Alaska's Indigenous teens emulate ancestors' Arctic survival skills at the Native Youth Olympics

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The athletes filling a immense gym successful Anchorage, Alaska were acceptable to compete, cheering and stomping and high-fiving each different arsenic they lined up for the accidental to assertion the state's apical prize successful their events.

But these teenagers were astatine the Native Youth Olympics, a statewide contention that attracts hundreds of Alaska Native athletes each twelvemonth and pays tribute to the skills and techniques utilized by their ancestors to past successful the harsh polar climate.

Events astatine the contention that wraps up Saturday see a instrumentality pull, meant to mimic holding onto a slippery seal arsenic it fights to instrumentality to the water, and a modified, four-step wide leap that approximates leaping crossed crystal floes connected the frozen ocean.

For generations, Alaska Natives played these games to make the skills they needed to go palmy hunters — and past — successful an unforgiving climate.

Now, today's younker play “to assistance sphere our culture, our heritage, and to thatch our younker however hard beingness utilized to beryllium and to stock our civilization with everyone astir america who wants to cognize much astir our people,” said Nicole Johnson, the caput authoritative for the lawsuit and 1 of Alaska’s astir decorated Native athletes.

Johnson herself has won implicit 100 medals astatine Native Olympic competitions and for 29 years held the satellite grounds successful the two-foot precocious kick, an lawsuit wherever athletes leap with some feet, footwear a shot portion keeping some feet even, and past onshore connected some feet. Her grounds of 6-feet, 6-inches was breached successful 2014.

For the “seal hop,” a fashionable lawsuit connected Saturday, athletes get into a push-up oregon plank presumption and shuffle crossed the level connected their knuckles — the aforesaid stealthy crawl their ancestors utilized during a hunt to sneak up connected unsuspecting seals napping connected the ice.

“And erstwhile they got adjacent capable to the seal, they would drawback their harpoon and get the seal,” said Johnson, an Inupiaq primitively from Nome.

Colton Paul had the assemblage clapping and stomping their feet. Last year, helium acceptable a satellite grounds successful the scissors wide leap with a people of 38 feet, 7 inches erstwhile competing for Mount Edgecumbe High School, a boarding schoolhouse successful Sitka. The leap requires powerfulness and balance, and includes 4 circumstantial stylized leaps that mimic hop-scotching crossed floating crystal chunks to navigate a frozen stream oregon ocean.

The Yupik jock from the occidental Alaska colony of Kipnuk tin nary longer vie due to the fact that he's graduated, but helium performed for the assemblage connected Friday, and jumped 38 feet, 9 inches.

He said Native Youth Olympics is the lone athletics for which he’s had a passion.

“Doing the sports has truly made maine had a consciousness of ‘My ancestors did this’ and I’m doing what they did for survival," said Paul, who is present 19. “It’s conscionable thing amusive to do.”

Awaluk Nichols has been taking portion successful Native Youth Olympics for astir of her childhood. The events springiness her a accidental to research her Inupiaq heritage, thing she feels is slowing fading distant from Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community.

“It helps maine a batch to conscionable link with my friends and my culture, and it conscionable means a batch to maine that we inactive person it,” said the precocious schoolhouse junior, who listed her champion lawsuit arsenic the one-foot precocious kick.

Some events are arsenic overmuch of a intelligence trial arsenic a carnal one. In 1 contention called the “wrist carry,” 2 teammates clasp a instrumentality astatine each end, portion a 3rd idiosyncratic hangs from the dowel by their wrist, legs curled up similar a sloth, arsenic their teammates tally astir an oval track.

The extremity is to spot who tin bent onto the instrumentality the longest without falling oregon touching the ground. The lawsuit builds strength, endurance and teamwork, and emulates the traits radical of the northbound needed erstwhile they lived a nomadic manner and had to transportation dense loads, organizers said.

Nichols said her household and immoderate others inactive enactment successful immoderate Native traditions, similar hunting and subsisting disconnected the onshore similar their ancestors, but competing successful the younker games “makes you consciousness truly connected with them,” she said.

“Just knowing that I'm portion of what utilized to beryllium — it makes maine happy,” she said.