2017 Season Announcement: Chinook Winds Casino Resort

The Boise trails are finally uncovered from a long and snowy winter, the foothills are starting to green up, and those blustery winds of ours are starting to smell like sage and fresh dirt again. There are so many things to share with you all: First, I want to send out a huge THANK YOU to Chinook Winds Casino Resort and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians for their continued support for the 2017 race season.

I am honored to represent my tribal community and look forward to starting the season off in California this April. Chinook Winds and the Siletz Community at large have played an integral role in my opportunity to pursue my goals as a Professional Athlete. They have also provided an opportunity to continue learning about and connecting with a heritage that has shaped me, my family and a community I care deeply about.

Someone recently asked to know more about my family's native heritage. The opportunity to share a story about some of the most amazing people who have inspired me to be bold, strive for greatness and remain persistent in all forms of adversity made my heart soar. After sharing with her, I realized that it was a story I didn't share often enough-even with my own fellow tribal members. Each one of our lives is shaped by amazing people -those people inspire us and help guide us to better versions of ourselves. I believe one of the things I love best about being a nurse is the opportunity to connect with people and to share in some of their stories, drawing my own inspiration from them. So if you'll humor me, I'd like to share just a little bit of my history with you, and maybe a little inspiration, too.

Officially, my tribal heritage is that of the Aleut and Siuslaw tribes. Aleutian descent is geographically considered to be the Aleutian Archipelago, off the Southern Shores of Alaska. My own Aleut heritage starts on remote Umnak Island, well-offshore of the Alaska Panhandle. In contrast, the Siuslaw tribe was one of more than 30 different Oregon Coastal tribes that were later "officially recognized" by the US government as the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. My great grandfather Nick lived on Umnak Island until he was taken from his mother and sent to the Chemawa Indian School in Oregon to learn tailoring- I'm told this sort of opportunity was reserved for the more "promising" Indians by government officials. Nick was always a very smart, curious and driven individual. After graduating Chemawa, he enlisted in the US Navy where he worked as an electrical engineer and welder during WWI. He later returned to Chemawa to propose to my great grandmother Hattie, whose family lineage was Siuslaw. The name Siuslaw is said to originate from a small creek that feeds into what is now known as the Siuslaw River. The headwaters of this creek are where the winter village for the tribe was once located. Nick and Hattie travelled back to Umnak and taught at the tribal schools before returning to Hattie's home town of Florence, Oregon on the banks of the Siuslaw River. There my grandfather (Kenneth Martin Hatch) grew up attending a tiny 1-room school house. Hattie and Nick were adamant that their children pursue educations to the highest level possible. Around the time the draft began, my grandfather had just begun his studies in Engineering at Oregon State University. Determined to continue his passion for engineering, Ken applied to West Point Military Academy where he later thrived as a student and extremely talented gymnast. For lack of better records, he is considered to be the first Native American to graduate from West Point. In his distinguished and long military career, Ken served as a Full Bird Colonel, was recipient of a Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart Medal, completed a masters in Civil Engineering at Cal Tech and taught Calculus at West Point. He never stopped striving. Sometimes I like to think that’s why he loved fishing so much; there was always a bigger one to go after.

I never knew my great grandparents well, but Ken was always a pivotal inspiration and influence in my life. His motto was always "Never Give Up the Ship," and he religiously passed this on to his children, and grandchildren alike. Like his parents, he was adamant about education pursuits and constantly pursued community service and involvement. When he retired, Ken taught himself to carve traditional tribal art- some of which still adorn the Elders Housing on the Siletz Reservation today. I'll never forget driving around Newport with him (then in his 70's!) delivering Meals on Wheels to people his own age, and watching him haul heavy crab pots out of Yaquina Bay during a strong tide (seeing his subsequent sly smile when I tried unsuccessfully to do the same.) He was forever tied to the ocean and coastal way of life. One might say that the salt “verily flowed through his veins.” Oh, and no one could out-fish that man, not ever. Not even me.

I wanted to share this because it is likely different from what many picture when they think of a "Native American." My heritage is rooted in fishing salmon runs far out on the Pacific Ocean, clam digging on the tidal mud flats, crabbing in the lush coastal bays and hiking through dense Oregon woods to find juicy blackberries and salmon berries for jam.

As a native, I've been raised to have discerning tastes in creamy white buckskin, elk stew, seafood, abalone and Pendleton blankets.
Then again, my most precious history is equally and indisputably tied to the pursuit of higher education, military service and the constant pursuit of better self through hard work, accountability and no excuses. I’m beyond proud of how beautifully this history has blended into my incredible family heritage.