Native Americans grapple with Chiefs

By TERRY TANG The Associated Press

Moontee Sinquah spent only one minute onstage inside the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix during the NFL’s Super Bowl Opening Night. But it’s a minute that will remain unforgettable.

The Native American hoop dancer had never been that close to football players and coaches about to compete in the league’s biggest game. As he and other Indigenous performers sang and danced, they heard elated whoops from Indigenous people in the audience.

It gave Sinquah chills.

“I’m just really grateful that they did highlight our people because I think it’s really important,” said Sinquah, who is a member of the Hopi-Tewa and Choctaw nations. But when he thinks of that inclusion coupled with Super Bowl cameras panning to Kansas City Chiefs fans doing the maligned “tomahawk chop,” Sinquah says that juxtaposition leaves him “perplexed.”

“I think that’s the only thing

 FALL from page 11 their first spark on a power play goal of their own from none other than their leading goal scorer, Kelsey King. In Maverick fashion, the team scored just six seconds later off the stick of junior forward Madison Mashuga.

Although the two goals brought a bit of hope for the struggling Mavericks, the Huskies were able to calm the chaos, not letting up a score for the remainder of the game. SCSU added an empty net goal in the final seconds of regu- that really bothers me about that whole thing is that, and I don’t know where it came from. And I don’t really fully understand it, but it is almost like a mockery,” Sinquah said. lation, clinching game one of the series by a score of 3-6.

The Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs embarked on their victory lap Wednesday, with players and fans alike doing the “chop” during a raucous parade and rally.

The following night brought a similar storyline, which found the Huskies with a stretch of four straight goals before a Maverick answer to start the game. SCSU’s senior forward Addi Scribner started things off at the 12:27 mark of the first period and found another to begin the second.

Minnesota State didn’t find an answer for the red-hot Huskies until sophomore Alexis Paddington found her ninth goal of the