Fort Lewis College (FLC) will offer free admission to all regular season sponsored home athletic events for Native Americans with a Certificate of Indian Blood (CIB) card or Tribal Identification card. The idea came about following a meeting between FLC Athletic Director, Travis Whipple, SunUte Director Robin Duffy-Wirth and SunUte employees: Kelsey Frost, Virgil Morgan, and Kai Roubideaux. The idea to allow free entrance for Native Americans came about when this small panel of SunUte Community Center employees wanted to see more Indigenous people, specifically the youth, experiencing the college athletics, academics, and everything that FLC has to offer.
FLC routinely acknowledges the ancestral lands to multiple tribes within the area at every event, but SunUte Community Center staff members – some of which are Southern Ute tribal members – had the thought to take that acknowledgment to the next step. SunUte gathered a small panel to present the idea of free entry for Native Americans to the FLC Athletic director earlier this year. Leading the presentation was Southern Ute tribal member, FLC student, and SunUte intern Kai Roubideaux with support from Duffy-Wirth, as well as tribal members Kelsey Frost and Virgil Morgan.
“Where are the people you are thanking? They’re not sitting here, they can’t hear you, you need to do better,” Duffy-Wirth said regarding having a stronger Indigenous presence at FLC games. The panel later sat down with the FLC Athletic Director to present the idea for free entrance for Native Americans.
“We need to present this in a way that is coming from the future, so Kai Roubideaux was doing an internship with us in the summer and he’s a student at Fort Lewis, so we sat down, and I told him everything,” Duffy-Wirth explained. “I said would you like to do the presentation? And so, he did the presentation – then Kelsey and Virgil came to support it, so it was the four of us there with the Athletic Director.”
Originally born and raised in Minnesota, Whipple was once a division two collegiate athlete for the Winona State University men’s basketball team and is familiar with Fort Lewis as he played in the same region years ago. With 15 years of collegiate level experience, Whipple is very passionate about preparing student athletes for their futures through both academics and athletics. “I’ve been familiar with Fort Lewis and the area for quite some time, and always felt like if the right opportunity came up at the right time, that this would be an area, a location, an institution that I would be interested in being a part of,” Whipple said. “And so, all those things came together this summer, and we’re thrilled to be here, excited to be a part of this community.” Whipple began his duties as the FLC Athletic Director in July of this year, when his family moved to the Four Corners.
Following the meeting and beginning the approval process, Whipple brought the idea to his group of senior athletic administrators who later brought it to FLC President Tom Stritikus and key campus leaders. “We talked about ways to better the fan experience,” Whipple said. “Then bringing it to our president and key campus leaders – everyone was incredibly supportive of this concept and this idea, and we wanted to make it work.”
SunUte Community Center excitedly made the public announcement with respect to free FLC game entry with CIB or Tribal Identification card, Wednesday, Sept. 28 — following the decision by FLC. “It was meant to be, a fantastic idea,” Whipple said. “I think it just shows the value of collaboration – getting together and putting forward ideas let’s see where they can go together.”
“Fort Lewis is pleased to offer this, and you know just feel like it’s very much part of our institution, our mission and want to be a great partner in the community,” Whipple said. “We’re excited to continue to build on some exciting momentum that’s happening with this program.”
For more information visit the Fort Lewis College Athletic Calendar at https://goskyhawks.com/calendar or call SunUte Community Center at 970-563-0214.