\u201cWhen we look at our youth and tribal young people, that\u2019s our number one kind of natural resource,\u201d said Donny Stevenson, chairman of the Muckleshoot Tribal Council. \u201cAnd so, anything we can dedicate to them, into their well-being, to their health, to be able to sort of develop a positive identity, we\u2019re going to do everything we can to reinforce that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along those lines, Stevenson said the groundbreaking, multi-year partnership making Muckleshoot the Kraken\u2019s official jersey patch partner has already spawned similar pride among the tribe\u2019s youth. They are the first ever Tribe to have their crest represented on an NHL jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepresentation is such an important element, especially for our Native American children,\u201d Stevenson said of being so visibly affiliated with a pro sports franchise. \u201cWe represent less than 2% of the population nationally. And so, it\u2019s not real often our kids tune into things like TV shows, the movies and the media and see themselves represented in a very realistic way.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, anything we can do to build on pride in that identity — recognizing who they are and whose they are \u2013 that\u2019s everything for us as tribal leaders. That\u2019s really what it\u2019s all about. It\u2019s bridging our traditions and our history, our ancestors and the teachings, with our future and next. Where we\u2019re going.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think when you put parks like this, courts like this, sort of on your homeland, it allows your children to know that investment is tangible. It\u2019s real. And that they matter. That they\u2019re important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kraken chief commercial officer Jeff Webster spoke at Saturday\u2019s opening, as did ORF board chair The Honorable Richard A. Jones, a U.S. District Court judge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese aren\u2019t just kids playing, this is our future,\u201d Jones told the crowd of community leaders and members. These are future leaders. They may come with basketballs and hockey sticks and whatever else that they\u2019re going to play with. But I guarantee you these kids, incredibly bright as they are, can transform their skills into sports. But it will be far beyond sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou may see elected officials. You may see people who can change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kraken radio play-by-play announcer Everett Fitzhugh served as master of ceremonies for the event, where children ages 6-14 were rotated through three different sports stations on the new facilities. They partook in a street hockey scrimmage, a street hockey skills clinic for passing, stickhandling and shooting, and a Brooks running clinic while Kraken team mascot Buoy mingled with the crowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhen we look at our youth and tribal young people, that\u2019s our number one kind of natural resource,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-681613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}