Club helps young Native Americans in New

Mexico connect with running

By Christian Science Monitor, adapted by Newsela staff on 01.29.19
Word Count 428
Level 580L

Elementary school students from the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, play running games with Dustin
Martin (center) as part of after-school activities. Wings of America is a New Mexico-based group that educates young Native Americans
about their cultural and spiritual connection to running. Photo by: Story Hinckley/The Christian Science Monitor

Dustin Martin is a runner. He also is a Navajo who leads Wings of America.

Wings is a group in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The group encourages Native American students to
run. Running is part of the history of their community. It also fights the stereotypes often
associated with Native Americans.

Programs were created to deal with issues in the community. This includes addressing the large
number of Native Americans who are low-income. The programs were about fixing people, Martin
says. Wings says the community is "more than those things."

The numbers are not on the side of Native American youths. Being overweight is a concern. It is
said to affect more Native Americans than white Americans. Native youths can also have more
emotional problems in school.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

A Running Club For Kids

Wings asks students to ignore these labels. Their ancestors ran to carry messages. Wings runners
today send different messages. They are messages of pride and hope.

Alicia Littlebear works for Wings. She and Martin hold a club for students in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. The students stretch and run. They also talk about Native Americans' history of running.

Years ago, there were not many horses. Native Americans ran hundreds of miles to talk to other
tribes.

Martin and Littlebear teach about Jim Thorpe. He grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation. It was a
Native American group in Oklahoma. Thorpe was the first Native American to win Olympic gold
for the United States. It was in 1912.

Lewis Tewanima was a Hopi runner from Arizona. He went to the Olympics with Thorpe. His
silver medal was the best finish by a U.S. athlete in the 10,000 meter run until 1964. That
year, Billy Mills won gold in the race. Mills also is Native American.

Making A Statement Through Running

Some of these runners were sent away to school. This was done in the early 1900s. It was to force
the young people to leave Native American ways. Thorpe and Tewanima trained at the Carlisle
Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. They made it to the Olympics together.

They ran for a reason, says Martin. It was as though they wanted to use what their people gave
them, he says.

Wings teaches that running can be a protest.

Martin helped organize a run. It went to Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. The monument
is important to Native Americans. President Donald Trump cut its size by more than half.

The group also brings runners to national races. It wants to change how people see Native
Americans.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.