Traditional Games reaches a new best each year, just like its athletes
- Jasz Garrett
- 19 hours ago
- 8 min read
Ninth annual Native Youth Olympics event brings together record number of participants from Alaska and abroad
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
The ninth annual Traditional Games was held this weekend at the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé George Houston Gymnasium, with an international showing of teams making this year unique.
Sealaska Heritage Institute, the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, and partners co-host the event, which celebrates Alaska Native cultural heritage. Rooted in Indigenous survival and hunting tactics, the 12 medaled games pass on the skills that allowed Iñupiaq people to thrive in challenging environments for thousands of years.
This year, the Games also highlighted other Indigenous cultures by hosting athletes from Mexico and New Zealand.
Kyle Kaayák’w Worl has been the organizer of the Games for the last nine years. He said each spring, the event grows and 2026 was no exception. It broke another record with nearly 300 athletes competing from over 30 teams and four different countries, including four teams from Canada.
“The team from Mexico and New Zealand were special guests that we invited to provide more of a cultural exchange to this event around games,” Worl said. “We want to give a broader focus on traditional games around the world. And so we know Mexico and New Zealand have many of their own games, and we started the week off with youth workshops on Friday.”
Worl said the cultural exchange began when he went to the Global Masters Indigenous Games last August in Ottawa, Canada. As the Arctic sports manager, he coordinated the event and also integrated the 12 Alaska Native Traditional Games. It was then that the connection between New Zealand and Mexico was born.
“This is all about bringing something for our youth,” Worl said. “I wanted them to experience that international camaraderie, that solidarity with other Indigenous groups, that sense of a shared vision and a love of games and cultural revitalization. Let’s bring it locally for our kids here at home to experience that, to broaden their perspective of the world and the diversity of culture, but also to feel like they’re part of something bigger.”
Workshops are continuing Monday, along with a weather-dependent canoe trip departing from Statter Harbor in the morning. This weekend’s events also included three local dance groups and two international performances, as well as demonstrations of cultural games from Labrador.
The Traditional Games ended with an award ceremony Sunday evening. But since some teams are staying in town until Tuesday, Worl said they wanted athletes to have another chance to experience the workshops if they missed them Friday and potentially go out on the water.
“What we’re wanting to do in future events is to bring in canoe games, because we know canoeing is a big Southeast tradition,” he said. “Most of these games, their origins are up from up north. I think our people in Southeast resonate with the games because they’re about subsistence and living off the land, but they are from up north, so we want to see about incorporating some Southeast games like canoe racing or canoe tug-of-war.”
He said the goal of Monday’s canoe trip is to explore how they can add it to either the Traditional Games or make it a separate event in the summer. Worl said it’s also a great opportunity to further expose the New Zealand team to life in Southeast Alaska.
An art market in the high school’s commons featured handmade work by six Indigenous artists. This year’s event also featured a new college and career fair on Saturday. Friday workshops ended with a college career readiness workshop, with several college teams represented this weekend. A new award was added for the most inspiring college team. Athletes voted, and Fort Lewis College won, with $1,000 going toward their club.
Worl is also an Arctic sports athlete and the Juneau team’s coach. He said another vision he has is building Native Youth Olympics as a post-secondary sport.
“That comes from my experience coaching over the years, and I’ve had athletes select NYO as their sport for all of high school,” he said. “They make that decision because they love the Games, and me as a coach, I want them to have the same opportunities that they have in other sports.”
He said it’s still a goal for more colleges to offer these scholarships and programs. But Worl said seniors from last year are already a part of college teams and returned to Juneau to compete, so they are starting to see the success.
“We think sports can be so important in retention of athletes in post-secondary college, keeping them feeling connected to their campus, like they’re valued, like their culture is recognized,” Worl said. He said the new award aims to support these college teams in their mission.
JDHS athlete Mila Neely, 15, said college athletes from the Institute of American Indian Arts inspire her. She has been participating in Native Youth Olympics since fifth grade and said the sport has connected her to friends.
“I went with the NYO team from Alaska to IAIA when I was in eighth grade, and we showed them the games and gave them a kickstand to start a team down there,” she said. “Then they were able to come up last year, which was super exciting, so I was able to talk to them and give them advice on the games they were participating in. And I love that college.”
She said she is hoping to join their team after she graduates high school. On Sunday, Neely excelled in her two favorite events: the two-foot high kick and seal hop.
