Opinion | Sports

James Giago Davies: Making history at the Lakota Nation Invitational

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The Lakota Nation Invitational provided many exciting moments. Above, Winnebago’s D’Von LaPointe, slipping past defender Justice Morrison (30), as the referee strives to keep up. Photo by James Giago Davies

Even the best tournament can get better
By James Giago Davies
Native Sun News Correspondent

It won’t be a Lakota Nation Invitational (LNI) soon forgotten, given how badly weather threatened opening day, and how the Winnebago Indians tore through the bracket to take the boys title, 74-41, from the defending champion White River Tigers.

Local media coverage of the LNI was relatively more comprehensive this year. Watching the games on TV was easy enough, and tempting given the weather issues on the Tuesday before play opened. School was closed throughout most of West River, along with stretches of Interstate 90, especially between Rapid City and the home of the boys defending champion White River Tigers, but every scheduled team managed to make tip off.

Cutline: In this final look at LNI action, Pine Ridge’s Chris Rodriguez, guarded by Winnebago’s Drake Gorrin, makes a move while White River coach Eldon Marshall scouts the game just over Gorrin’s left shoulder. Photo by James Giago Davies

Given the scope of activities, it is understandable if the media does not have a representative at every competition. Each one matters greatly to those participating, but it is hard enough for a local paper like Native Sun News to have a correspondent on hand to cover one of the competitions comprehensively, let alone get pictures and interview participants at all the others.

Each would be an interesting competition in its own right, but resources are limited even at the big dailies, and given the scarcity of East River schools in the tournament, not surprising the Argus Leader or the Aberdeen American aren’t much of a presence. Although I was graciously informed by the editor of the Aberdeen paper some years back, that Lakota issues are not local news, meaning if I were to write a column for them it would have to be on non-Indian topics. An inadvertent admission, an East River town surrounded by Indians on all sides, has very little interest in anything Indian.