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Save the date for the Nike N7 basketball home openers

11/6/2022 1:41:00 PM

By: Angela Roberts, Assistant AD - Communications
DURANGO, Colo. — The Fort Lewis College basketball programs are excited to announce the home openers for our men's and women's basketball teams in the 2022-23 season. The Skyhawks will host the annual Nike N7 Games versus Northern New Mexico College on Friday, November 18th. The evening will begin with a neutral site contest between Adams State and Texas Permian Basin, followed by the Skyhawks men at 5:30 p.m. and the Skyhawks women at 7:30 p.m.

About Nike N7
Since its creation in 2009, the Nike N7 Fund has awarded more than $7.5 million in grants to 259 Native American and Aboriginal communities and organizations, reaching more than 500,000 youths. The N7 Fund supports organizations that provide sports and physical activity programming to youth in these communities.

This year's Nike N7 Games mark the fifth time Fort Lewis College has been selected as one of only 11 institutions nationwide — Oklahoma State, Oral Roberts, Gonzaga, Florida State, Marquette, University of New Mexico, San Diego State, Stanford, Haskell Indian Nations, Mesa Community College, and Fort Lewis College — to participate in the games, which are held in November in celebration of Native American Heritage Month.

Native American Heritage Month
Native American Heritage Month is an acknowledgment of the resiliency of Indigenous Peoples through art, culture, food, music, tradition, and well-being.
We celebrate the contribution and impact Indigenous Peoples have had on global perspectives from time immemorial to the present day.  This month creates the opportunity to empower future generations to embrace, educate, and engage in dialogue regarding the Indigenous ways of life.
  • Fort Lewis College Events
    • November 1-18: All Nations Flag Display
    • November 7-11: Indigenous Way of Life Week
    • November 14: IndigiCrafts Earring Making
    • November 15: Food Sovereignty Workshop
    • November 16: Honoring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Project
    • November 18: Nike N7 Games
    • November 30: A Living Land Acknowledgment, The Stories We Wear

Women's Basketball Tribal Members
The FLC women's basketball team has three players who are tribal members, including Ember Cervantes (Mescalero Apache), Lanae Billy (Diné Navajo), and Tayla Nez (Diné Navajo). Both Skyhawks teams will proudly sport turquoise Nike N7 uniforms during Sunday's contests as the color represents harmony, friendship, and fellowship in the Native American culture.

History of the Land
Before becoming a college, Fort Lewis was a U.S. military post located in Hesperus, Colorado. The post was decommissioned in 1891. The U.S. government then refitted the vacant facility into a non-reservation boarding school, which operated from 1892 to 1910. Navajo, Ute, and Apache children were the first of many Indigenous children to attend the school. In 1911, the Federal government ceded the facility and 6,000 acres of land to the State of Colorado. Fort Lewis became a high school, then a two-year state agricultural college. In 1956, the school moved to Durango, where it transformed yet again into a four-year liberal arts college.

 Free Admission for Native Americans
New this year, Fort Lewis College athletics will offer free admission to all regular season home athletic events for Native Americans with a Certificate of Indian Blood (CIB) card or Tribal Identification Card. The motion is an effort to welcome more of our local communities to campus to support the blue and gold and experience college athletics, academics, and everything that the Skyhawks experience has to offer.
 
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