Skunkcap becomes first Indian Relay rider inducted into Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame
Hardee Skunkcap with family at the Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony.
By LORI ANN EDMO
Sho-Ban News
BROWNING, Mont. — Hardee Skunkcap, Blackfeet/Shoshone-Bannock, is the first Indian Relay rider to be inducted in the Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame.
He was among the inductees November 23 at Carroll College in Helena, Mont.
“It was a high honor to be inducted into the Montana Athletic Hall of Fame being the first Indian Relay Rider with all those other outstanding athletes we would read about and see in the local news stations,” he said.
Hardee is a son of Marlene Skunkcap and the late Leroy Skunkcap. “I thank my dad and my mother, to all the Indian Relay participants, fans, different associations and fair boards that contributed to the sport of Indian Relay,” he continued. “I especially would like to thank my wife Darcy and sons John and Alonzo.”
He began racing at about 13 or 14 years of age, “it was quite a rush of adrenaline on every race day.” The main technique was probably being in shape. “I was running about five to six miles a day, jump roping and a lot of boxing workouts I learned from the late Kilburn Buckskin and his family.”
Hardee explained one of his small techniques that he used was to slide of your horse, keep my feet part and straight to where your next horse was. Train and feed horses as well. He noted he used to whistle loud while in competition, so the horses knew it was time to run.
Hardee Skunkcap jumps off his horse during an Indian Relay race exchange.
Locally he rode for Jaycee Edmo, Kesley Edmo and Buckskin Indian Relay. When he was young and learning he saw an elder in Fort Hall by the name of Keno Coby – he wore an old-style hat and scarf. He told Leroy, “Tell your boy to bring his horse in fast towards the fence, his horse won’t keep going up into bleachers.” “Many years later I won this man’s memorial, and his real name was Yambasi,” Hardee said.
Hardee’s dad Leroy is who brought the Indian Relay from Idaho to Montana since Fort Hall is the home of Indian Relay racing. As a Northwest Montana Fair board member, Leroy started the relays in 1980. He told the Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame many veterans of the Indian Relay sport of Idaho and the horsemen Blackfeet put together teams and made the NWMF Kalispell Indian Relays successful.
He first rode for his dad at age 13 at the Eastern Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot where he said he got smoked but on the last exchange there was a big horse wreck that took out three horses and riders, so he ended up placing – making money at his first big show. “I was hooked,” he said realizing if he wanted to beat the best he had to train.
Hardee told the Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame by the time he was 15, he won every prestigious championship in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Canada. Among them, in 1984, he won his first NWMF Kalispell championship and Shoshone-Bannock Festival. He also won the Great Falls State Fair in 1991 and 92, Kalispell NWMF in 84, 86, 87, 90 to 94, 96 to 2000. In addition, he won the Cheyenne, Wyo. World Championship in 1998 and 1999. He also won the Eastern Idaho State Fair, Malad, Idaho, Evanston, Wyo. in 1990 and 1991. Lander Pioneer Days in 90, 92, 93, Fort Washakie, Wyo. 1994 to 96. Hays, Mont. 1996, Lethbridge, Alberta Canada 1986, North American Indian Days 2001-2003, Crow Fair 1998, Mud and Sarah Hall Memorial Cross Country race Father’s Day Two Medicine to Birch Creek 1999 and 2000.
Jaycee Edmo Indian Relay team with Hardee Skunkcap riding in Malad.
His advice to young riders to train hard, start training early in the spring, get to the relays with the most competition and bring your horses in fast.
When he slowed down on Indian Relay, he focused on team roping since he was around cattle more and ranch horses. “It was then I started to learn a new type of training, rope horse training and a new field of competition, he said. “I have competed in team roping jackpots, rodeos and qualified to the Indian National Finals Rodeo in Senior Team Roping and Senior Breakaway for the past four years.” He continues to ride horses and compete, “rope when we can at a few winter series in Montana and Canada.”
Hardee is employed with the Blackfeet Tribe as the director of Home Improvement Program assisting low-income families in residential remodels in all phases of residential construction. Prior to that he owned his own small business Skunkcap Construction for the past 20 years.
“I used the hard training ethics that I learned in the sport of Indian Relay to help me along in the trails I covered to this time,” he concluded.
