How teens invented the Native Youth Olympics

Very interesting. Oh, got to highlight that too. Oh, and can't forget that. Joy, are you in here? Hmm, if everything on the page is highlighted, is that the same as nothing being highlighted? But it's all so interesting. Joy? Ah, there you are. Oh, Hayley! What's up with all these books? They're almost stacked to the ceiling. Oh, these? Just my latest library haul. You wouldn't believe how many books you can check out these days. It appears the limit does not exist. Actually, it's 50.

Per library. So obviously I went to a lot of libraries, all in the name of research. What are you researching? Well, you see, ever since I started going to hot yoga, I've really been in my sporty spice era. Sporty spice? Yeah, ask your parents. Anywho, I'm really interested in different sports throughout history. You know what they say, the pipeline from hot yoga to knee-deep historical sports research is real.

Do people say that? I'm people, so yes. And I've been learning so much cool stuff. Let me find the right page. Here it is. Did you know in ancient Egypt they played a game like hockey with sticks made out of palm tree branches? That is so cool. Or... Like how people in India have been playing this tag-like game called Coco for hundreds of years. It even has its own league today. That sounds so fun. I know. And in Alaska... Aha!

There's this event called the Native Youth Olympics. Joy, I know all about the Native Youth Olympics. I've even competed. What? That's awesome! You're sporty and a first-hand primary source. My sporting and history research dreams are coming true all at once. You know what that means. We should do a whole episode about the Native Youth. olympics yes let's do it

Welcome to Forever Ago from APM Studios. I'm Joy Dolo, and I'm here today with Ali from Anchorage, Alaska. Hi, Joy. Forever Ago is a nonprofit public radio program, which means we rely on support from our listeners. to keep the show going. There are lots of ways you can support the show. You can donate, become a Smarty Pass subscriber, or buy our merch.

Head to foreverago.org to show your support. Thank you. So today we're talking about a special sporting event that happens every year in Alaska. It's called the Native Youth Olympics. Hundreds of students from across the state come together to compete in different games that honor traditional skills from Alaska Native culture. Alaska Natives are a group of people whose ancestors have lived in the area we now call Alaska.

for thousands of years. The games they play test your balance, strength, and focus. All skills that were necessary for hunting and surviving in Alaska's extreme climate. Any student can compete in the Native Youth Olympics, native or non-native.

The Native Youth Olympics are for students from 7th to 12th grade, and there's an open version for people older than 18 years old. There's also a junior version for younger students.

Right. Ali, you've competed in the Junior Native Youth Olympics. What was your experience like? Tell us about it. Well, my experience is very, very, like... wholesome because there's a lot of people who are like better and help to try to like make you feel like you're at your top level and making you feel really good even if you make mistakes.

Oh, that's nice. So when did you start? Well, there's a story where I started to, like, do something called a toe knuckle walk. You take off your socks and you, like... kind of curl your toes and put the like bone when you're curling it like the knuckle onto the ground on both feet and you just start walking. And that was used so when hunters were doing that, so they could like unnumb their toes or keep their toes not numb from like the coldness.

And it's just a memory of me, and that's probably how long I've started. Okay, I think I could actually use that in Minnesota because it gets pretty cold here. Yeah. I know that the games are based on actual things that Alaska Native people would do to survive. Is there a certain part of the sport where you're like, oh, I can see how this would have been used in another time? Yeah, like there's...

A sport called the four-man carry. It's when you carry four men, each weighing 150 pounds, and you can walk the farthest distance trying to simulate you're having four seals on you. And you're trying to go the farthest until you collapse. So that's like 600 pounds? Yeah. That's hard. That's hard. What do people, like after you do an event, do you win anything? Is there a prize? Yeah, so it depends where you are.

So there's something called Arctic Winter Games, which has one of the categories that's Arctic sports in which all the NYO games. And if you win, you get a traditional native knife, which isn't like real or anything. It's like a metal, but it's a shape of this knife that has a handle, and it's called an ulu or an uluwak. And they miniaturize it and put it as, like, gold, silver, or bronze. Oh, man, that's so neat. Uluwap. Did I say that right? Uluwak. Uluwak.

Yeah. Cool. Uluwak. I got it. So you've been playing for quite some time. Do you have any favorite memories from the games? Yeah, it was pretty recent. It's when I was in state. and I was doing one for high kick, and it was me and the other kid, and we were kicking for first place. And then the moment when I hit it, I felt so happy because... I got first. We tied for first. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, we hit 79 inches. 79 inches? That's taller than me, even with my dog standing on my head.

It's tall. So just to back up, this was when you were doing the one-foot-high kick competition. That's when you jump in the air and kick a ball hanging from a string with one foot. The trick is you have to land back on the ground with the same foot you used to kick the ball.

which seems really hard. Do you have a technique you use? Yeah, there's a certain step that you use, and you also have to breathe, but... you have to put both feet on the ground first and excel your body in the air and you have to bring up one leg and kick it so and i sometimes i need to work on but like pushing my back backwards while i'm in the air so i can really extend my leg and um also it's a good thing to like point your toe so you can get higher

Okay, so you bend and you point your toe and you arch your back. It sounds a lot like yoga, so I'm trying to figure out how to do that. That's really impressive, though. I bet they're really proud of you, huh? Mm-hmm. Yeah, and you must have been pretty proud of yourself, too. Yeah. I mean, first, that's a pretty big deal. And you mentioned that your dad does this as well, right? Yeah. Did he introduce you to the games? Yeah, it's also a part of his culture.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. So he's including you in his culture and you're learning from it and taking from it, too. That's nice. Yeah. I love family.

Like we mentioned, the Native Youth Olympics takes place in Alaska, and it's all started thanks to some homesick students. But before we get to that, we first have to talk about our big, beautiful 49th state. Big is right. Alaska is bigger than Montana, California, and Texas combined. And there are some truly amazing things there. Icy glaciers, volcanoes, North America's tallest peak, and of course, lots of moose and bears.

As we mentioned, Alaska is home to many Alaska natives. These are people who have lived in the area for thousands of years, long before it became a U.S. state. They live in communities and villages all across the region. I know I've got a book with a map of Alaska somewhere. Nope, nope, that's not it. Where's that jar of dill pickles I was looking for? Uh, Joy? Mmm, pickles. Oh, right, the book. Aha, here it is.

So, like we mentioned, Alaska Native people live all across the state in different groups. Check out this map. The three biggest groups are the Inupiaq people who live in the north. And the Athabaskan people in the central and eastern part of Alaska. And the Yupik people in the southwest. I'm Yupik. So cool. There's also more than 200 federally recognized tribes in Alaska alone. That's almost as many in the rest of the entire United States. And they speak more than 20 languages.

There are a handful of bigger cities in Alaska, but most people live in smaller towns, including lots of these Alaska native villages. These villages are often pretty remote. There aren't roads to get to them so you can only travel there by plane or sometimes boat. Some only have a few hundred people living there, and for a long time, most of these Alaska Native villages didn't have formal schools.

So back in the early 1900s, government officials would often send Alaska Native students far from their homes to boarding schools. This was more than a hundred years ago. back when most people in the US didn't have cars, phones, or even plumbing in their houses. Right. Most of the schools where Native students were sent were in other states, like Oregon, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. These were boarding schools, which meant students lived there for the whole school year.

The government forced Native kids to go to these schools, often against the wishes of their families. Life at the boarding schools was very hard. They weren't allowed to wear traditional clothes from their native culture or speak their own language. They were forced to cut their hair. Sometimes they didn't get enough to eat or were forced to work instead of going to class.

The people who ran these boarding schools often didn't let students contact their families back home, which meant students were completely cut off from their communities. Hundreds of thousands of Native kids from all over the U.S. were sent to these boarding schools, not just Alaska Natives. And the programs kept going for decades. Fast forward, mid-1960s, officials in Alaska were still trying to figure out how to educate Native students in remote villages, and they decided to try something new.

Instead of only sending students to live far away at boarding schools, they came up with a different idea. Send them to live with other families in bigger cities across Alaska, like Anchorage. Once the students got there, they went to high school in those cities. But the families they lived with were often white, and they weren't always familiar with Alaska Native culture and traditions.

Holding on to their Alaska Native heritage was tough for these students. For decades, generations of students were sent away from their homes and villages. And sometimes those students were told to forget their culture. But instead of forgetting it, a group of kids found a way to celebrate their culture together. And in doing so, they would create something new.

Yes, I can't wait for us to tell the next part of the story. But first, it's time for a different kind of game. This is the game where we take three things from history and try to put them in order of which came first, second, and most recent in time. And since we're surrounded by so many library books, let's do three books. We have Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Curious George, and The Lorax. Ali, do you know these books? Yeah.

Which do you think came first, which came second, and which came most recently in history? And mind you, we're talking about the books, not the movies. Yeah. So I think Dr. Seuss is old. And I think he made the Lorax first. Yeah. Curious George. I remember that when I was a kid and we used to have a book of Curious George. That was like an Easter book. And for some reason, for a long time, it smelled like chemicals. Is it like Easter chemicals? Yes.

Yeah, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I remember that coming out. Well, I can't remember it, but I think it's in like 2014 or 2012, something like that. Oh, okay. I'm going to go with Curious George. And then Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Okay, so you're going to go the oldest is the Lorax. And then the second is Curious George. And then the most recent is Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Yeah. Oh, that sounds like a good guess. We'll hear the answers at the end of the episode right after the credits. So stick around.

We're working on an episode all about the Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts earn badges for gaining special skills like learning how to do first aid or cooking a delicious meal or even being a great friend. And we want to know if you could give a badge. For me, I would give my mom a badge and it would be the best hugger badge because when she hugs me, it's so tight. Sometimes I have trouble breathing, but it's just...

her love smothering me. What about you, Ali? Is there someone in your life who deserves a badge for something? Yeah, I think someone in my life who would deserve a badge is my parents. I would give them a badge for my education Education and helping me down the road of acknowledging my culture, like the Native Youth Olympics. So that's the badge I would give them. Nice. That's so nice. Listeners, we want to hear from you, too.

to yourself describing who you would give a badge to and what it would be for and send it to us at foreverago.org slash contact. You can also send us questions and fan art. Yes, like a drawing of me surrounded by all these towers of books. from the library. Can't wait to see it. Brains On Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults. Since you're a fan of Forever A Goal, you'll love the other shows in our universe. Come on, let's explore!

It's Alien Exercise Hour! Hi-ya! Hoo-ha! While I stretch my snoodles and... on my trampolini, I'll listen to a new podcast. I'm going to try Smash Boom Fest. Best debate podcast ever! Tell us why Alice in Wonderland has such grand command. Drop the beat. Ladies and gentlemen. esteemed judge of smash boom best i'd like to start with a few rhymes uh yo catch me in the rabbit hole dazzled by a magic show by the zarp come back here podcast

Listen to Smash Boom Best now! Listen to Smash Boom Best, wherever you get your podcasts.

You're listening to Forever Ago. I'm Joy. And I'm Ali. And just in case you were wondering, yes, we are still surrounded by Joy's stacks of library books. Contrary to popular belief, they are organized. Like by genre or alphabetically? No, actually, I use my own dolo-decimal system. So each stack is grouped by the author's astrological sign, then whether they like crunchy or creamy peanut butter. See? War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

obviously Tolstoy was a Virgo, and a crunchy peanut butter man. So this one goes right on top. Uh-oh, book stack down! Oh, for the love of Tolstoy! We can clean that up later, but for now, let's get back to today's topic, the Native Youth Olympics. The Native Youth Olympics is an annual sporting event that honors traditional skills from Alaska Native culture.

But this culture wasn't always celebrated by everyone. Before the break, we learned that for decades, Alaska Native kids were often separated from their families and their traditional culture. Lots of kids were sent away to boarding schools.

In the 1960s, there was a different program that sent Native students from remote villages to bigger cities in Alaska. These students lived with host families in those cities so they could go to high school. Often, these Native students lived with white families. Fast forward to 1970.

Bell-bottom pants are the latest trend, and handheld calculators were a new invention. During winter break, there was a group of students who couldn't afford to go back home and had to stay in Anchorage, Alaska. They were staying with their host families instead. Some of these families asked the Native students what they usually did during the holidays. And these students said they played games.

Now, these games were different from other games like Candyland or Monopoly. These were traditional Alaska native games that had been passed down for generations. So these kids got together and played these native games. It was so fun, they wanted to do it again. Then, a few months later, the students and a group of volunteers organized a small event. The first official Native Youth Olympics! The year was 1971.

Dozens of kids from 12 schools packed in a gymnasium in Anchorage, Alaska. People came from nearby, others from far away. Some students even traveled from across the state. All for a chance to play. It was a blast. The first Native Youth Olympics was in 1971, but these games are much older than that. These are games that have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. That's Nicole Johnson. She's the head official and instructor at the Native Youth Olympics.

She helps organize the games and teaches others about them. Nicole is also Alaska Native and a former Native Youth Olympics athlete herself. Nicole says these games were first invented by Native people as a way to practice important skills. Before... Western or Eastern society moved into Alaska or just into the North. You had to survive off of the land. Also, because you had to walk everywhere. You had to move with the seasons. They were nomadic.

It is tough to live off of land. You have to know where to hunt and fish, which berries and greens and roots that you can eat and use for medicine. So they created games to test the strengths of our people physically and mentally. These athletic games help train Native people to survive in intense environments around them.

People had to be skilled hunters to catch fish and seals. It was also important to have good balance to be quick on your feet. Right, especially when walking on delicate ice on rivers or oceans. These games also helped to build a community. When you were out traveling and hunting, you had to be able to rely on and support one another. So these games were not only a way to train your body, but also a way to help develop friendships.

There are so many different games. A popular one is called Inuit Stick Pole. That's when two people sit on the ground facing each other with their soles of their feet pressed together and spotters that would hold their hips and their feet together. A stick is placed between the two people and the goal is to pull the stick away from the other.

person, kind of like a tug of war. This game builds the same strength that native hunters use to pull seals out of the water and onto the ice. Another popular game is called the One Foot High Kick. Ali, this is the game that we talked about earlier that you've competed in.

Right. That's where you start off standing and then jump up. And while you're in the air, you kick and kick a ball hanging from a string. Yeah. You have to kick the ball with just one foot and land on only the foot that you used to kick the ball with. Players take turns and the ball is raised higher and higher until there's only one player left.

The player who kicks the ball the highest height wins. So the one foot high kick was first used as a way for hunters to communicate a successful hunt to one another. Yeah, it can be really flat out there on the tundra or the Arctic ice, so you can see from very far distances. So you could do a one-foot high kick as a way to communicate a good hunt, even from far away.

Sort of like using sign language, but with your entire body. I love using body language to send messages. It beats regular shmegular texting any day. Like when I do jazz hands to show I just picked up a new library book. Just like this? Another stack bites the dust. Ow! I'll clean that one up later. Games like the Inuit Stick Pull and One Foot High Kick have been passed down from generation to generation.

They were partly tradition, but also just fun. Since the first Native Youth Olympics in 1971, the games have grown bigger and bigger, drawing more and more people every year. Today, there are over 500 students who compete in the Native Youth Olympics. Some of the games are even a part of gym classes at schools across Alaska. Community is still at the heart of these games today. Here's Nicole again. Today, when we play these games, we pass on that sense of

community and encouragement to one another. For example, when athletes compete against each other, they coach each other. Other coaches help other coaches with tips and tricks on how to kick higher, jump farther, techniques on strength events. And it's really just all about community and sportsmanship. That sounds so supportive, Ali. How does the Native Youth Olympics feel different from other sporting events you've been to? It's more open of mistakes.

unlike from like hockey when they get like so mad and it's like more it's more of a way of to show how you compete and it's not really that you're competing against other players you're competing against yourself seeing how high you can get and your personal best record of like how high you could jump kick

I love what you said that it's like competing against yourself as opposed to against another person. It really adds to that sense of community when you're kind of just focusing on doing the best that you can.

And in that way, you can kind of encourage someone else to do the best that they can. And, you know, it is true, like a lot of sports that I see, like hockey or basketball or football or whatever, it does seem like it's so competitive and it gets so, people get so angry. Yeah, it's more like you're rooting for...

one team, though in the Native Youth Olympics, you're rooting for everyone. Listeners, if you want to learn more about the Native Youth Olympics and watch videos of different events, we'll have some links in our show notes. So check them out. And in the spirit of camaraderie, what do you say we return some library books together? I think at least a dozen of these might be a wee bit overdue. Teamwork makes the dream work.

But how are we going to carry all of them? They're hundreds. Oh, ye of little faith. I have a plan. Just let me back up my book dozer. Put on this hard hat and start tossing books in the book dozer. The Native Youth Olympics is a sporting event that honors Alaska Native traditions. These games have existed for hundreds or maybe even thousands of years.

We play them as a way to test our skills and build community. Alaska Native culture was not always celebrated. Many Alaska Native children were sent away to boarding schools and programs where they were separated from their own traditions. However, a group of Alaska Native students came together to celebrate their culture through the Games, and the Native Youth Olympics was born.

The Native Youth Olympics continue to grow in popularity, and community and sportsmanship remain at the center of the games. This episode was written by Ruby Guthrie and Shayla Farzan. It was produced and fact-checked by Nico Gonzalez-Whistler and edited by Sandin Totten. Engineering help from Alex Simpson and Derek Hawkes with... Sound design by Rachel Breeze. Original theme music by Mark Sanchez.

We had additional production help from the rest of the Brains on Universe team. Molly Bloom. Rosie DuPont. Anna Goldfield. Lauren Humpert. Joshua Ray. Rebecca Rand. Mark Sanchez. Charlotte Traver, Anna Weggel, and Aron Woldeselassi. Beth Perlman is our executive producer, and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavadi and Joanne Griffith.

Special thanks to Dr. Maria Williams, Kyle Worrell, Nicole Johnson, and Lauren and Philip Blanchett. And if you want to access the ad-free episodes and special bonus stuff, subscribe to our Smarty Pass. Okay, Ellie, are you ready to hear the answers for First Things First? Yes, let's do it. Okay. So as a reminder, first up, you said the Lorax and then Curious George and then Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Yes. All right. Let's see what the answer is.

Okay, so first up is Curious George. Really? Actually. Yeah, Curious George was written and illustrated by a German couple in 1941. And the couple's name was H.A. and Margaret Ray. And the Rays were both German Jews, and in 1940, they had to flee Europe to escape Nazi rule. So the Curious George manuscript was one of the few items that they brought with them. Since its first publication in 1941, the original Curious George manuscript was one of the few items that they brought with them.

Curious George has never run out of print. Mind blown. Curious George, 1941. I remember reading Curious George. Wow. I did not expect it to be that old. Me neither. Wow. So Curious George was first, and then next up was the Lorax, actually, which I thought would be the oldest because of Dr. Seuss, because he's old, like you said. But it was written by Dr. Seuss in 1971. He wrote the Lorax after reflecting on his own concerns about the destruction of the environment, like trees being cut down.

The Lorax has since become an animated movie and is now often used as a symbol for the environmental movement. And you said you've seen it too, right? Yeah. So that means last but not least is Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which you were absolutely right about. The most recent. And so that came out in 2007. Oh. Yeah. So not too long ago. That was written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney. And it is one of the best-selling book series of all.

And they're still making more. And they're still making more, yeah. We'll be back next week with a new episode about the history of fireworks. Thanks for listening.