Native All Star Football athletes speak on culture, family and emotions
By Kimberly Burk
Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune Correspondent
c-a-tribes.org/tribal-news
TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma – At 18, they don’t have everything figured out. But the athletes chosen for this year’s Native All-Star Football Classic have done some deep thinking when it comes to such matters as tribal culture, family dynamics and emotional well-being.
Two of the 33 delegates to the weeklong camp have lost their mothers. Others have dealt with substance abuse – their own or that of their parents. Some say racism and bullying were alive and well on their high school campuses.
Yet there are ways to deal with trials and find peace, and they have learned where to look.
Keayton McBride, who is Yankton Sioux, said the Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota was a better place for him than life on his reservation.
“I got a good education at boarding school,” he said. “I had a great support system. It put me in a really good position.”
Athletics can be a great coping skill, McBride said.
“Playing football helps me control my anger,” he said.
Bronson Flynn, of New Town, North Dakota, played for the Red Hawks in the Native All-Star Football Classic, held July 6 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Behind him is teammate Robert Bigjohn from South Dakota. Photo by Tim Burk for the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune
Keenan Bitselley is more positive about reservation life, but knows he needs to leave to build a career. He earned a four-year scholarship to New Mexico State University, where he will study aerospace engineering. He wants to work for NASA.
His Navajo reservation in New Mexico “is away from the big city and the violence,” he said. “It’s peaceful.”
Bitselley has a lot of inner peace as well.
“I like to make other people smile,” he said. “I like to crack jokes. I discovered when I was a little boy that I could make people laugh. I hardly get depressed or angry.”
Richard Smallwood, who is Oglala Sioux, was 10 when his mother died. His father, who was the janitor supervisor at the Pine Ridge High School in South Dakota, enforced his curfew and made sure he stayed away from alcohol, Smallwood said.
When times were hard, he said, “I would go find an open gym or weight room. I like to run. And I like to work on cars. It’s stress-relieving.”
He and his father are currently restoring a 1967 Ford Fairlane, he said.
Tyler Acosta receives the trophy for most valuable defensive player for the Red Hawks from John Cates, a Native ReVision sponsor and head of the MVP selection committee. Photo by Tim Burk for the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribal Tribune
When his best friend died in seventh grade in an ATV accident, Smallwood said, his wrestling coach, Dave Michaud, helped him through it. His mother’s uncle was a grandfather figure in his life, and an aunt filled a maternal role.
Bronson Flynn, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota, said he has enjoyed success in athletics because he was pushed to do what he thought he couldn’t do, especially in the wrestling program and by his stepfather.
Flynn said it took a few years for him to appreciate his stepfather, who made him do pushups if he misbehaved.
“He would not stand for drinking or smoking,” he said. “Kids who had no father figure are in jail or doing drugs.”
Tyler Acosta, a Muscogee Creek from Okemah, Oklahoma, is confident about what works well for him.
“I’m a fifth-generation churchgoing Baptist,” he said. To proclaim himself a Christian, he said, “means I need to be a follower of my faith.”
Acosta paid attention to the life skills workshops that were offered as part of the weeklong football camp at Northeastern State University. The all-star event was produced by
Native ReVision, a nonprofit founded by Steve Cardwell, who is Cheyenne. One session included statistics about problems in the Native culture such as high rates of diabetes, domestic violence, poverty and suicide.
“The only one that surprised me was the suicide rate,” he said.
But Acosta said he has an idea why the suicide rate among Native youth is about twice the national average.
Natives pride themselves on their stoicism, he said, and admitted “it’s hard for me to open up. More people should see counselors.”
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Kethan Harjo, a Creek from Okmulgee, Oklahoma, said he learned a lot in the workshops but loved the football most.
Some players might just tolerate the workouts to get to the game, he said, but he loves the practices and getting to know his teammates.
“There’s a lot of good stuff that happened this week,” he said. “I’ve always liked being around football. I want to be a high school football coach.”
The campers said they liked learning about other tribal cultures, and McBride said he came away with a greater sense of pride about the Yankton Sioux.
“We’re the Natives that you learn about in the history books,” he said. “There’s a spirituality in my heritage. I’ve always thought of myself as doing something very important with my life.”
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