Character Test With Long Term Consquences

IN DEPTH EXAMINATION OF CULTURAL COMPETENCY, COMPETING INTERESTS, AND AVOIDING AN AMBUSH ON AN UNLEVEL PLAYING FIELD

One day, May 25, 2002, Tuff Harris sidestepped an "Emotional IED" designed to not only steal a 100 meter state championship from him but also destroy his future.

Harris was destined to become the first member of the Crow Tribe to play professional football in the National Football League but few outside of Tuff's close circle of family and friends believed in that possibility at the time. He was barely out of high school, reveling in one final opportunity to represent the Colstrip Colts at the Class A State track and field meet at Missoula, Mont., nearly 500 miles west of the adjacent Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations he called home.

As he put his feet into the starting blocks Harris didn't know it but he was being set up. He had been scouted, and one of his strengths, a disciplined ability to springboard off the starting line at the firing of the starting pistol, was going to be used against him with the cruelest of intentions. There were those who perceived Native Americans too often displayed a vulnerability towards taking offense at any perceived indications of racism and the mild-mannered, easy-going Harris was the target.

But, what wasn't widely known preserved Harris' future.

For all of his tremendous athletic ability making him "a living human highlight reel" in whatever sport he competed in, Harris maintained a low-key humility, and the capacity to walk away at an opportune moment spared him from unwanted consequences. That trait would serve him well when he needed it most.

Mid-Season Decision

Earlier during his high school career, Harris left the basketball team despite averaging 17 points per game and throwing down an assortment of alley-oop slam dunks. Few people knew that, as much as Harris enjoyed basketball, his decision was prompted by a desire not to wear out his legs before the spring track and field season.

Not everyone understood Harris' decision amongst a Native American culture tending to prioritize basketball above all other sports, influenced by a warrior heritage which celebrated war deeds such as stealing horses and counting coup, both of which could be accomplished on an athletic level in basketball in front of dozens of witnesses with theft of the ball and a slam dunk.

He didn't feel a need to explain himself publicly, cautiously stepping out of the limelight of a basketball season anticipated to make a run towards a state championship. The break from an intense basketball training regimen that some parents felt bordered on overexertion of teenage athletes allowed Harris to rest his body before the track and field season got underway.

Competing Cultural Values

Harris was born into a multicultural household subjected to competing influences, not all of them intended for his benefit. Harris' father carries both the Crow and Northern Cheyenne blood lines while his mother is of European descent although she was raised on the Crow Indian Reservation.

Each family living in that environment must deal with the ongoing problem of racism, which lumps people into large categories such as "White" or "Indian," while failing to recognize there are as many differences between the English and French as there are between the Crow and Cheyenne.

One border town adjacent to an Indian Reservation in south central Montana was notorious for operating in a state of habitual strife. It was either the city against the county, the city against the state or the city squaring off versus the tribe, in one dispute after another.

Conflicting Histories

Meanwhile, out on the reservations, too many Native Americans bought into forms of racial equity cunningly devised to maintain conflict by attempting to hold contemporary persons liable for atrocities of previous generations dating back to the 19th century.

Somebody made money off a bumper sticker popular among the Sioux at one time that stated, "Custer died for your sins."

Certain fallacies were woven into historical landmarks and presented as fact at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument such as a myth that the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Hunkpapa medicine man Sitting Bull and Oglala chief Crazy Horse, along with Cheyenne chiefs Dull Knife and Two Moons, revered Lt. Colonel George "Headstrong" Custer as some sort of "demi-god" and that's why his body wasn't mutilated like the other 263 men under his command.

The Native American reality is quite different. According to Franklin Rowland, one of the first Northern Cheyenne to earn a doctorate, "they considered Custer cursed and wouldn't touch him." George Bird Grinnell references this in his book, "The Fighting Cheyennes," published in 1915 with an account of the "Keeper of the Arrows," a sacred position among the Cheyenne, pouring ashes from the campfire on Custer's boots and pronouncing a conditional curse on him in the Cheyenne language while the Lt. Colonel unknowingly sat under the "sacred arrows" during a negotiation that took place in a Cheyenne tepee.

Cultural Competency

For Native Americans and those living among them with mixed blood, it's essential to maintain cultural competency.

Harris' ancestry was represented on both sides during the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June, 25, 1876. Custer's Crow scouts tried to keep him alive by warning him the Sioux and Cheyenne village was too big for him to take on with the Seventh Calvary, while the Cheyennes and their Sioux allies did their best to finish Custer off once the engagement began.

The Cheyennes still refuse to participate in re-enactments of the battle, expressing a sentiment that their ancestors did a good job of killing Custer and there's no need to do pretend to do it again.

Custer was rumored to entertain ambitions of running for president and the apparent widespread conspiracy to preserve his legacy by omitting Cheyenne oral history from the Battle of the Washita in western Oklahoma that accuses Seventh Calvary officers of tossing captured Cheyenne babies into the air, then catching them on the sabers isn't mentioned at either battlefield.

