NNRA to move forward with 2020 season

WINDOW ROCK

The Navajo Nation Rodeo Association is moving forward to send a qualifier to this year’s Indian National Finals Rodeo in late October despite the ongoing pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus.

The NNRA Board of Directors, which met in a conference call on Monday, is looking to host a qualifier rodeo off the reservation in either August or September to decide who is going to represent the association at this year’s INFR, which will be held at the South Point Equestrian Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

NNRA President Alvin Smith said the decision to proceed with a qualifier rodeo was rather difficult to make but his members voiced their opinions on “wanting to rodeo” in a survey done by the association. Of the cowboys and cowgirls who voted, 83 percent were in favor of having a qualifier rodeo.

“My personal feeling was to put the NNRA season to rest this year and kickoff the season in 2021,” Smith said on Monday. “But with the information we got and the texts that I’ve been receiving the cowboys want to rodeo and the contestants want something to shoot for.”

Of the contestants that answered the survey, NNRA secretary/treasurer Shawndeana Smith said the association received 36 replies.

“Apparently we got other replies that came in,” she said. “Through the link I also got messages, and that wasn’t the point of the survey. I was hoping that we collectively gather all the data we need from the survey but some people just wanted to text and leave a message.”

And while an overwhelming majority voted for a qualifier rodeo, Shawndeana Smith said 83 percent of their members voted on rolling over their membership to next season if they decide not to participate later this year.

She said some of the comments that were posted concerned the safety measures the NNRA would have to put in place for its qualifying rodeo.

“They want to make sure that everybody follows the guidelines, such as the safe social distancing practices if there is a rodeo,” she said.

Some of the other comments she received was about limiting the number of people in attendance.

“Just make it for contestants and have no families there,” she said of one comment that was submitted.

After the survey was taken down, Smith did note that some people messaged her about the recent PRCA rodeo in Cave Creek, Arizona over the weekend, which was aired on The Cowboy Channel.

“A lot of people were indicating that the NNRA can do this because Cave Creek did it,” she said, as the PRCA event required all of the contestants to wear protective masks when not competing.

But with the Navajo Nation still experiencing a high number of COVID-19 cases, the NNRA president said the association is going to wait until the end of the summer to host their qualifier rodeo, which will consist of a two-go round format.

“Right now the NNRA is not going to do anything for May, June and July,” said Smith, while adding that if things don’t get any better to host a qualifier they are hoping the INFR will approve a contingency plan they have adopted.

“If it gets worse there is really no sense of putting up a qualification rodeo,” Smith said.

If that’s the case, Smith said the NNRA is proposing to send its qualifiers based on the results from last year’s regional finals. The local INFR affiliate wants to use one of its top 5 finishers in the 2019 sudden death average race to represent the association at this year’s INFR.

“If we can’t put up a qualifier rodeo then why don’t we use another criteria in selecting our qualifiers,” Smith said, while expressing that proposal wouldn’t be considered until the very last minute.

“We won’t talk about that until it becomes worse, the last straw” he said, “then we’ll write to the INFR.”

Like Smith, INFR board member Carol Jackson-Holyan suggested the NNRA to hold off on that proposal and go ahead and submit a letter stating that the association is going to have a single qualifier rodeo with two-go rounds in either August or September with the location to be determined.

“That’s all we’re asking for right now,” she said. “We want to know what format are you going to use and when you are going to have it. Whatever you put in for your June 1 letter is the format you’re going to use as an organization and you guys have that pretty much lined up.”

Jackson-Holyan said the INFR is well aware of what’s happening on the Diné reservation and the discussions they’ve had included the NNRA not having a qualifier.

“Our nation is being hit hard with this pandemic,” she said. “We understand what you guys are going through. The initial discussions we had was that if the NNRA didn’t have a region qualifier it was going to open up an extra spot within our qualifier.”

With 12 regions, Jackson-Holyan said the INFR is awaiting the decisions from all of its regions, as the world finals will only have 20 qualifiers. If each region decides to rodeo this year that will leave eight spots up for grabs through its tour rodeo and/or rodeo qualifier.

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