PABLO — Craig Falcon has been researching traditional native games for almost 23 years.

The East Glacier native and member of the Blackfeet tribe is the executive director of the International Traditional Games Society (ITGS), a non-profit established in 1997 for the purpose of regenerating a nearly lost area of Native American culture.

“What we want to accomplish is for native youth to understand and play games to enhance cultural understanding and to bridge gaps between historical trauma, tribal cultures, and to enhance a sense of healing for all tribal peoples,” Falcon said.

The society took a major step in that direction last week when it sponsored the First International Native Games Conference at Salish Kootenai College.

“We found that this campus was ideal for the conference with lodging and plenty of classrooms. They had a great team to put this stuff together,” Falcon said. He mentioned that the college’s business department helped to design the conference program and brochure materials.

The conference attracted attendees from all across the region and speakers from all over the world to come together and learn about native games and the emotional and spiritual benefits associated with them. Speakers came from as far as India to share research on those themes.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the conference were the games themselves, led by the society’s president, Jeremy Red Eagle. He instructed children and adults alike on traditional native games like lacrosse and shinney, a field hockey-like game played with wooden sticks and a leather ball.

In addition to his involvement with the ITGS, Red Eagle works extensively with the Helena Indian Alliance’s youth programs, and many of his youth came to the conference with him to learn and play the games.

Tattoos, braided hair and all, many of the observing mothers described Red Eagle as “the biggest kid out there,” which certainly seemed true at times, but the Helena man has a larger purpose than that.

“Our society struggles so much with drug and alcohol abuse, diabetes that it’s good to get [Native American children] a positive introduction to the culture,” Red Eagle said. Many of the children at the conference have almost no connection to the rich culture of their ancestors, he added. His mission, and that of the ITGS, is to fix that through events like the conference.

In all, Red Eagle and the ITGS highlighted 10 traditional games and walked the conference attendees through many more.