Education

Durango School District 9-R trains P.E. Teachers on traditional Native American games

Four Corners Public Radio | By Clark Adomaitis

Published August 21, 2023 at 5:00 AM MDT

The district's physical education teachers learned how to play traditional Native American games with the purpose of teaching them in their classes. — Durango 9-R's Physical Education teachers learned how to play traditional Native American games, with the purpose of teaching them in their own classes.

At Escalante Middle School on a sunny summer weekday morning, the 9-R school district’s physical education teachers are learning how to play Run and Scream. First, they take a deep breath. Then, they run and scream for as long as possible. They stop running once they’re out of breath.

The teachers also learned the games Ring the Stick, Rock In Fist, Sticks In the Fist, and Dice Game (Plum Stone).

DeeAnna Brady-Leader is a director at Traditional Native Games, a Montana-based organization that runs workshops for schools and camps. More than 30 years ago, Blackfeet children sparked this revival effort.

DeeAnna Brady-Leader (right) is a director at Traditional Native Games. She taught Durango's physical education teachers how to play Ring the Stick.

“We started in 1990 trying to recover the Blackfeet children's games at the middle school,” said Brady-Leader. “The kids (spoke) to their relatives, grandmas, and grandpas and brought back about 20 parts of games. Some we didn't know the name of, some we had basic rules. Between all of them, they were able to put together basic rules, an idea of how to build the equipment, and what to call a game.”

Brady-Leader raised two Blackfeet daughters but is a white woman herself. As a teacher, she worked with Native children and elders to bring games from their childhood to life in their gym classes. Now, she leads workshops for other teachers.

The origins of the Plum Stone or Dice Game can be traced to Nakota Sioux tradition.

Jennifer Fernandez is the Native American liaison for Park Elementary School and a member of the Chumash tribe. She helped organize the training.

“It brings cultural awareness to everyone in a fun way too. Native American history is American history. And it should be in all of our school districts. It should be in every school,” said Fernandez.

Most 9-R school district physical education teachers were at the training and will incorporate the games into their curriculum in the coming school year.

Traditional Native Games provided a variety of games for Durango 9-R's physical education teachers to learn.

This story is part of Voices From the Edge of the Colorado Plateau, a reporting collaboration between KSUT Public Radio and KSJD Community Radio. It seeks to cover underrepresented communities in the Four Corners. The multi-year project will cover Native, Indigenous, Latino/Latina, and other communities across southwest Colorado.