Horse Clan vs Makipazo: Unfinished Business

The brackets. Photos by Colton Sierra '14. Copyright Red Cloud Indian School.

Horse Clan vs Makipazo: Unfinished Business

By Colton Sierra ‘14

Red Cloud’s eldest handgame team fell to Red Cloud’s youngest handgame team in a delayed championship game in the Cuny Commons this past Tuesday.

A few days ago on Friday the 14th, all of the Red Cloud handgame players and pow-wow dancers jumped on Joe Fleischman’s school bus and made their way to Porcupine, SD for another pow-wow.

Usually the games get started right away because they can go on for a very long time. However, the space was limited and the amount of teams that were there was almost overwhelming. Therefore, the middle school games finally finished after four hours, and the high school handgames would finally make their start.

Makipazo and Horse Clan made it through the bracket with little to no problem and met up in a game that led to the championship. Makipazo made Horse Clan look like the rookies with a quick sweep of sticks, and left Horse Clan shocked.

The players of Horse Clan were in for a long wait until they would play again. Two Little Wound teams (Taopi Cik’ala and Hashtag Mustangs) battled for who would move on to the next game and avoid losing out of the tournament. This game lasted for about two hours. Taopi Cik’ala moved on to face an all-girls St. Francis team, and again, this game went on for two hours.

Horse Clan was ready for another game, and it was about to finally happen. The people were exhausted and the singing voices were tired. Soon as the game started, freshman Almadon Swalley said he knew that “we were going to win.” No one is saying that this young man can tell the future, but Horse Clan bounced back into championship with a win over Taopi Cik’ala after about only ten minutes of play.

It was about 10:30 at night, and it was a long six or seven hours of handgames. Everyone was tired, so the handgames director Marlon Kelly asked if the two Red Cloud teams wanted to play the championship game at our school. The two captains, Colton Sierra ‘14 and Wakinyan Forney ‘17, consulted on the matter, and decided to have the game played in the Commons for everyone to see.

“I was nervous,” said junior Mikala Marrufo about the game in the Commons, “We had a small amount of time to work with.” Even though Horse Clan attempted to rock the boat, Makipazo had the heart to stay afloat. Congratulations to the freshmen champs: Wakinyan Forney, Stevie Cross Dog, Wayslynn Ghost Bear, Chanda Lays Bad, and Steven Wilson.