Haines students test their strength and skill at the Native Youth Olympic Games

This week’s Native Youth Olympic Games will test Haines students’ strength and skill. It’s part of a week-long course with Native athlete Nick Hanson, and an opportunity to learn about traditional Alaska culture, history and sport. KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports.

A group of students are lined up in the high school gym. On by one, they take a deep breath and let out a yell while running around the perimeter to see how far they can get in one breath..

“Ready, go! Ahhhhhhhhhhh..”

It’s a game from the Montana Blackfoot Nation, Nick Hansoon explains. He’s Inupiaq Eskimo, from Unalakleet and an athlete and coach of the Native Youth Olympic Games.  

“Scream and run, which is a Blackfoot nation game that I traded – I traded one of my games for their games. So they taught me and I taught them,” Hanson said. “And it was a game that the kids would play. So that way, they can have strong enough lungs and run far enough to warn their community if another warrior group was coming to try to attack their community.”

Hanson is also a seven time competitor in the television show American Ninja Warrior. He’s here in Haines for a week-long course, part of ‘mini-week,’ with students to train in the Native Youth Olympic Games. 

“And so these types of games, we use them as games today but each and every one of them is a direct relation to our culture and the survival techniques our ancestors used,” Hanson said. “So another example would be the seal hop, my favorite game of all time.”

In a push-up position, just on hands and toes, athletes hop as far as they can in a test of strength and endurance. 

“And we’ll go up to 200 feet hopping out in the seal hop,” Hanson said. “What that game represents is a hunting technique or ancestors used, they would get as low as they can to the ground or to the ice so that they can minimize their profile. They would hop along the ice mimicking the movement of a seal in order to get close enough to strike with a harpoon. And that was the direct connection we have to a sport directly related to our ancestors.”

He says they will practice ten games this week, and through the stories as well as the sport, students learn about native culture and history.

Next students try the Alaskan high kick, a traditional Inuit game. With one hand on the floor, one grabbing one leg, they extend and kick the other leg up to touch a ball, which gets progressively higher and higher.

Haines sophomore Caleb Beck says he surprised himself this week.

“It’s my second time ever doing it. But it’s really fun with Nick,” Beck said. “I didn’t think I would ever, I didn’t think I could kick that high like that. But then, now that I did, I was surprised that I could end the running one. I was surprised I did that far (running) too.”

Senior Trygg Bakke is Lingít on his mother’s side, and says the activities have been fun, and learning the origins of each game. 

“It’s unique and it’s fun,” Bakke said. “And it’s really cool to see what our ancestors were up to, how many hundreds of years ago.”

Hanson says he wants to learn more specifically Lingít games and invites elders or culture bearers to get in touch and teach him. 

“If there’s any cultural ambassadors or leaders here in our community and Haines come and teach me something I would love to learn and trade just like I did with the Blackfoot nation. That’d be amazing,” Hanson said.

Hanson also points to the encouragement and support among students he’s seen while practicing the games together. 

“Here at Haines, the kids are growing so much, because there’s those niches that you normally see in a school,” he said. “And right now, the jocks are helping the nerds, and the nerds are helping the comics, and the comics are helping the emos, and the emos are helping, you know, I mean, whatever that niche might be. The Christians or whatever it might be. And all of them are a part of this games, and there is no judgment behind it. It’s just everybody working together to help each other and lift each other up. And that’s the best part about these games, that matters to me.”

Hanson hopes to encourage Haines students to form a Native Youth Olympic Games team. If there’s interest, there’s an opportunity to compete next month in Juneau – at a traditional games event organized by Sealaska Heritage Institute in  April 5-6.