VERMILLION — When they host Saturday’s game, the University of South Dakota football team will charge onto the field wearing symbols honoring Native Heritage Day.
The Coyote players’ helmets will sport custom decals, including the word, “Sungmanitu” — Lakota for “coyote” — and images honoring the state’s nine tribes. The afternoon will also feature Native American music and recognize Native alumni, students and staff.
The game against the University of North Dakota marks an inaugural event, according to John Little, a Standing Rock tribal member and director of USD Native Recruitment and Alumni Engagement.
“This is the first time that we have done this for USD football, However, we have done Native Heritage Day basketball games over the last four years,” he said. “It has in part helped lead to increased numbers of Native student enrollment at USD and has served as a retention tool for current students. It’s something that current students look forward to every year.”
In addition to the football game, USD Native Student Services and USD Admissions will host a morning program for more than 200 Native high school students across the state, Little said.
The USD Athletic Department deserves tremendous credit for its partnership with Native Heritage Day, according to Megan Red Shirt-Shaw (Oglala & Sicangu Lakota), director of Native Student Services.
“From day one, they have been excited to work together to center the richness of this project from every angle, and we cannot wait for the full game-day experience of watching the team represent Native excellence at USD,” she said.
USD has worked with a special helmet for the Military Appreciation Day games, and the Native helmet represents an effort to honor the state and tribes, said Jarren Duffy, the associate athletic director for fan engagement.
“It is an honor to collaborate with Native Student Services for a unique helmet and the Native American Heritage Game,” he said. “Native heritage runs deep in South Dakota, and it is a privilege to celebrate those roots in conjunction with Coyote football.”
The football game will kick off with the Lakota Flag Song sung by Mahpíya Lúta Middle School from the Pine Ridge reservation in southwest South Dakota. The 350-mile, one-way trip to Vermillion takes nearly six hours.
The students are excited to perform, even if it means leaving for Vermillion at 4 a.m. and then returning after the football game, according to Middle School Principal Connor Moynihan-Janis.
“But I think that shows more dedication, that they’re willing to leave that early and return so late for something they’re passionate about,” he said. “This is a really cool opportunity, and they see that at such a young age.”
The students see the unique nature of appearing at a NCAA Division I football game before thousands of fans in the DakotaDome, he added.
“I think, for our kids, it’s really uplifting. It shows these schools, these places off the reservation, care about them, and that recognition (promotes pride),” he said. “They think, ‘Hey, this is honoring us and our families. This is honoring the people that came before us.’”
Sadie Red Wing, a Spirit Lake Dakota member, designed the custom helmet decals. Josh Pansegrau helped design the layout and installed the decals onto the helmets.
Besides the word “Sungmanitu” on the side, the design along the top represents the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires, that include the nine tribal nations in South Dakota, Red Wing said.
“One unique design element that I added was the traditional buffalo tracks. When I think of the football players rushing on the field, I think of buffalo herds stampeding the prairie,” she said. “As the players work together, they form a team, a tribe or a herd of buffalo, so I felt adding buffalo tracks would make sense when visually communicating the metaphor of a player as a buffalo.”
Kainen White (Cherokee), a USD defensive tackle, expressed his excitement for wearing his Cherokee Nation flag on his helmet. White hopes many future Native athletes will be inspired to keep pursuing athletics and higher education.
Matayah YellowMule (Oglala Lakota), a senior on the USD track and field teams, hopes Native fans and high school students feel the same sense of pride when they see the helmet.
“I hope this game plants a seed in their hearts and helps them go forward in whatever ambitions and dreams that they have for themselves,” she said. “I hope that this shows them that they belong in spaces like these and that they are capable of doing so.”
Little hopes Native Heritage Day promotes greater conversation that centers on healing and awareness.
“USD has had more than 1,500 Native students graduate from its campus and has a rich legacy of Native programming, initiatives and history on campus,” he said. “Being able to use Lakota language on the helmets, as well as feature the tribal nations’ flags, continues that legacy. It also allows students, current and future, to see themselves and their tribal nations represented in a very unique way.”
USD can set an example for the rest of the nation, Little said.
“I hope other institutions see this and continue this trend in the future,” he said.
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