{"id":106367,"date":"2016-03-06T23:11:03","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T06:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/student-honored-by-center-for-native-american-youth\/"},"modified":"2016-03-06T23:11:03","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T06:11:03","slug":"student-honored-by-center-for-native-american-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/student-honored-by-center-for-native-american-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Student honored by Center for Native American Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=07e034d3-7ca4-46ab-b577-d1f314fc7dc2&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=07e034d3-7ca4-46ab-b577-d1f314fc7dc2&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=07e034d3-7ca4-46ab-b577-d1f314fc7dc2&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=07e034d3-7ca4-46ab-b577-d1f314fc7dc2&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Animas High School student Noah Blue Elk Hotchkiss, 17, tells the story of the founding of the Tribal Adaptive Organization as he is honored as a Champion of Change by the Center for Native American Youth in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 23. Looking on is a fellow honoree, Christie Wildcat, 18, from Riverton, Wyoming. Noah is the son of Jason Hotchkiss and Kimberly Armstrong.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Animas High School student Noah Blue Elk Hotchkiss, 17, tells the story of the founding of the Tribal Adaptive Organization as he is honored as a Champion of Change by the Center for Native American Youth in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 23. Looking on is a fellow honoree, Christie Wildcat, 18, from Riverton, Wyoming. Noah is the son of Jason Hotchkiss and Kimberly Armstrong.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Center for Native American Youth<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EkVG76twqTQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Animas High School student Noah Blue Elk Hotchkiss was honored by the Center for Native American Youth for his work in promoting wheelchair basketball on reservations.<\/p>\n<p>Noah, 17, was named a 2016 Champion for Change for co-founding the Tribal Adaptive Organization with his father, Jason.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started with a $10,000 grant from the Billy Mills Running Strong for Native American Youth Dreamstarter program to host wheelchair basketball on the reservations,\u201d Noah said at the awards presentation in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 23. \u201cWe wanted to use sports as a tool to change and impact the lives of disabled Native Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Noah has used a wheelchair since 2009, when his family\u2019s vehicle was hit head-on by a driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel. His stepmother, Cassandra Yazzie-Hotchkiss, was killed, and his younger siblings, Dante Hawkins and Amada Hotchkiss, were seriously injured in the crash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the hospital, finally realizing I couldn\u2019t use my legs, I couldn\u2019t walk, when I used to play soccer, I used to play basketball, it really impacted me,\u201d Noah said. \u201cI was really into sports. It made me feel like I had no value in this world anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His dad, he said, made him go rafting and camping, and eventually took Noah skiing with the Durango Adaptive Sports Association. After attending wheelchair basketball camps, Noah said he was pushed to go further by other wheelchair-using athletes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I look back at it now,\u201d he said, \u201cafter all those experiences, our team, the Phoenix Suns wheelchair basketball team, is the No. 1-ranked team in the country, and I\u2019m the fastest under-21 monoskier in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Noah is pursuing championships in multiple sports, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not seeing barriers I can\u2019t get over anymore, but I\u2019m seeing barriers I can overcome,\u201d he said. \u201cNow I\u2019m always up for challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The center, a policy program at the Aspen Institute, hosted a series of events in Washington, D.C., to honor the five young leaders selected for 2016.<\/p>\n<p>While in the nation\u2019s capital, they met with U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, White House staff, members of Congress and other federal agency officials, where they discussed the challenges their Native American peers face across the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing recognized as a Champion for Change by the Center for Native American Youth was an amazing experience, and I\u2019m motivated to expand my efforts and make an even greater impact in my community,\u201d Noah said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:abutler@durangoherald.com\">abutler@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elk Hotchkiss named Champion for Change<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5794,5735],"tags":[1644,2045,13,167,629],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-animas-high-school","tag-disabled","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-news-lead","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106367"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}