Make up post: "Shadow of a Nation"

"Somehow, in the mindless way that rivers sculpt valleys and shame shapes history, the Montana Indians' purest howl against a hundred years of repression and pain had become ... high school basketball."

A Sports Illustrated article called "Shadow of a Nation: The Crows, once proud warriors, now seek glory-but often tragedy-in basketball," examines the role of basketball in Indian country, focusing on the story of Jonathan Takes Enemy. Seemingly a mere high school kid, he carries his family and community on his shoulders. They and his coaches expect him to be their basketball savior and succeed in the white world by going to college on an athletic scholarship. If he can break the cycle of past Crow ball players dropping out of high school and/or partaking in substance abuse, they believe more Crow children will follow his path. However, the pressures to succeed cause him to question why he should have to assimilate and succeed in the "white man's world" for in such a circumstance, his own people will consider him "too good for them."

With mixed signals, Jonathan Takes Enemy barely graduates and goes to junior college on scholarship but leaves after six games into his freshman season. He returns to the reservation where he barely attends the tribal college and lives in his parents' house with his kids. Takes Enemy makes frequent visits to the bar just beyond the reservation. The Crow community simply watches as another of their basketball heroes succumbs to this cycle.

However, Takes Enemy leaves the reservation with his small family and at the age of 25, begins playing for Rocky Mountain College in Montana, fully aware that his people consider him a sellout or red apple, "red on the outside, white on the inside." Takes Enemy says that attending college had to be his own decision and not that of his family's, his people's. 

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The story of Jonathan Takes Enemy is interwoven with historical commentary from one of the Crow tribal elders. With invasion of the white man and subsequent colonization, traditional roles were disrupted, especially those pertaining to a warrior society. Crow men acquired status by "counting coup" through capturing enemy horses, seizing weaponry in hand-to-hand combat, or being a pipe carrier during a raid. Post-contact, the U.S. government prohibited inter-tribal warfare and the buffalo were almost depleted. Thus these roles of hunting and going to battle were stripped away from Crow men (a shared experience among other tribes.) Then came basketball. Tribal elder, Ben Pease states, "Something had to take war's place, some way had to be found to count coups. It was basketball." Dale Old Horn, the chair of Crow studies and social sciences at Little Big Horn, also explains the role of basketball, "For us, a victory in a high school game is a victory over everyday misery and poverty and racism." 

I appreciated this Sports Illustrated article because of its rawness and that it grapples with the reality of many Native communities. I can't help but think of similar stories to Jonathan Takes Enemy's. I do not wish to reinforce the "drunk Indian" stereotype but certainly recognize the detriments of alcoholism that people at home encounter. Clearly, the pressures of assimilation that our grandparents and parents experienced are still at play. However, I am happy to say that there a lot of Native athletes (some close friends of mine) who have completely shut down the stereotype that Native kids can't be successful college athletes.

This story makes me think of how I use basketball as a coping mechanism here at Stanford. And although the Sports Illustrated article shares a more a tragic story, basketball has it's healing stories. During the most roughest of days, especially during my sophomore year, I found myself shooting baskets at my dorm's outdoor court when Chem and Humbio psets became to much to handle. Playing with Muwekma's IM basketball as a senior, reminded me of this comfort and joy it brings to the community because it is our domain. Fueled by reliving our glory days, blowing off steam, and cheering for our "cousins," basketball continues to be our medicine as we navigate on a journey in which many of us are the first in our families to be here, to be doing this thing of "getting an education to give back to our communities." A daily reminder and pressure that often requires healing through basketball.