Front Runners
The FrontRunners (also called Niigaanibatowaad or Front Runners) were a group of ten Indigenous athletes who were torchbearers at the 1967 Pan American Games.
The members of the group were Charlie Nelson, Dave Courchene Jr., Patrick Bruyere, Charles Brittern, William Chippeway, Fred Harper, William Mallett. They attended residential schools across Manitoba. They were asked to run the Pan American Games flame 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Saint Paul, Minnesota to Winnipeg, Manitoba, specifically Winnipeg Stadium, the site of the games. Upon their arrival, “a non-Indigenous thlete was ordered to carry the torch into the stadium in front of the frenzied crowd while the FrontRunners were sent for lunch at a nearby restaurant”.
Surviving members of the group carried the torch into the 1999 Pan American Games, also held in Winnipeg. In 2017 the group was the subject of the National Film Board film, titled Niigaanibatowaad: FrontRunners.
“The running wasn’t scheduled or programmed or – it’s just something we did among ourselves, like my car is better than your car kind of thing. We’d race, and then in June a school would hold a meet, a track and field meet, and award ribbons and stuff like that. In the final year, I was entered in the half-mile. I won that and Charlie Nelson was behind me. He’s also one of the Frontrunners. So, apparently the Frontrunners did have some runners that did well in the school meet, as well as being picked for the torch fun for the Pan Am Games. Four Frontrunners were from Assiniboia Residential School: Pat Bruyere, Charlie Nelson, Bill Chippeway, and myself.”
William Merasty
Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, Saskatchewan
Attended Assiniboia, 1961-67
“Some of our families have a long history of running. There are stories about hunting a long time ago. We used to run after the deer. The deer is fast for a good little while, but you keep going. You run and be determined to keep running, and you’ll catch up to him, because the deer gets tired after a while. These are some of the stories that I shared.”
Charlie Nelson
Okwewanashko-ziibiing — Roseau River First Nation, Manitoba
Attended Assiniboia, 1964-69
“We were told to hand the flame to this white runner who was famous. He was a white runner, and he ran the flame into the stadium. I didn’t think too much of it myself at the time, but people said that they should have given us more exposure, to have run the flame that far.”
Charlie Nelson
Okwewanashko-ziibiing — Roseau River First Nation, Manitoba
Attended Assiniboia, 1964-69
Niigaanibatowaad: FrontRunners
2007 – 47 minutes – Documentary
National Film Board
https://nfb.ca/film/niigaanibatowaad_frontrunners/
Run As One: The Journey of the Front Runners
CBC Docs
https://youtube.com/watch?v=GLwqONPnqwM&t=2s
The FrontRunners; A Story of Ten Indigenous Runners in Canada
Article by FrontRunners playwright Laura Robinson
https://playthegame.org/news/the-frontrunners-a-story-of-ten-indigenous-runners-in-canada/