Native Games Wrap-Up

This past Spring Equinox weekend marked our 4th annual Native Games Tournament, hosted this year by Red Earth Descendants, the Native American Student Union of SOU and the Ashland Youth Council. We'd like to extend our appreciation and thank you's to the MANY people who helped bring the Games, once again, to the community in such a good way. It was a beautiful gathering--for the youth and the elders and all us in-betweeners. Blessed by ample sunshine, wonderful community support and good food, as always, we had a very successful tournament that involved the more competitive teams as well as some clinic-style games teaching young people how to play.

The day began with the blessings of the Woman's Community Meeting, songs from Whistling Elk Drum and the opening prayer by one of our Elders. The first Shinny game kicked off with an "Exhibition-style" community game, just to get us all warmed up. Teams were then formed and the competitive aspect of the tourney kicked in. We mixed the competition with clinic games to people who wanted to come out and play. It was very fun to watch the kids learning shinny and having a great time! After a double-elimination process, the Grand Champion awards were AGAIN, for a THIRD STRAIGHT YEAR, won by NASU's "Noble Savage!" This is NOT to say it was easy--they had some stiff competition this year and honorable and clean playing, making well-matched games and only winning by a small margin. Made up of mostly NASU students (with the new addition of two high school students--Misha and Tasker!), Noble Savage once again walked off the field with a new set of shinny sticks and their "Grand Champion hoodies!" Noble Savage now has 3 sets of shinny sticks and is planning to continue "giving back" to the community by hosting practices and games in Lithia Park most Sundays at 1 p.m.. These pick-up games and practices are open to the public. In the cultural restoration process of bringing back these stickball games to share, R.E.D. has gifted several sets of shinny sticks to regional tribes and youth groups throughout Oregon over the past four years. Our local NASU organization with SOU has helped us carry this next phase of sharing and teaching the indigenous way of playing the games. We are grateful for their partnership in this and look forward to ongoing shinny in the Park!

For more information about these weekly games, email us at:

redearthdescendants@gmail.com

As an added blessing to our vision of sharing the Games, a group of our youth has been invited by the Coos Tribe to teach a shinny workshop this week to a group of tribal youth and Indian Education kids in Coos Bay. We feel blessed that we've inspired some of our young players enough to carry the teachings and passion for the Games to other youth. We'll bring back some good stories to share about this cultural exchange.

The Native Games day culminated with a community feast and many helping hands for the clean-up crew. It was an excellent event, and we look forward to more gaming throughout the spring and summer. We hold daily shinny games at our Elder/Youth Conference, which will happen this year June 17-20. For updates and more information about upcoming events and projects, please see our website:

www.redearthdescendants.org

Blessings and thank you,

Jaimie
Red Earth Descendants