel, in his 13th yearas head coach of the men’s team, said inthe early 1980s all seven tribal schoolsplayed regular game schedules. He’sglad to see it happening again, as he seesgreat benefits in a team working toward acommon goal for a full season. His players,together as a group, have been ableto endure the deaths of two teammatesin the last two years _ one in a shootingand another in a drowning.``They become brothers and familymembers to me,’’ Conko-Camel, the olderbrother of J.R. Camel, said. ``Our job is tomake them into good players and goodpeople, to help get them set for life.’’Juan Perez, Salish Kootenai’s athleticdirector and women’s coach, said sincethe formation of the league he has seena decline in the number of players fromother reservations who come play forhis team. They are staying home to play,which is a foremost goal of the league.But players still stream in from out-ofstatetribes.Lisa Bible of Big Arm, a shooting guardfor Salish Kootenai, grew up watchingBison basketball and said she doubts shewould have played college ball anywhereelse after graduating from Polson in 2007.Her husband is James Bible of the men’steam. She said most of her teammates areat the college specifically to play basketballor because of the school’s academicreputation.``This is all on your own time; it’s a lotof work,’’ she said. ``These girls want tobe here. There aren’t any scholarships. Itshows their heart.’’But even with the college’s many successes,both on the court and off, basketballdreams do not come without theirobstacles at Salish Kootenai. For one, theprograms don’t have money for scholarships,which is problematic for the athleticdepartment’s goal of joining a leaguesuch as the NAIA’s Frontier Conference,in which teams such as Rocky MountainCollege and Carroll College play.Other tribal athletic directors have thesame ambitions, though Spang concedesthat such aspirations are hardly realisticfor Chief Dull Knife College at this point.First the program must get on its feet.And while doing so, perhaps a few of theschool’s players will get recognized by afour-year school.``Maybe in the future we’ll be able tooffer scholarships,’’ Spang said. ``Thatwould be my dream down the road, butit’s hard when you don’t have a gym andyou have to hold rental agreements withthe schools to be able to practice.’’Stiffarm also has a vision for his programand it extends well beyond thereservation borders. He hopes the playerscan see that far too.``Hopefully one day we could send aNative American player to the NBA orWNBA,’’ he said. ``That’s our dream.’’54 Confederated Umatilla JournalNovember 2011