Bigchild success: Games hardware brought home

She proudly wears the gold and bronze medals she won at the 2006 North American Indigenous Games held in Denver, Colorado from July 2 to 9. Fifteen-year-old Cheyenne Bigchild from the Sunchild Reserve competed for them against other Aboriginal youth from Canada and the United States.
In the midget category, Bigchild won gold in the 25-metre javelin throw and bronze in the 22-metre discus throw. During a telephone interview with Bigchild, Sweetgrass asked her what she did with her medals and she laughed saying that they were in her dad's pocket most of the time.
"My dad kind of claimed them. He takes them around in his pocket and he shows people," she said.
Although this was Bigchild's first time competing at NAIG and her first time visiting the United States, she thought things went pretty well.
"It was fun and I got to meet new people," she said. "I was very happy and proud to be there."
Bigchild claims that she is the first athlete from her home since NAIG began in 1992 to bring gold medals back to the community. She said Sunchild's Chief Stanley Lagrelle made this known during the annual powwow held last weekend.
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"At our powwow, the chief called me up and told the community that I was the first athlete to bring gold home and he said he was proud of me," said Bigchild. Like most athletes, Bigchild had to qualify for NAIG. She competed in the Edmonton summer games last year in all four of her events.
Although it was a lot of hard training for the Grade 9 student, she is eagerly looking forward to competing at the next games.
"I'm going to definitely try and compete in the next games because I really like what I do," said Bigchild.
In order to prepare herself for NAIG, Bigchild practiced from nine in the morning until noon three times a week, using men's equipment, which is "heavy stuff," she said.
"The women's equipment is a lot lighter than the men's, so when I was competing it kind of gave me an advantage."
Bigchild is not the only athlete in her family. Her seven brothers and three sisters are involved in various sports, including hockey, baseball and basketball.
Her older brother and sister competed in the 2006 National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake. These games attracted bantam- and midget-aged Aboriginal hockey players, as well as participation from First Nations, Inuit and Metis coaches and sport leaders.
Bigchild told Sweetgrass that upon graduation from Sunchild First Nation School, she plans to pursue a career as a personal trainer.
According to the unofficial results on the NAIG Web site, Team Alberta placed fifth with 59 medals. Alberta won 16 gold, 17 silver and 26 bronze medals at the largest NAIG to date.