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PHOTOS: Locals face off in traditional Ktunaxa sports

Ktunaxa First Nation and COTR partnered to offer traditional sports for Indigenous History Month
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Participants played a game known as Kyxuq¢iyam, where curved sticks are used to guide a small ball made of deerskin and deer hair down a field. The sport is similar to hockey (Gillian Francis photo).

Ktunaxa First Nation and College of the Rockies (COTR) kicked off Indigenous History Month on June 1 with a day of traditional sports.

Friendly rivalries and good-spirited competition arose on the COTR field as participants tried their hand at Kyxuq¢iyam and Hoqanquxatka. The former sport is similar to hockey and the latter involves thrusting a stick through a moving target.

Participants also learned about a children’s game with a wooden hoop and rod, and a game that was played specifically by women as part of a fertility ritual that involved catching and hooking two connected balls around a small stick.

Juanita Eugene of Ktunaxa First Nation led the workshop. She taught Cranbrook residents about the cultural significance of Ktunaxa sports and how to play them.

Traditionally, sports helped Indigenous communities develop crucial survival skills necessary for hunting, fishing and running. Today, they help Indigenous people reconnect with and rediscover their culture.

Eugene was a child born to a residential school legacy. Her mother, father and grandparents all attended St. Eugene Mission School. As such, she was not raised with knowledge of her culture.

She discovered Ktunaxa games when she began learning more about her ancestors. Sport helped her heal and gave her purpose.

“The spirit of the game inspires my spirit,” she said.

Now she teaches sport to youth, so they too can learn their culture and pass it on.

“Children of 60s scoop, they can help their parents get back in touch with their Indigenous-ness and find out their history,” she explained.

Eugene has taught sport in Canada and the U.S . She visited Arrow Lakes in the Kootenays last summer and she would like to travel to Missoula, Montana.

Eugene taught her grandson Teejay Joseph how to play the games when was young. Now that he’s a teenager, Joseph helps her teach. He helped provide demonstrations at COTR.

“She teaches me a lot of stuff, like the meaning of things and how to say certain words in Ktunaxa. She brings me to powwows,” he said.

“I feel honoured. It’s kind of cool playing the games that our elders played, that our ancestors used to play way back when.”


@gfrans15
gillian.francis@cranbrooktownsman.com

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To play Kyxuq¢iyam, players form two teams and they each attempt to move the ball into the opponent’s goal. There are no goalies, but team members can hover around the goal (Gillian Francis photo)
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The traditional playing field for Kyxuq¢iyam was massive. It often reached proportions of three miles long and two miles wide. The COTR game was adapted for a much shorter distance (Gillian Francis photo).
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Kyxuq¢iyam sticks were traditionally harvested from north-facing hills. The trees on these slopes are stronger and more durable because they get less sun (Gillian Francis photo)
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Juanita Eugene lead the group warm-up, which involved crouching like a turtle, slithering like a snake and running like an elk. Here, Eugene demonstrates her eagle pose (Gillian Francis photo)
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(Gillian Francis photo)
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This hoop and stick game was originally played by children. The goal is to hook the hoop around the stick (Gillian Francis photo)
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A participant takes part in Hoqanquxatka, which involves tossing a long stick through a rolling target in the shape of a hoop. Traditionally, players would have used an atlatl - a tool that attaches to the wrist and helps leverage a spear so it achieves greater speed. Participants rotate the spear or stick clockwise as they toss it (Gillian Francis photo)
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(Gillian Francis photo)