The 26-year-old smiled and modestly accepted a new saddle, part of an award that accompanied a $1,500 cash prize in an ultimate test of athletic endurance.
The Warrior of the Plains contest was held last week during the Fort Berthold Reservation's “Reunion at the Home of Sakakawea,” the second-to-last of 15 national Lewis and Clark signature events staged around the country over the past two years.
My nieces, sister and I walked up a steep hill overlooking Lake Sakakawea on a Friday morning to watch the contest as hundreds of others cheered from below. We had a spectacular view of the course, which was monitored from atop the hill by some race officials.
Linklater of the Thunderchild First Nation Reserve took the lead early on foot and in the canoe. But Young Bear caught him at the first lake buoy. Dobbs held a steady position among the top five contestants in the canoe and on foot.
Linklater, 23, reclaimed his lead once he landed his canoe and started running. The shirtless, shoeless champion runner - he decided not to put on his shoes after getting out of the canoe so he wouldn't lose time - quickly put hundreds of yards between him and the pack.
The contest was ultimately determined by horsemanship.
Linklater lost his lead to Young Bear and 15-year-old Dobbs - both citizens of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. Young Bear's feet never touched the ground as he moved from one horse to the next.
Dobbs - my brother's son - is a rodeo champion who has been competing since he was 10.
Women competed the day before in a similar contest plotted as a three-person relay. The Warrior of the Plains contest marks a recent surge among tribes in the past five years to recognize outstanding athletes, many leading drug- and alcohol-free lives.
In Arizona, the annual Lori Piestewa National Native American Games were introduced three years ago, drawing 1,500 athletes from five states.
And in July, more than 7,000 Native athletes - a record - participated in the North American Indigenous Games. The event marked only the second time the games were played in the United States. The NAIG competitions are expected to draw 9,000 athletes to British Columbia in 2008.
Also, the Native American Basketball Invitational, or NABI Hoops, debuted in 2003. It attracts some of the country's best high school basketball players. Teams should be organizing now if they plan to compete in the 2007 tournament July 8-14 in Phoenix.
Fort Berthold's Warrior of the Plains contest is the first such event on the reservation in recent memory. Organizers modeled the all-around sporting event after the Crow Nation's Ultimate Warrior Challenge Triathlon - that event was organized about six years ago.
This year, the Ultimate Warrior winner took home a $6,000 prize, while the women's relay competitors split a purse for the same amount.
Young Bear not only claimed the warrior title this year at Fort Berthold, but also won the Ultimate Warrior Challenge last year in Crow Agency.
I've been fortunate to see athletes compete in nearly all of these sporting events.
They've been an inspiration to me, their families and communities. The recent surge in Native athletic events is a positive signal that tribal people are once again embracing a healthy lifestyle once ingrained in the culture.
Now it's up to families and communities to keep the momentum alive.
Jodi Rave covers Native issues for the Missoulian. Reach her at (800) 366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net
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