Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

American sport has played a vital role in helping integrate American society and empowered women and minorities in substantial ways. This online poster presentation discusses this transformative power of sport to an invisible segment of the American population: Native American teenage girls living on the reservation. Students, educators and Humanities scholars have much to gain unraveling the complex lives of these female high school basketball players against the backdrop of family, community, and tribe. This study discusses four different tribal cultures and theorizes how the roles these female athletes play may be empowering and perilous. Drawing from texts and films, the presentation will compare and contrast the impacts and legacies of four teams from different times and places: the Ft. Shaw Indian Boarding School (MT) Girls Team of 1904, the Hardin High School (MT) Lady Bulldogs and Shiprock High School (NM) Lady Chieftains of the mid-1990s, and the Franklin High School (OR) Quakers in 2009. Studying the lived conditions and participation of these particular groups of teenage girls in sport will bring to light the complex web of subcultures within indigenous America societies that promote and deny opportunities for female empowerment and leadership.