Thousands descend on Tucson for National Native Games
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TUCSON (KVOA) More than 2,000 young athletes and their families are here in Tucson for a weekend of sports and sportsmanship that will stay with these young men and women long after they take their last shots.
Lenny Esson coaches a couple of teams, made up of Native American boys and girls, on the road in Tucson and in a new environment. Oh, man. It s something that a lot of our kids and new kids look up to because it gives them a chance to see what a competiton is like off the reservation in our community but also be able to travel, be able to see the great state of Arizona, now we re down here in Tucson for the first time, Esson said.
The debate over renaming the Utah university has led some in the St. George area to publicly and uncivilly level verbal attacks on students and teachers.
“I never allow a lack of knowledge on a particular subject matter to hold me back from doing something,” said James Parker Shield, Little Shell Chippewa, when talking about the National Native American Hall of Fame. “About ten years ago I thought: there is a Hall of Fame for just about everything else, why not Indians?” asked Parker Shield. “Then, I didn’t know much about museums and such, but I saw the need.” Since then, with the help and support of many tribal leaders stretching from Florida to Alaska and resolutions of support provided by the National Indian Education Association, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (tribal colleges) and others, that dream was realized in 2018 when the National Native Hall of Fame (NNAHF), a 501(c)3 organization inducted its first honorees.