"Indigenous Games bid fails for Six Nations"

OHSWEKEN - The Six Nations and their partners will not be the host of the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) in the year 2002.

That honour has been given to the city of Winnipeg, who beat out Six Nations and Kahnawake for the successful bid, and will host the Games when they return to Canada in that year.

"We had the co-operation of a lot of people with this bid," said Chief Wellington Staats at a news conference held at the Six Nations council chambers Sunday morning. "We thought we did a whale of a job. It was very disappointing when we heard the news that we would not be hosting the Games."

The Six Nations and their partners, made up of groups from New Credit, Hamilton and Brantford, received word on Sunday from the Indigenous Games council that their bid was unsuccessful.

"It was a let-down, very disappointing," said Six Nations Parks and Recreation director Cheryl Henhawk, in discussing her reaction when she heard the news from the NAIG council. "On a positive though, we had the support of the entire community in this bid, they all came out to show their support and that in its' self was excellent."

Chief Staats echoed Henhawk's comments, expressing his thanks to all committee members involved in the bid and the community as a

"It was a great ride for the past year", he said. "It showed that four communities, two native and two non-native could come together for a common goal."

New Credit Chief Carolyn King was also on hand when the decision came down from the NAIG council and she too thanked the members of the bid committee for all of their hard work in trying to bring the Games to the Six Nations.

Ross Fair, the director of Cultural Recreation for the city of Hamilton, reflected back on the last year in trying to secure this bid and told those at the news conference that his group should have no regrets in being the second choice.

"It's been a long but a good road", he said. "There was no weaknesses in the bid as far as I am concerned."

But what organizers hoped was their best strength may have worked against them. When members of the Games selection committee visited the area two weeks ago, one of the members commented on the distance between Brantford and Hamilton.

"One of the reps mentioned that it was a fair ride between the two cities and maybe that was a hint that they didn't like how far apart some of the venues and lodging might be", said Henhawk.

Many events, including boxing, soccer, baseball, swimming, athletics and box lacrosse, were to be held in Brantford. Forty percent of the events were to be held in New Credit and Six Nations. These were two strong points that the bid committee thought would work in their favour.

Henhawk felt that because Winnipeg is hosting the 1999 Pan­American Games, they may have had an advantage because many new sports facilities are being built in the city to support these Games.

The Site Selection committee was made up of three members of the NAIG council. The group looked at 10 aspects of community's bid, including facilities, organization, level of involvement by municipal and provincial governments, cultural attractions, and availability of lodging.

Ken Hodgson, the executive director for the Sports Council of Alberta, was one the members of the NAIG site selection committee. He was very impressed with all of the bids that they received but was also relieved that the process of picking a winner was over.

"They were all real close," said Hodgson, referring to picking a winning bid out of the three groups. "We had a scoring system in place, a total of 900 points to evaluate each bid in all areas and when we were finished, there was only 18 points separating Winnipeg and Six Nations for the top bid."

Hodgson was not at liberty to discuss what some of the good or bad points were with each bid until a report is given to all three groups at the end of the month. However, he did tell the Teka that no group bidding for the Games had any confirmation that their accommodations were secure, and that letters of commitment were not received. This he says is an important element that should be added to the site selection process.

"We should have some deadlines put on Winnipeg in terms of getting everything in place for the Games by a certain date", he said. "If they are unable to meet these deadlines, then we should give the second choice every opportunity to host the Games if they are able to do so."

"For example, right now in Fargo (North Dakota), they are nowhere near where they should be as far as contracts being signed or money being put in place and they will be hosting the Games in 1999. Oklahoma City was second in the bidding, and I'm sure that they would have liked to have been given the opportunity to show that they are ready to host the Games if Fargo is unable to."

The Indigenous Games began in 1990 and are held every three years, alternating between Canadian and U.S locations.

Hodgson says that this was the second year that the NAIG has sent a site selection committee to look at each bid and evaluate them, so the system of picking a winner is still being refined.

"Before, it was 'who wants the Games?', and the first group that put up their hand got them", he said. "Our numbers of people who participate in these Games though has risen over the years in the thousands, these Games are like the Olympics for our kids and so we felt that we need to do everything possible to make these Games a success, starting with where they will be held."

"I hope Ontario is not discouraged in bidding again for these Games and I hope the friendships is still there, but we knew that this process was not going to be easy and it wasn't," added Hodgson.

Chief Staats said it was premature to commit to a bid for the 2008 NAIG. But the people who worked on this bid do not want to see their good work go to waste, and many are interested in staging a similar event for Ontario athletes.

"Before we can make the NAIG go really well, we need an elimination process," said Staats. "We should have an Ontario Games, it's one of the things were looking at."