
On the remote Fort Apache Reservation, high in the mountains above Phoenix, native students worked on their robots.
The Arizona White Mountains peeked over the Chief Alchesay Activity Center, where dozens of robotics teams from Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma gathered to compete. Some were familiar with the space, a gym usually reserved for the local basketball team. Others wiped the sleep from their eyes, having traveled as much as 14 hours in an attempt to snag a coveted spot at the VEX Robotics World Championship. Native students from three states fidgeted with intricately beaded necklaces and headgear as they stepped up to the playfield with controllers in hand.
The Southwest Native American Showcase had arrived.
The night before, these same students had gathered in a cafeteria for an opening banquet, where their culture was fully celebrated. Dinner began with the White Mountain Apache Crown Dancers, a ceremonial group that dance to honor the Apache peoples’ traditions and ancestors. Beneath a full moon, they weaved back and forth to the chants of accompanying drummers, a powerful testament to a culture still thriving after hundreds of years. When Kasey Valesquez, Chairman of the hosting White Mountain Apache Tribe, spoke to the students as they munched on meals of turkey and stuffing, his message was simple: “You are the future”.
Supported by Google.org and Amazon, the tournament is now in its fifth year, and has grown to be a much anticipated celebration of native tradition and STEM, with 75 VEX IQ and VEX V5 Robotics Competition teams in attendance. Trish Miller, one of the event’s organizers who lives and works in the Whiteriver community, stressed the necessity of bringing events such as this one to the reservation. “It’s important that the students come together and get to know each other culturally, but it’s even more than that. Our students don’t have a lot of chances to go out and have fun, and so this event allows them to do that, and they can even win a spot at the World Championship while learning about one another.”
Still, life is not always easy for many of those who reside on the reservation where the Showcase occurs. Suzanne DePoe, a grants manager for the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation and elder of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Oregon, Tututni, Southern Cheyenne, and Ojibway, described the challenges many of these students face, living far away from urban resources so many others enjoy. “The issues faced are endless, even down to things that many of us take for granted, like having a car to get places” she said. “Say a student needs to travel to school for a robotics class. Their family may not have adequate transportation to travel the long distance to get there, so they may miss out on that opportunity.”
Today, however, students were at the event, and they were ready to compete. When asked why one would travel so many miles to participate in a robotics tournament, Jay Lively, a coach from Clarmore Public Schools, put it like this: “We are from Native Land. We represent the Cherokee Nation, so something that is important to us is upholding those values and representing our tribe, and this is a great place to do it. Also, it’s just been a longstanding tradition for Claremore to come to this competition. So we just keep on with the tradition.”
By the end of the event, that tradition bore fruit as students from Claremore High School took the top spot at the Showcase and secured their place at the 2025 VEX Robotics World Championship. Isaac, a member of the winning Claremore Robotics team, explained that while winning is fun, at an event like this, it is hardly the end goal. For these teams, community is paramount. “Robotics just opens up more academic opportunities in the future and the showcase is just a really fun competition” he continued. “As a whole it just gives you more fellowship with people than lots of other sports. We’re all a team.”
Learn more about Indigenous Robotics at indigenousrobotics.com.