Mile High Invesco Field

Certainly Arlene Tall Bull was not the only child to be puzzled, to wonder why wherever she looked - school, swimming classes, her Lone Tree neighborhood - there were no other American Indians to be seen, no brown boys and girls, nobody who seemed to share her Cheyenne and Menominee blood.

Even her mother's assurances that she was not the only American Indian child in the world may not have completely convinced her and removed the aura of confusion and isolation she felt.

On Sunday, whatever remains of Arlene Tall Bull's confusion will likely vanish in a cloud of pageantry and community. That's when - and it's coincidentally on her 13th birthday - the last vestiges of her doubts, her differentness, will be blown far away in four directions by the four winds that will symbolize and usher in the 2006 North American Indigenous Games, a weeklong celebration of pride, culture and - just as important - fierce athletic competition.

'Really proud'

Some 7,000 athletes from 23 states and 11 Canadian provinces will parade into Invesco Field at Mile High in an opening ceremony that promises to be rich with lore and color. And among those athletes will be Arlene Tall Bull, a bantam group swimmer - and her mother, Brooke, a senior swimmer, and her father Richard, a senior golfer - athletes all, representing Colorado.

It will be a moment, says Brooke that, for her, will hover between "spectacular" and "awesome," an experience that "will make me really proud."

For Harry Cage, the opening ceremonies will likely find him colliding with his emotions.

"I'm sure I'm probably going to get a little choked up," says the 53-year-old Indian from Arvada, a member of the Potawatomi and Ojibway tribes who will compete in tae-kwon-do, along with his 18-year-old son, Donovan.

"Nothing is going to make me prouder than to stand next to my boy as we walk out onto the field and look up in the crowd," says Cage, who despite having his ankle encased in a cast in the weeks preceding the competition - and despite the fact that, "Chances are, there's not going to be anybody older or fatter than me" - will be ready to compete.

So will the other athletes, who range in age from 13 to fiftysomething; boys and girls and men and women who will compete in 16 different sports at venues sprinkled across the Denver area and south to Colorado Springs.

'Serve as role models'

Some will come determined to win, carrying the same drive that Darrell Roberts did 11 years ago, when he competed at the North American Indigenous Games in Blaine, Minn., the first - and only other - time the games have been held outside of Canada.

Roberts took second in the 10,000 meters, not a tremendous surprise considering he had been a standout runner at Denver South High School as a prep athlete. But this time, things are different for Roberts, 37, a Navajo and a Mesquaki.

Today, he works in student development at Fort Lewis College in Durango, and coaches and mentors young adults. Today, he hopes the athletes - including himself - "can serve as role models."

"Hopefully, we show Indian boys and girls across the country that even if you're from a reservation, you can succeed; you can go on to college, to a new environment and attain what you need to get ahead," Roberts said.

Today, too, for him, the games are less about winning than serving as a "a chance for us to gather as a people, to form a community."

Cage couldn't agree more.

"It has been so long since this many Native Americans gathered in one spot just to be in community with each other, to experience their Indian-ness, their diversity," he says. "The last time we had this many Indians together, we were making war."

As far as Richard Tall Bull, 44, is concerned, there is still a war to be fought at the games, the war against prejudice and small-mindedness.

"Come on," says the owner of his own construction firm, "you know that a lot of people think Indians are different. We all live on reservations, not doing much. We're all lazy; we're alcoholics.

"Well, this will showcase us," he says, pride swirling up his voice. "It will show that Native Americans are athletes, we compete, we have dedication, we do everything that everybody else does."

Cage calls the youngsters who will compete "Native Americans' best and brightest." He says their character and competitiveness "will show people in Colorado and across the country who Indians are."

And one of the things they are, insists Cage, is "different from each other, too. A lot of people in America think an Indian is an Indian. That's wrong. American Indians are just as diverse as the dominant society."

$2 million invested

The fact that the North American Indigenous Games are in Colorado is largely because of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes, whose leaders have invested $2 million to host the games. Richard Tall Bull, for one, is glad they did.

"Yeah, I love that the games are here," he says. "We'll be able to showcase our state, to show it's the best place in the world."

After a pause, he adds: "You know, for the Cheyenne, this is our land; we don't have a reservation. Maybe we don't own it anymore, but it's our land."

Not that playing host means being too polite.

"I look at this as the Native American Olympics," says Richard, insisting that, above all, "It's about competition. For me, I want to see where I stand against other Native Americans. I never see too many Indian golfers. Who knows? Maybe they're all worse than me, and I could win."

Neither is his wife any less ready.

"I'm excited to start," says Brooke, 37. "This isn't going to be just another powwow - it's a competition."

Moreover, Brooke who - like her daughter - has not had much occasion to swim against other American Indians at meets, is eager to take on that competition. At least certain members of it.

"I'm not going to name any tribes," she says, smiling mischievously, "but there are definitely some I want to swim against and kick some butt."

Whether the North American Indigenous Games are best defined by winning, competing or, as Roberts insists, "cultural pride," they may also be about discovery.

Asked what she thinks it will feel like to stand on at the edge of the pool and look to her left and right and see other swimmers who are just as Indian as she, Arlene Tall Bull thinks for a long moment, her face becoming a serious mask, and says, "Pretty scary."

Then, another thought percolates to the surface, and with a shy smile, she adds, "But pretty fun, too. There'll be kids like me."

Let the games begin.

meadowjRockyMountainNews or 303-892-2606