The only reason history records Colonel John Chivington's acts of barbarity five years prior, also attacking a Cheyenne village under Peace Chief Black Kettle, is because there was an officer present, Silas Soule', who refused to participate in the Sand Creek Massacre and reported the conduct of Chivington's troops in southern Colorado in 1864.

Double Edged Sword

Native Americans cope with a history clouded by a double-edged sword of those writing it that too often includes both a "Character Preservation" of their adversaries and a "Character Assassination" of the Indian people as well as the literal assassinations of Crazy Horse in 1877 and Sitting Bull in 1890.

To a certain extent that type of subliminal warfare continues today as illustrated by the recent death of Cayler Ellingson in North Dakota. Ellingson may be the first American teenager assassinated for his political beliefs with a drunk driver confessing to running him over, telling authorities it was because Ellingson was "a Republican extremist."

Those comments have been widely circulated in the news cycle, yet it's only one side of the story. Ellingson isn't alive to tell his version. The teenager endures a posthumous form of character assassination. His case would benefit by borrowing from the concept of the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) that's been highly successful in expressing the wishes of youth involved in foster care to the court.

A special advocate appointed by the court, with his family's approval, could be given access unto Ellingson's social media accounts and any personal journal he may have maintained to gain insight and express his viewpoint during court proceedings as well as hold press conferences.

Like Ellingson, Native Americans don't always get adequate representation in media coverage, and must be careful not to fall into those types of an ambush.

There was one waiting for Harris on May 25, 2002, when, as those scouting him predicted, he beat all other competitors off the starting blocks and blazed a path to the finish appearing to win his signature event in the boys 100 meter dash at the Montana Class A State track and field meet held at Missoula. After the field of runners crossed the finish line, the official declared Harris disqualified, alleging that he jumped the starting gun. According to the rules, the official should have halted the race immediately, not allowing it to progress across the finish line.

The 100 meter ran again without Harris and Havre junior Steve Heberly, who finished second behind Harris in the first race, was declared the state champion with a time of 11.27. Tuff's father, Jerry Harris, shot a video of the race which, when played back in slow motion, clearly showed there was no violation because puffs of smoke from the starting gun can be seen rising in at least three frames before Tuff Harris came off the blocks.

Point Shaving Scam

The disqualification functioned like a "point-shaving" scam, depriving Harris of 10 points for first place that would have gone towards accumulating an individual total awarded to the high-point athlete. Harris won state championships in both the high jump by clearing 6-feet, 2-inches and long jump with a distance of 22-7.5, plus placed second in the 200 meter with a time of 22:59.

Instead the 100 meter first place points went to Heberly, who also won the 200 meter in 22:02, and teamed with Jared Gabriel, Scott Robinson, and Steven Harman to win the 400 meter relay for the Blue Ponies in 43.70.

In the team standings, Harris' disqualification removed points from Colstrip, which still won the boys Class A State championship with 92, and bumped Havre up to 53 with the Blue Ponies finishing fourth overall.

Forgiveness Trump Card

In conducting a forensic audit of the incident even 20 years later, the point of this executive summary is to identify a path towards progress to overcome discrimination that creates an unlevel playing field such as what Farmington experienced in its nonconference 52-39 football loss at Rogers on Sept. 9.

Harris didn't make a scene. He didn't bite on a temptation that could have potentially derailed a future track and field scholarship to the University of Montana, at Missoula, site of the 2002 Class A State track and field meet. Harris gratefully accepted the track and field scholarship, all the while hoping to make the Grizzlies' football team. He walked on and was redshirted his freshman year before going on to a storied career as a four-year starter playing cornerback on defense.

Instead of falling for the old adage, "they're picking on the Indians again," Harris played his trump card, choosing to extend forgiveness. That decision positioned Harris to excel in college football.

At the University of Montana, Harris set Big Sky Conference records for most return yards in a season (667), and the longest punt return scoring play, a 94-yard return for a touchdown against Eastern Washington on Oct. 7, 2006, as well as a Grizzlies' team record for most return yards in a game (147).

He eventually signed as an undrafted free agent with the Miami Dolphins and later went on to play for the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers with one final season of professional football in the Canadian Football League.

Mark Humphrey grew up among a vast extended family of the Crow Indians in south central Montana. His mother was adopted and given the Cheyenne name of "Red Haired Woman" by the late George, Sr., and Helen Hiwalker, of Lame Deer, Mont., when living among the Northern Cheyenne as a missionary in the late 1950s. When he was six months old, Humphrey's grandfather, a member of the Crow Tribe and fluent speaker of the native language, was ran over and killed by a driver suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol south of the reservation boundaries at Parkman, Wyo. The driver was never held accountable. Humphrey is a member of a federally recognized tribe. Humphrey's poetry compositions derive from a rich spiritual and Native American heritage. Humphrey is a sports writer for the Enterprise-Leader. Opinions expressed are those of the author.