Native Country <\/a>is affected by it. For us to be sitting at this drum, for us as singers, it\u2019s a healing; it\u2019s a medicine. Every time we sing and hit that drum, we think about our sisters, our loved ones, our aunties, our daughters and our mothers. The ones that have gone missing.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Bobcats (8-5, 6-0 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League) dominated from the opening tip-off and won 62-15, but the game took backstage to the pre-game and halftime ceremonies. In addition to the drum circle, Southern Ute Tribal Councilor Bruce Valdez said a pre-game prayer, and Chairman Christine Sage delivered a thoughtful opening statement. There was traditional grand entry, which featured women and children in traditional regalia.<\/p>\n
For fan Tara Vigil, who was wearing a gray Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women T-shirt, she too reflected on what Saturday meant, which she said was important for the community to come out and support the team. She was impressed with how it was high school students that led the way in the movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot to us because we\u2019re teaching our children to be aware,\u201d Vigil said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to be on their own soon, and we can\u2019t watch them 24 hours. We have to teach them the awareness. \u2026 \u201cFor the girls basketball team to take the initiative on this means a lot, and I think it\u2019s big for our community moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Voices of Our Sisters group performs an honor song during halftime at Saturday\u2019s Ignacio-Nucla game at the SunUte Community Center.<\/span>Joel Priest\/For The Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>At halftime with the Bobcats leading 38-8, Voices of Our Sisters sang an honor song, as the packed gym turned eastward. After, members of the Fort Lewis College Indigenous Society of Psychologists provided statistics and figures.<\/p>\n
Both Sunnie Rose James and Robyn Ludecker of the organization were blown away by what the girls did. Rose James, a junior, is originally from Arizona, while sophomore Ludecker is from Fairbanks, Alaska. They hope to continue spreading awareness on campus and beyond.<\/p>\n
Lacee Brunson takes the ball away from a Nucla player in Saturday\u2019s game at the SunUte Community Center.<\/span>Joel Priest\/For The Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\u201cComing in this morning, it was definitely somber,\u201d Rose James said. \u201cBut being that we are part of a bigger picture, and are a part of something that has been historically ignored for a very long time, we are happy to spread awareness to be part of the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the second half with a running clock, the Bobcats pulled away from the Mustangs (3-12, 2-5 SJBL) and took home the win. For senior captain Mikayla Howell, the win didn\u2019t matter. What did was her community coming together.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was definitely more about the awareness than the game,\u201d Howell said, who finished with 12 points and was the team\u2019s second-leading scorer. \u201cIt was nice to take the win, but it was also really nice to have the whole community here and support the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bobcats plan on continuing the movement by moving posters and collages back to Ignacio High School, where they will remain up for the remainder of the season. Ignacio will play Ridgway (3-5, 2-2 SJBL) at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Ridgway.<\/p>\n
For Howell, the drum circle brought everyone together and united the community for an unforgettable afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe drum circle was really heartfelt, and anytime you go to pow-wows, there\u2019s a connection that you make with everyone that\u2019s there,\u201d she said. \u201cI think today everyone deep down connected with anything that has happened personally in their lives. Everyone here has kids or grandkids, and it really hit home. It helped us connect even more as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n
bploen@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"recognizes Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,13,28,846,29,427,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-prep-sports","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74688","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=74688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74688"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}