Indigenous Peoples' Day and Skyhawks Athletics

DURANGO, Colo. – With over 160 tribal nations represented in our student population, Fort Lewis College and Fort Lewis College athletics would like to honor the unique mix of cultural diversity on Indigenous Peoples’ Day through education and shining a spotlight on our tribal member student athletes. Get to know our student athletes and learn about what Indigenous Peoples' Day means to the FLC community below.

Fort Lewis College athletics has committed to celebrating Nike N7 with volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's basketball, women's lacrosse, and softball. Since its creation in 2009, the Nike N7 Fund has awarded more than $8 million in grants to 270 Native American and Aboriginal communities and organizations, reaching more than 500,000 youths. The N7 Fund supports organizations that provide more equal, inclusive, and active communities. Fort Lewis College is honored to be one of just 11 institutions nationwide selected to participate in this program.
 

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.