A homegrown extreme sport of the American West has crowned its champions. This year’s big winners include two teams from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
Teams from tribal nations across the mountain west came to Casper, Wyo., this weekend for the Championship of Champions in the sport of Indian Relay.
This year, jockey and Colville Tribal member Riley Prescott led Abrahamson Relay to the men’s prize, while jockey Kamiuse Kid Pakootas and StrongHorse Relay won the junior championship.
Indian Relay involves riders racing horses bareback around a track, but no batons are passed. Instead, a rider moves from horse to horse.
After a lap at breakneck speed, a rider leaps off their mount and jumps onto another one held by their teammate to start the next lap.
“You see these horses buck up, people get run over by horses. It's pretty wild out there,” Colville Tribal Chairman Jarred Michael Erickson said. The Colville Tribes had members on several teams competing this year.
“These guys aren't just relay racers,” he told SPR News. “They're all around horsemen and horsewomen. They're incredible. It just makes me really proud. I'm glad I can be—as their chairman—just be able to even speak on it.”
Leaders of the Horse Nations Indian Relay Council, which organizes the event, said this year was their biggest championship yet, with 102 teams from tribes across the U.S. and Canada.
Other teams with Colville affiliation competing in Casper this year included Camp 6, Thunderwolf Express, Grizzly Mountain, Omak Express and DTM Express.
This year isn’t the first time Washington teams have placed highly at the Championship of Champions. In fact, teams with Colville descendants and members swept the top three for the men’s relay in 2024: Arrow Lakes Express took the top prize, while Omak Express came in second and S'PQ'N'I was third.
