Alberta alternative planned for Indigenous games

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In a move designed to provide young Aboriginal athletes with an alternative to the on-again, off-again North American Indigenous Games, the Indigenous Sport Council of Alberta is planning to host a Western Canadian Indigenous Games this summer.

The 1999 North American Indigenous Games, originally scheduled for Fargo, North Dakota, have been cancelled.

The possibility of moving the games to Norman, Oklahoma has been raised but that plan looks less likely with each passing day. Even if the standby community in Oklahoma was able to raise the required money for the next round of the games, they would not be able to host them until the year 2000 at the earliest.

In order to have some place for the athletes to compete this summer, the Alberta council has been negotiating with representatives of the four bands at Hobbema in central Alberta and has tentatively penned in the last week of July for the western games.

"Rather than have our athletes do without any games at all in 1999," said council chairman Charles Weaselhead, "we are taking the initiative to develop the western games as a substitute."

"The initiative," he added, "was community-driven."

In other words, he explained, people from communities all across western Canada have been asking for some kind of event since the North American games have been cancelled.

The regions being considered eligible to compete at these games are British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon and Northwest Territories. But that picture can still change. There are people who are asking why the games can't include anyone from Canada and be national in scope?

The sport council's director, Ted Hodgson, told Raven's Eye the Hobbema site offers adequate facilities. The community has eight schools, three community centres, a college and a cultural centre. But an event of this size requires other considerations, including the cost of travel, food for participants and a small army of volunteers, technical crews and officials.

Probably one of the biggest drawbacks in going with a place like Hobbema is the absence of sufficient accommodation. Although there are two towns nearby - Wetaskiwin and Ponoka - they have limited hotel or motel accommodations.

Alex Nelson, vice-president for the North American Indigenous Games, was the executive director of the 1997 games in Victoria. He said British Columbia organizers are fundraising to pay for hotel space. It would appear that Edmonton, Calgary or any other major urban centre would be the only place for accommodation that includes beds.

If Edmonton became the alternate location for the games, just how feasible would that be when major city facilities are generally booked up many, many months in advance.

It may already be too late to get adequate facilities in Edmonton, places like the university's Butterdome, city schools, parks, etc.

Then what? Is Hobbema then the only place for the games?

In terms of funding to supports the games, Hodgson admits there are none in place and nobody has been formally approached, including the province.

If the games do take flight in Alberta, they will likely have to be scaled down from 16 events to, perhaps, 10 or less.

Categories like rifle shooting, archery, canoeing, boxing, wrestling and lacrosse would likely be scratched.

Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain, there are a lot of unanswered questions and so little time until the games roll around - if they do.