Jeremy Pague

young pow warriors

How one group is working to help get kids off the rez and into the mountains.

They instantly stood out from the group. Their shoes were ripped to shreds, hats on backwards and they were perpetually grinning. It’s not hard to discern a couple of stoke junkies, especially when you count yourself among the ranks. I just didn’t expect to find Cullan Charger, 15, and Matisse McClay, 14, in this crew of Native kids from the reservation. Yet here they were, the son and nephew of a medicine man, two Lakota from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, in Jackson Hole to snowboard for the first time. It wasn’t long before I witnessed their raw talent – natural abilities you just don’t see every day – and an unconcealed passion for shredding.

They were here as part of the Intertribal Winter Sports Summit, a program spearheaded on the reservation to get kids from different tribes together to learn to ski/snowboard while inciting cross cultural exchanges in the process. When I met them for the first time, they barely acknowledged me as they sat transfixed watching Travis Rice’s “That’s It, That’s All.” Neither of them had been very far off the reservation, not to Jackson Hole, and they had certainly never seen what Travis was pulling off. This was new territory for them, but a natural progression I would soon realize. The boys spend countless hours at the skate parks on the reservation. The parks there are nothing special, but you don’t need much more than a skateboard and a strip of concrete to learn to ride. That’s where Cullan and Matisse, unbeknownst to them, had been steadily laying the framework for this moment.

“Isolated and rife with poverty, it is a place where the symptoms of environmental and cultural genocide are still painfully visible, if you care to look.”

It was late March, the conditions were sunny and warm, the snow mostly corn. We got the kids fitted with gear and sent them off with volunteers and ski/snowboard instructors to learn the basics. Cullan and Matisse naturally gravitated toward local pro-snowboarder Rob Kingwill, even though they had no idea who he was. Rob showed them some stretches and taught them the basics with the patience of a true master. Sure, there were a few slams, a wrist injury, some bench time, but they just kept going. Progressing much faster than the rest of the group, they were off exploring the mountain on their own by the second day. As they checked in every couple runs, ear-to-ear grins were etched on their faces. They were hooked.

For Cullan and Mattisse, learning how to snowboard and being immersed in the moment offered them an important opportunity. The boys don’t have it easy where they live and they don’t have the ability to travel or buy the gear to take up snowboarding. Their home, the Cheyenne River Reservation, was originally part of the Great Sioux Reservation, formed by the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. The Dawes Act subdivided the Great Sioux into five smaller reservations, Cheyenne River being one of them. Chief Sitting Bull lived and was killed just

to the north on the banks of the Grand River. It is not an easy place for anyone to grow up, especially two young rippers. Isolated and rife with poverty, it is a place where the symptoms of environmental and cultural genocide are still painfully visible, if you care to look.

Snowboarding, skiing, skating, climbing, biking – whatever your passion, it is a chance to forget the struggles of daily life and just be in the moment. It is what brought many of us to Jackson Hole, exploring nature, and finding ways to build relationships with the earth. These passions are physical art forms -- how we express ourselves as human beings. “Find your particular art and learn to perform it to the highest of your abilities,” my Native mentors always said. Cullin and Matisse are young, just now finding and exploring their art all while navigating life on the reservation and the struggles transpiring around them. So it is up to us, people who have carved a path following their passions, to be mentors, facilitators and collaborators that help young people identify and cultivate their passions.

I recently spoke with Cody Hall, the architect of the Intertribal Winter Sports Summit and the #nativelivesmatter movement, along with Red Nations Rising and a lacrosse program and summer camp for Native kids. Living on the Cheyenne River Reservation, Cody is a tireless advocate for the youth in his community. He called to tell me that Cullan and Matisse had been asking him if there would be another ski/snowboard program this year. That they had been working hard in school, even making the dean’s list, all in hopes of being able to return to the Tetons. You see, a lot of things are uncertain in Indian Country; programs come and go, funding wanes, there is infighting, corruption and jealousy. Meanwhile, these communities and their kids grapple with poverty, addiction, and suicide rates significantly higher than non-Native communities.

I’d like to think Cullan and Matisse were forever changed by their experience here in the Tetons. That the lessons the mountains and this snow community bestowed on them somehow removed them from their daily trials and tribulations, if only momentarily.

Cullan and Mattise will indeed return this year, and we are working hard to make this program a platform for them to speak of their struggles, share their culture and art, and tell us what their lives are really like. We are making connections with other Native communities, youth advocates, sports industry leaders, and pro-athletes, creating opportunities for them to have new experiences and explore the things they are passionate about. As Sitting Bull once said, “Let us put our minds together and see what life we will make for our children.” jp

To learn more about the upcoming 2016 Intertribal Winter Sports Summit or to get involved send an email to jp@thecoyotlgroup.org, call 208.716.8541, or visit intertribalwintersportssummit.com.

Matisse McClay with his ears pinned back on a downrail. Cullan Charger rips a boardslide with ease.

Jeremy Pague is the director of the nonprofit The Coyotl Group. He is a single father, farmer, snowboarder and avid trail runner helping the underprivileged to shred. @The_Coyotl_Group