New plan for NAIG competition

It’s official.
There will be no North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) in 2011.

But the Aboriginal Sport Circle (ASC), the governing body for Aboriginal sports in Canada, has stepped up and offered to help organize a variation of the games in 2012.

The 2011 NAIG had originally been awarded to Milwaukee, but the host organization announced in late June that it was withdrawing as host. As a result, members of the NAIG Council held a meeting in Winnipeg from Aug. 11 to 14 to determine their next steps.

Heading into the Winnipeg meeting, NAIG Council President Harold Joseph had said two groups—one from Saskatchewan and one from California—had expressed interest to take over the 2011 NAIG. But there was no need to vote on possible alternative sites for the 2011 NAIG as there were no presentations made at the Winnipeg meetings from any group.

“Nothing formal was received by council,” said Norman Ettawacappo, the ASC’s Major Games Liaison. “The interest was always there (from the Saskatchewan and California groups) but it was always just verbal.”

“They did not come forward offering to host,” said Marcia Trudeau, the proxy for the Ontario rep on the NAIG Council. “You can’t vote on hearsay. And we weren’t going to vote on an email. Nothing was presented to us. We need something in front of us.”

Since there would have been less than a year to prepare, Ettawacappo believes it might have been unreasonable anyway to ask another city to take over the 2011 NAIG.
“The reality of brining in another city to host it is too much to ask for,” he said. Officials at the Winnipeg meeting, therefore decided it would be best to concentrate on exploring other competitive opportunities for those who would have been eligible to participate next year.

The result is that ASC is planning to ask for submission bids this fall from cities that would be interested in hosting North American Indigenous Sport Championships in 2012.

Submission bids are expected to be open Sept. 30 and close by the end of November. Ettawacappo said ASC officials are then hoping to announce the host sites by Dec. 31.

Both Canadian and American cities will be allowed to submit bids to host the various sports, but Ettawacappo said that does not necessarily mean officials will try to award an equal number of events to cities in both countries.

“It will just depend on the applications we receive,” he said.

Ettawacappo added American cities interested in hosting a sport will still have to submit a bid to the ASC and not to the American-based sports body, the Indigenous Peoples Sport Circle.

ASC officials will be looking for as many as 15 hosts to include all of the sports offered at the NAIG, which are traditionally held every three years. Those sports are archery, badminton, basketball, baseball, boxing, canoeing, golf, lacrosse, rifle shooting, soccer, softball, swimming, track and field and cross-country running, volleyball and wrestling.

It is believed that organizers will slightly alter some of the traditional NAIG-age groupings to enable those that would have been eligible for the 2011 games to take part in the 2012 events.

The 2012 North American Indigenous Sport Championships will not necessarily be staged in 15 different cities. That’s because a city will be allowed to submit bids to host more than one sport.

In fact, that’s something ASC officials would welcome.
“If we could have fewer sites it would be easier to co-ordinate,” Ettawacappo said.

There’s also a chance, Ettawacappo added, that some sports may not find a host. If that is the case, then they simply would not be held.

“We hope to get all of the sports covered,” he said.
Though Milwaukee will not host the 2011 NAIG, some Aboriginal athletes from both sides of the border could still be competing in the Wisconsin city next year.

About three weeks after they withdrew as NAIG hosts, organizers from that city announced plans to stage a smaller event—called the U.S. Indigenous Games—in Milwaukee next year.

The North American Indigenous Games generally alternate between a Canadian and then a U.S. host, but controversy has surrounded the event in the past. Cowichan hosted in 2008, but Buffalo had originally been awarded the games in 2005. After plenty of uncertainties about the event planning, NAIG was moved to the state of Colorado and held in 2006.

As for the next NAIG, it is now scheduled to be held in 2014 in Canada. So far groups from four provinces—Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan—have expressed interest in hosting those games.

A site is expected to be chosen at a NAIG Council meeting, at a yet-to-be-determined location, next spring.