Native American Olympic Team Foundation
Creating joyful unity thru sports to heal Mother Earth for all our Children

PRESS RELEASE Feb 22,2004

WI Governor Hails Tribal Youth at Birkie

"It's wonderful seeing the Native Community opening the Birkebeiner Event," said Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, as 30 splendid Lac Courte Oreille youth danced, drummed, chanted and whirled down Hayward's Main Street on February 19th. They were a highlight of the Opening Ceremonies of the largest cross-country ski race in North America.

The stunning royalty in beaded crowns, representing the Woodland Tribes, then presented the Governor with a birchbark basket filled with Wisconsin's yummiest tribal-made products - wild rice, wild rice pancake mix, maple syrup and sausages, plus a Boys and Girls Club Tee-shirt, thanks to Becky Taylor.

The next day, seven Lac Courte Oreille middle schoolers were cheered across the finish line by fans from 14 countries at the Junior Birkie next to the Mount Telemark Inn. "The kids were presented with medals and were so proud of themselves. They had real team spirit. I heard one say, 'My mom is not going to believe this,'" said coach Rachel Skime. "Thanks to all the snow, conditions were also wonderful for the Short Race yesterday," she said.

Today, Ernie St. Germaine, a former judge of the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Tribe, will compete in his 31st Birkebieiner against 6,011 participants this year. "There were eleven skiers who skied every one of the first ten races. Tony called us Founders," said St Germaine. "Of the eleven, just three of us have completed all 30 races," he said.

"Uncle Ernie" is excited about sharing his beloved sport with other tribes, along with Birkie organizer Dennis Kruse, thanks to the doors opened by Native American Olympic Team Foundation. NVF also helps the tribes get the donated, recycled equipment and clothing collected by the SnowSports Industry and local ski shops, in addition to connecting tribes with local Olympians to light their fires.

Last year, NVF's co-chair, Olympic skier Suzy "Chapstick" Chaffee, and the Ho-Chunk Tribe's Michael Day, partnered with Kruse to bolster x-country skiing in the Midwest, as part of the President's Healthier U.S. Initiative on behalf of Native Americans. The kids had so much fun competing in the Birkie that Day developed a course around the lake of their Crockett's resort near the Dells.

This x-country breakthrough is timely in light of a ski outing yesterday at Keystone, Colorado, for the U.S. Olympic staff, coached by Olympians. Although Chaffee couldn't take part in the skiing, (while on the comeback trail from a hip replacement at the Park-Nicollet Methodist Hospital in nearby Minneapolis), she got a commitment from Elaine Cheris, President of the Colorado Olympians, that any American Indians who are reaching certain times in Olympic sports will be invited to the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center!

"Ski programs like this are doing wonders to turn around the 20-year-less-life-expectancy of the First Americans. At the same time the good karma of sharing skiing with these Earth-guardians - for example, inviting tribal youth to last year's Birkebeiner for the first time - resulted in the event-saving snow," said Chaffee. The January, 2004, edition of SKIING magazine wrote about NVF's tribal-related snow coincidences (some call miracles), especially in Colorado, as an alternative to ski areas spending $1.1 million on cloud seeding, which they now admit is "more prayer-based than science."

"The People of the Eagle," or North American tribes, are awesome cross-country endurance runners. Thanks to a priest sharing some opportunities with members of the First Nations in British Columbia, they won Gold and Silver Olympic medals. "With opportunities our kids can be champions," say US tribal leaders.

Contact: Native American Olympic Team Foundation 970-922-5406. suzynativevoices@aol.com For more info: www.nativevoices.org

Caption: Governor Jim Doyle greets Woodland Dancers at Birkie Opening. --photo courtesy of the American Birkebeiner