Melody Sauceda understands the plight of the underserved. Growing up as a Native American who is Ma-chis Lower Creek, Apache and Mexican, she had personal experience as a kid who didn’t always feel like she belonged.
Now living in Sante Fe, New Mexico, she didn’t want that same ‘outside looking in’ experience for her two high school-aged daughters as well as other Native youth who were drawn to lacrosse.
“When my kids came home one day and they said they wanted to join lacrosse, I said ‘you guys do know that's an Indigenous sport, right?’”
As a measure of support, Sauceda decided to start a new girls lacrosse club for grades 7-12, focused on inclusivity and opportunity. The building process started earlier this year with free clinics and with showcasing lacrosse in local schools through physical education classes.
A recent USA Lacrosse grant has helped to provide sticks for the club, called Turquoise Thunder.
“Right now, the club is 100-percent Indigenous,” Sauceda said. “Our coaches are Indigenous. The girls are Indigenous. We are all Native. But we want to be a community-based program that welcomes all girls into this beautiful game.”
During these early months, which Sauceda dubs as preseason, the focus is on spreading the word and in teaching game skills through the clinics. She is also in discussions with the Sante Fe Indian School to begin utilizing their football field for games next spring.
In the meantime, an active recruiting effort led in part by her two daughters - Nlchi and Ndezolth – is underway through the public schools, as well as through targeted outreach to international students at a local boarding school that has representation from 80 different countries.
“We want to be as inclusive as possible and invite everyone to join us,” Sauceda said. “We want to mesh together all these different ethnic groups into one lacrosse community. This is a sisterhood.”
Sauceda says that one of the club’s priorities is to help all the participants have a greater understanding about the unique origins of the game. Spreading the word during Native American Heritage Month seems particularly relevant.
“One of the first things that we do when we are introducing lacrosse is to help everybody knows that it’s an Indigenous sport. It comes from the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations people, and we tell them about that, and we share the creation story with them,” she said.
Sauceda hopes that all club members will come to understand the unique qualities of lacrosse that are grounded in Indigenous traditions.
“This is a medicine game, a sacred game,” Sauceda said. “It's very important that they understand that it's more than just a game. It's a spirit game of healing, connection and purpose.”
The message seems to be resonating, and the mission of inclusivity, identity and belonging is making a difference. Sauceda says that several girls have told her that they keep returning because they now feel like part of a special community.
The rewards for Sauceda have already surpassed her expectations.
“I used to be one of those underserved kids, so when I heard that some girls in other programs were being sidelined even when they kept showing up for all the practices and putting all their heart into it, that bothered me,” she said. “It has fueled me on this mission so that all Indigenous girls, as well as others, have a place to play this Indigenous sport.”
