Thursday, March 28, 2024

CCT teams to compete in Horse Nations Indian Relays

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NESPELEM – The competition has just ramped up for the Horse Nations Indian Relay Council (HNIRC) races with the news that the Colville Confederated Tribes (CCT) will help sponsor HNIRC for the 2019 racing season.

A CCT March 4 media release said that among HNIRC races, tribal racing teams will compete in four in Eastern Washington with one of those at the Okanogan County Fair, Sept. 7-8. Other local venues include the NCW District Fair in Waterville, Aug. 24-45, Republic County Fair, Aug. 31-Sept. 2, and the most coveted race in the series, the Championship of Champions at Walla Walla, Sept. 20-22. HNIRC is also involved with the Omak Stampede during the second weekend of August and several HNIRC riders will compete in the World-Famous Suicide Race.

A CCT team, Northwest Express, won the Championship of Champions event hosted by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation last year in Walla Walla.

“Those who attended this Championship Indian Relay race witnessed 40 teams from throughout the United States and Canada participate in this very memorable event,” said Colville Tribal Chairman Rodney Cawston. “We saw many quality horses and talented riders giving their all. There were heart-pounding stretch battles, painful losses and horses and jockeys taking terrifying spills. There is an exciting element of risk with each race.”

Northwest Express was started by brothers Loren and Francis Marchand. Current members of the team include rider Mathew Pakootas, horse holders Loren and Edward Marchand, and mugger (horse catcher) Arnold Abrahamson. Loren Marchand will compete in the Suicide Race this year aboard a horse named Augustus, co-owned by Mike Jones of Malott.

Other CCT teams include Little Grizzly Mountain, Arrow Lakes Express, Little Abrahamson Express, Omak Express, Grizzly Mountain, Cayuse Express, and Abrahamson Relay.

There have always been great teams in the Northwest,” said HNIRC President Calvin Ghost Bear. “For many years those teams traveled out of their area to compete in the championship event.”

Abrahamson Relay traveled to Montana in 2017 to win the Championship of Champions there.

In 2018 CCT member Mane Pakootas was selected for the Kirby White Hawk Determination Award.

Ghost Bear said HNIRC is “very happy with the support we’ve received in moving the event to Washington.”

For its part, CCT is donating $50,000 toward the HNIRC event this year.

As the term implies, the relay races involve one rider using three horses with the help of a support team who help catch and hold the relay horses as the rider changes mounts during the event.

Northwest Express mounts include Smoke Dog, Born Like Eagle, and Merv, Loren Marchand said. The team is looking for additional back-up horses, but the ideal ones are hard to find, Marchand added.

Teamwork is essential to victory and Marchand said Northwest Express uses a practice track owned by artist Smoker Marchand to prepare for HNIRC events.

“Horse racing has been a long-standing tradition throughout Indian Country for hundreds of years,” the CCT media release said. “Indian people have always been magnificent riders as well as horse breeders.”

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