For young Native Americans, running is a lesson in their own history
| SANTA FE AND ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
A plume of dust trails his worn sneakers as he strides over the red sand.
Most runners would find this surface trying: a sinking, winding path, made narrow by low desert brush. But not Dustin Martin. He glides over the sand 鈥� seemingly without sinking at all 鈥� as if he and the Earth made a deal long ago.
Mr. Martin, a Navajo from Gallup, N.M., is executive director of Wings of America, a nonprofit based in Santa Fe, N.M. It encourages Native American youth to embrace running, both as a cultural tradition and as a personal hobby, while simultaneously helping to dispel negative stereotypes associated with their peoples.
Why We Wrote This
Great teachers can make a lifelong impression and inspire learning across disciplines. Wings of America coaches seek to help kids overcome stereotypes with stories of Native American athleticism and advocacy.
鈥淓veryone else in Indian country, unfortunately, for the last 30 years, has had to build a program on the premise or idea that something was deficient: 鈥榃e鈥檙e preventing substance abuse, preventing domestic violence, we are trying to mitigate the poverty rate.... We鈥檙e fixing you somehow,鈥欌�� says Martin. 鈥淏ut our association with Wings defines us as more than those things.鈥�
To be sure, Native American youth confront many statistics that back up these stereotypes. Obesity is said to affect than white Americans, Native youth have and emotional issues in the classroom. And while , the stereotype persists.
But for three decades, Wings has encouraged Native Americans to shake off these labels. Just as their ancestors ran to communicate with others, Wings of America runners today run to deliver different kinds of messages. Messages of self-worth, cultural pride, and hope.
鈥淩unning is good for everybody 鈥� but the dial is turned up, this is amplified, in Native American culture,鈥� says Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, who has researched the history of Native American runners. 鈥淭hey have such an amazing cultural tradition of running and then you add to that some of the challenges that kids are facing on the reservation. There are multiple compelling reasons to support a program like Wings.鈥�
The example of Jim Thorpe 听
On a browning soccer field off Albuquerque鈥檚 buzzing Interstate 40, dozens of elementary school students run in circles, squealing. They are playing a game of tag. The students have a scarf tucked into the back of their pants or skirts and they try to steal others鈥� scarves while protecting their own.
Martin and Wings鈥� program coordinator Alicia Littlebear are hosting 鈥淔light Club鈥� for elementary students at the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque. Twice a week the students practice warm-ups, stretching, and, of course, running. But they are also sure to spend time in a circle, talking about Native Americans鈥� connection to running. 听
Native Americans have practiced prayer runs for generations as a way to spiritually connect with or give gratitude to Mother Earth. And hundreds of years ago, before horses were readily available across North America, Native Americans relied on messenger runners to travel hundreds of miles to communicate with other tribes.
鈥淩unning doesn鈥檛 come out of the blue. Its roots are ancient and deep,鈥� says Professor Lieberman. 鈥淭hose roots have been lost and Wings is trying to revive them in a modern context.鈥�
Martin and Ms. Littlebear teach the students about Tom Longboat, from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, who consistently beat other famous runners of the early 1900s in races more than 20 miles long. He won the Boston Marathon in 1907 with a time that was almost 5 minutes faster than any of the previous 10 winners. And they talk about Ellison 鈥淭arzan鈥� Brown, of the Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island, who won the Boston Marathon twice, in 1936 and 1939, and Patti Catalano Dillon, whose mother was a Micmac from Nova Scotia, and who became the first American woman to and won the Honolulu Marathon four years in a row, .
Martin and Littlebear also teach the students about Jim Thorpe, who grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma. The first Native American to win Olympic gold for the United States, he鈥檚 one of the most versatile and accomplished US athletes in history. Lewis Tewanima, a Hopi runner from Arizona, was Thorpe鈥檚 fellow Olympian in 1912. Tewanima鈥檚 silver medal remained the best performance by a US athlete in the 10,000 meters until Billy Mills, another Native American, won gold in the event at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
But Martin seems most impressed by the context of these athletes鈥� success. Many of them were sent to boarding schools against their will, a common trend in the early 1900s, to force . Thorpe and Tewanima, for example, trained together for a few years at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School 鈥� whose founder coined the phrase 鈥淜ill the Indian, Save the Man鈥� 鈥� before winning at the Olympics.
鈥淭o have the strength, not only of the body, but of the mind and heart, to compete for your oppressor?鈥� says Martin. 鈥淭o be humble and say, 鈥業鈥檓 going to run, but I鈥檓 running for something else.鈥� I want to use what is obviously the ability that my people gave me.鈥� 鈥�
Sending听a message in a run
As the young students gather in a circle on the soccer field, Martin apologizes for missing a Flight Club and asks the students if they would like to hear about the run in Nevada he attended instead. The circle nods in unison.
T听 in October was a protest against the Southern Nevada Water Authority pipeline, a project that would pipe groundwater from central and eastern Nevada to Las Vegas. The pipeline was denied a permit in August and is being appealed. But participants such as Martin see the process as yet another affront to Native peoples鈥� right to natural resources.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want people to forget that. I don鈥檛 want you guys to forget that,鈥� says Martin, after having explained to the Flight Club members that they can be the guardians of their rights to the Earth. 鈥淣ow go run two laps.鈥�
Along with teaching the students about Native Americans鈥� historical connection to running, Wings teaches how running can be a form of activism in the children鈥檚 future. This past March, Martin helped organize an with members of local tribes and pueblos to Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a monument with significance to Native Americans, which President Trump recently . Outside Magazine named Martin .
To Littlebear and Martin, Wings is just getting started. In addition to Flight Club and summer camps, Wings brings top runners to the junior USA Track & Field Cross Country Championships race each year. The work is a manifestation of their generation鈥檚 will to change the way the rest of the country sees 鈥� and treats 鈥� Native Americans.
鈥淥ur hearts hurt when politicians or educators don鈥檛 take us seriously, or they鈥檙e not ready to see us succeed, or they doubt us. Like it鈥檚 really hurtful in your heart to know that this is what they think about you,鈥� says Littlebear, as she starts to tear up. 鈥淲e鈥檙e the first generation that鈥檚 really being vocal.鈥� So our kids won鈥檛 have to suffer that.鈥�
As the NACA students stand up to start their run, a kindergartner named Kiana is complimented on her moccasins. She looks down at her feet thoughtfully.
鈥淚鈥檓 not used to running in them because I run barefoot on the res,鈥� says Kiana. 鈥淐ause I鈥檓 a Navajo and that鈥檚 what Navajo do.鈥�
