VIDBE-Q 2025 Volume 70 Issue 4
their back door." Honoring the traditional Navajo custom of modesty, female athletes
are always allowed to wear t-shirts over their swimsuits if they choose to do so.
For the Camp schedule, sports that are most popular with Navajo students are
included. When sports are brought up on the reservation, basketball is the first sport
mentioned, including children with visual impairment/blindness. Basketball is hugely
popular, local high school players become heroes, and families drive hours to attend
the games where there is never an empty seat. In Michael Powell's "Canyon Dreams"
(2019), the author "shows how important sports can be to youths in struggling
communities and illuminates the transcendent magic and painful realities that confront
Native Americans coming of age there." He notes the town of Chinle, Arizona, on the
reservation, has 4,500 residents, but its high school gym seats 7,000! The public
basketball courts in Page, Arizona, are right next to the park with picnic tables for
lunch, where student athletes get a chance to learn and practice their ball handling
skills. A beeper is placed on a hula hoop, which is then placed over the basket, to
serve as an auditory cue for the athletes.
Wrestling, another popular sport on the reservation, was added to the schedule
the year after athletes expressed their interest in the wrestling/boxing equipment at the
climbing gym. The Navajo proprietor agreed to provide teaching for these two sports
as well.
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