The two-foot high kick requires an athlete to jump with both feet simultaneously and kick a suspended ball, then land on both feet without falling backwards. The ball is raised in increments of four inches after each round. The two-foot high kick was historically used to communicate the success of a spring hunt, according to SHI's description.
“When you’re able to kick above your head and go really high, it just feels really self-rewarding, because it’s kind of like a mental game at some point, because you have to be able to lean back in order to kick that high, which is really scary,” Neely said. “But then after you’re able to kick it, I always just feel really proud of myself, and it’s really fun.”
The seal hop is an endurance game, and was traditionally used to sneak up on a seal across the ice, mimicking the mammal’s movement.
Neely said her fellow athletes’ cheers gave her the adrenaline rush she needed to hop like a seal on her hands and toes across the gymnasium floor. Female contestants assume a push-up position with arms straight and palms flat on the floor, while men maintain a lowered push-up position, supporting their weight on the heels of the hands and knuckles.
“Everyone’s just cheering each other on and trying to get their personal best, which is another thing I like about seal hop — it’s about how far you are able to push yourself,” she said.
She said she likes the Games because success is measured by self-improvement, and athletes are celebrated for reaching their personal bests. They also help each other reach their goals, no matter what team they’re on.
“Seeing myself not just be able to kick higher but be able to give better advice because I’m more knowledgeable about the games is exciting,” Neely said.
Another athlete who kicked higher — high enough to break a middle school record — was 13-year-old Joseph Rodgers of Chickaloon. It’s his eighth year as a Native Youth Olympics athlete, and his third coming to Juneau for the Traditional Games. He competes in most of the games.
“Native Youth Olympics really draws me just because I’m really competitive and it’s just really, really fun,” he said. “I’ve been consistently improving. My record is 90 inches now.”
Rodgers’ 90 inches breaks the previous record of 84 inches for the male middle school two-foot high kick category.
This year’s Games had about 60 coaches, and for many, it was their first time, like Klukwan and Kake. Hydaburg and Yakutat also returned after a hiatus.
“We do have this international lens, but it’s also about our Southeast region,” Worl said. “My dream, my vision, is to see a team from every single community in Southeast Alaska.”
He said he was also happy to see a team from Carcross come for their first time.
“They’re Lingít people as well,” Worl said. “I think this is a way for us to reconnect with one of our neighbors that are culturally tied to us.”
Ryan West, coach of Carcross Ghùch Tlâ Community School, said their class is taking home ribbons and a third-place kneel jump medal.
Ari Grant, who is in seventh grade, placed third in the female middle school kneel jump on Saturday, with a mark of 20.75 inches. Athletes kneel with the tops of their feet flat on the floor, and then jump up and forward.
Athletes must land on both feet simultaneously and remain in that position without moving and without otherwise touching the floor. The winner is the contestant who jumps the greatest distance. The kneel jump was a game used to strengthen the leg muscles for jumping from ice floe to ice floe, and for lifting prey after a successful hunt.
West said they met the Juneau team at the Whitehorse Arctic Winter Sports Interschool Championship earlier this year. Worl led a demonstration for them and left sticks and sealskin balls to kickstart their training.
“All of our young athletes, it’s their first time really competing in any kind of big tournament like this,” West said. “For the last month, we’ve been training pretty hard, and it’s a whole new experience for any of them, even training like that.”
It was also some of the students’ first time away from home. West said they differ from other teams because their 11 athletes came to the tournament as a seventh- to ninth-grade class.
“Our class is like a little family community,” he said, calling the Traditional Games a bonding experience.
While all of the competition was new for the Carcross class, Levi Calhoun, who is in the ninth grade, said he was especially happy he tried archery. His friend Damian Lee was impressed with his bullseyes, and Calhoun surprised himself with a total of 160 points. He said he planned to keep up with the sport. Archery debuted at the Traditional Games in 2023.
The Carcross class competed in the male and female middle school and high school categories. The students also encouraged their two coaches to compete in the open category. West competed for the first time in the one-foot high kick, two-foot high kick, Alaskan high kick, and knuckle hop.
“I grew up playing really competitive hockey and a few other sports, and when I first experienced these Traditional Games, it really turned my mindset of the philosophy of sport on its head,” he said. “Just seeing the camaraderie and sportsmanship of the athletes and coaches and how each of them helps each other out on the court — seeing those traditional values played out in sport really inspired us.”
He echoed Worl’s sentiment that it was special to visit another Tlingit community and learn from them. He said it helped their class still feel at home, with some students joining in on local dances.
“They felt like they belonged,” he said.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
