HERMOSA It has been 57 years since Billy Mills won his gold medal at 10,000 meters in Tokyo, and for two decades before he ran, and for over four decades after he ran, Native runners were the dominant force in South Dakota distance running. That is no longer the case.
It is not just that individual performance has waned, or that teams stopped being competitive, it is much worse than that. The cross country programs across Indian Country have flat-lined. Participation is on life support and it is hard to blame the kids, the coaches, the schools, given how deeply competitiveness has deteriorated. The causes for the decline are not easy to identify or understand.