GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - A Billings radio host’s suggestion that Native American basketball teams should have their own post-season tournaments has prompted a show of solidarity at the Northern Class C Divisional Tournament.
KCTR-AM radio host Paul Mushaben posted on the station’s website Tuesday that a recent tournament crowd was “so unruly and disrespectful of the facility that it may be time for the (Montana High School Association) to proceed with an all Indian tourney.”
In response, members of the basketball teams from Power, Belt, Heart Butte and Box Elder locked arms at center court and shook hands before beginning competition Wednesday in Great Falls.
The crowd of about 3,500 responded with loud cheers and applause, the Great Falls Tribune reported.
“What we want to do from a Northern C perspective is to show we’ve got Indian teams, we’ve got non-Indian teams, and we’re going to be good sports and we’re going to be together,” said Box Elder boys’ basketball coach Jeremy MacDonald. “And at the end of the day we’re going to shake hands and tell each other, ’Great game.’”
MacDonald said he hopes the pre-game ceremony helps generate “a bigger discussion and we start to bring people together instead of making this divide between each other.”
Mushaben’s post said an “Indian team involved in a tournament left people re-thinking if it’s worth it or not to host a tournament.” He did not mention which tournament he was referring to. The post was removed later Tuesday.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, the radio station said it did not approve of Mushaben’s comments.
When interviewed by The Billings Gazette, Mushaben denied there was a racial overtone to his post, but that he was pointing out the source of an issue.
“It seems that the majority of the problems occur when Native Americans play,” Mushaben said.
School officials acknowledge that the crowd atmosphere at high school games can get heated, but they rejected the idea that reservation schools and their fans are any more boisterous than others.
“A lot of this stuff, I think, is a bit of urban legend,” said Gerald Chouinard, superintendent at Lame Deer, but he acknowledged there are some big rivalries.
“It’s not the kids that are causing the issues. It’s the fans,” said Kelly Haaland, superintendent at Melstone. “And the fans on both sides can be equally bad.”
Mark Beckman, executive director of the MHSA, said no schools have declined to host a tournament based on which teams are playing and that the MHSA has not received complaints from managers of any of last weekend’s tournaments.
He noted the MHSA handbook prohibits discrimination with regard to gender, religion, race or ethnic origin in activities sponsored by the association.
“The MHSA will not exclude or discriminate against any participants or their fans, and further is concerned with the intolerance expressed through certain online postings and social media,” Beckman said in a statement.
Sam Bruner, the superintendent at Plenty Coups, said segregating tournaments isn’t the solution.
“I don’t know what it would accomplish other than it would cause more division,” Bruner said.
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