Blackbear

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FROM: INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY NEWSPAPER

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410816

Sovereign Nations Bid For Inclusion In Olympic Games

Posted: April 26, 2005
by: Jean Johnson / Indian Country Today

Photo courtesy www.nativevoices.org -- Tlingit extreme skier Gene Tabagan
and speed skiing champion Stew Young at Seattle's SnowSports Expo Nov. 12 - 14,
2004.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Iroquois invented lacrosse and their team currently
ranks fourth behind the United States, Canada and Australia, noted Oren Lyons Sr.,
player and History professor at the University of Buffalo. Further, according
to Abenaki skier Billy the Kid, American Indians are credited with inventing
the roots of 10 Olympic sports.

Why, then, has the International Olympic Committee (IOC) turned a cold
shoulder to the idea of tribal members joining the games under the banner of their
sovereign nations?

Youth in the Umatilla tribe may live far from the mountains, but if Stew
Young, Tulalip and newly-formed Native American Ski Team member, has his way,
they'll soon be trooping over to Mt. Hood's Ski Bowl, where owners have offered
training and enough equipment to help Umatilla and Warm Springs youngsters start
skiing.

The Native American Ski Team has its sights set on the Olympics, even though
training competitors and convincing the IOC that since tribes are indeed
sovereign nations, they should be permitted to represent their homelands, stand
between the current situation and the goal.

Young, though, is a champion speed skier. At age 50, he is headed back out on
the World Cup Tour after ranking as the fastest U.S. veteran skier in 1998.
At 143 miles per hour, Young cranked in as the third fastest in the world. With
those kinds of jets under his heels, getting the troops geared up and the
bigwigs to listen to reason must seem like small potatoes.

And then there's the matter of Young's very impressive buddies. In February
he participated in a ski and music festival in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, where
France's Princess Caroline Murat convened a circle of influential and
culturally-savvy Europeans who support American Indians' participation as sovereign
nations in the Olympic Games.

''Indian country so appreciates how Princess Caroline and her friends are
fighting to open the Olympic doors for our youth,'' said Young. He went on to
explain that ''to be able to dream and realistically have a chance to compete in
future Olympic Games'' is a goal capable of motivating young tribal people
like nothing else has.

Skier Suzy Chaffee, who joined Young in Switzerland, added that ''Native
youth can finally get the health, appreciation, encouragement and sponsors'' they
need to compete with pride at the international level.

Good things take time, of course, and Young knows this. Before going abroad,
the super-skier donned his shiny red ski suit and with his eight-foot skis in
hand, joined promoters at the Seattle SnowSports Expo. There, 10 ski areas
from Oregon to Canada to Alaska pledged their support for tribal members
interested in coming on board for winter sports.

Expo producers donated gear to help Northwest Indian College launch its
Native Ski Program at Washington's Mt. Baker. A ski area close to the Tulalip
reservation, Stevens Pass, invited tribal members to ski and snowboard on its
slopes. And Timberline, on Oregon's Mt. Hood, put its hat in the ring with the wish
that an American Indian team will be ready to compete at the ski area's
Golden Rose Celebrity Race come spring.

Other areas that support the dream include Crystal Mountain, Summit at
Snoqualmie, Mission Ridge and Alaska's Alyeska, as well as Canada's Whistler, Sun
Peaks and Apex.

So it is that the world's third-fastest veteran skier is helping lead the
kids back home on a fast track down the slopes and into international
competition. And while it's still a long way from getting the IOC to approve the idea of
Indians skiing under their sovereign nations' banners, the first steps in the
long haul are underway.

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