Peyton Lott patiently sat on a mat in the Dzántik’i Héeni Middle School’s gym on Saturday morning, waiting for her next competitor in the Inuit stick pull event.
“I love doing these because it shows what strength [was] within the people who did them,” she said.
The game involves two students facing each other and holding a wooden stick — one with an inside grip and the other with an outside grip with no gaps between their hands. Then, they grip and pull against one another until someone breaks free with the stick in hand, winning the match.
Last weekend, Lott and nearly 100 other elementary-age athletes competed in that event and others as a part of the Native Youth Olympics 2025 Junior Celebration.
Lott is Lingít and Yupik, and a fifth grader at Harborview Elementary. She got involved with the games three years ago after walking past the club while waiting for her mom to pick her up from school.
Now, she’s pretty hooked.
“I wake up early the day of the competition — this is the only time when my parents tell me to go to sleep I will,” she said.
The competition opened with a cultural dance and song performance. The event was hosted by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska in partnership with the Juneau School District.
On Friday and Saturday, students competed in six distinct events. All the games are rooted in Indigenous hunting and survival traditions used in the Arctic. Now, competitions for games like these are held across the state as a way to foster community and promote physical fitness during the cold winter months.
Adeia Brown participates in the one-foot high kick at the Native Youth Olympics Junior Celebration at Dzántik’i Héeni Middle School gym on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025.
Kaytlynne Lewis is a coach and traditional game specialist for Tlingit and Haida.
“These games originate from Alaska, specifically and traditionally,” she said. “Long ago, before cell phones, radios, any sort of technology, hunters created these games to communicate with one another out in the Arctic.”
Just like the students, she too was a young athlete who practiced the games growing up in Alaska. She said the games are more than just about testing your physical fitness — it’s about connecting with your community and celebrating Alaska’s Indigenous traditions.
“I’ve had some athletes say, ‘I was never rooted to my culture. I was never connected to my culture. And since I started the games, I feel more closer, and I feel a sense of identity,’” she said. “That is very impactful to me.”
Mila Neely, a freshman at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, helped measure the height of athlete’s kicks during the one-foot high kick. She volunteered with other high school athletes to help with the games.
“I’ve been doing NYO since I was in fifth grade. So like, this is my fifth year doing it,” she said.
Neely said it’s special for her to be able to help teach the next generation of athletes. She said traditional games are unique from other sports in more ways than one.
“It’s such a positive sport,” she said. “Like, you go to other sports and people will be talking trash about the other team, or even just wanting to win. In traditional games, so many times I’ve seen people give another person a tip that will help them succeed further than them in the games because it’s really just like being the best that you can be.”
In early April, Neely and other high school and middle school students in Juneau — and across the state — will compete in their own traditional games as a part of Sealaska Heritage Insitute’s 2025 Traditional Games.