In accordance with Oglala Sioux Tribe ordinances, the five high schools on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation — Pine Ridge, Red Cloud, Little Wound, Crazy Horse and Lakota Tech — will begin the school year with at least nine weeks of online distance learning and will not be offering fall sports at the start of the year.

The reservation’s shelter-in-place ordinance, instituted last March, puts an emphasis on staying home unless you’re classified as an essential business. That requires schools to remain in online distance learning with no sports, according to Crazy Horse superintendent Silas Blaine.

Blaine said they have voiced their concerns to the education committee — which oversees all the schools on Pine Ridge — and they are working to modify it. The hope is to install an education amendment to the shelter-in-place ordinance, which would allow schools to submit plans for 1-on-1 and small-group learning later in the year.

If the education council receives approval from the tribe, schools would be allowed to begin exploring modified in-person learning (and possibly salvage the final weeks of the fall sports season) after the first quarter (about nine weeks into the school year).

That timeline could create complications for individuals hoping to compete for state championships in golf and cross country, with region golf meets slated for late September and region cross country meets set for mid-October.

“It’s going to depend on timing. Depending on when their classes start, a lot of the individual events will be finished by the time the first quarter ends,” SDHSAA executive director Dan Swartos said. “State golf is scheduled for early October and in general, you’re looking at around then for when the quarter would end. So, in order to get to regions, (athletes would need clearance) prior to that.”

A number of other Native American schools have either canceled or postponed their fall sports seasons, as well. 

Cheyenne-Eagle Butte and St. Francis Indian have both canceled fall sports entirely.

Tiospaye Topa has suspended extracurricular activities until Sept. 18 (will render a final decision then), while Crow Creek has opted to go flex learning for the first nine weeks of school and either “postponed or canceled” fall sports/activities for the time being.

Todd County’s school board voted last week to suspend all fall extracurricular activities “as long as there is no in-person learning” or following re-evaluation at the quarter mark (could start if an in-person option is offered at that time).

Flandreau Indian School will also begin the year online and will not be offering fall sports, according to Blaine, who said McLaughlin, Wakpala, Lower Brule, Tiospa Zina and Marty are all planning to offer fall sports.

Takini has also informed the activities association that it will not be participating in fall sports at this time, according to Swartos.

“We’re still working on contacting all the schools and getting definitive answers,” he said. “There are things changing often in those communities, as they are around the state.”

The loss of those schools will have a significant impact on the fall sports landscape. 

Pine Ridge, Red Cloud, Little Wound, St. Francis Indian, Todd County, Crow Creek, Lakota Tech and Flandreau Indian are Class A for cross country, boys golf (Crow Creek does not offer golf) and volleyball, while Crazy Horse, Tiospaye Topa and Takini are Class B for the same sports.

This creates a particularly unique (and potentially complicated) situation in volleyball with Region 7A down to just two teams — Bennett County and Winner — for the time being.

If Lakota Tech, Little Wound, Pine Ridge, Red Cloud, St. Francis Indian and Todd County are able to salvage their volleyball seasons, Swartos said they would likely be allowed to compete in regions. “It’s just a matter of figuring out how the seedings would work,” he said.

However, if those schools are unable to compete, Bennett County and Winner may automatically qualify for the SoDak 16 — but nothing has been finalized. “We’re still looking at it and are revising some of our postseason things as a staff,” Swartos said. 

For football, Pine Ridge and Todd County are both in Class 11A, which will create some scheduling complications. 

Belle Fourche, Bennett County, Canton, Custer and Hot Springs are slated to play both Pine Ridge and Todd County this fall.

“We’re going to do what we can,” Swartos said, adding that they have been in contact with some of the scheduled opponents of Pine Ridge and Todd County.

“Unfortunately, football is really difficult (to reschedule),” he continued. “It’s dependent upon when bye weeks are and if the other team lines up with that. In theory, at least some of the time you could take two teams who were supposed to play Todd County and Pine Ridge and have them play each other, but there sometimes ends up being other scheduling difficulties.”

Flandreau Indian, Tiospa Zina, Crow Creek, St. Francis, Cheyenne-Eagle Butte, Takini, Little Wound and Crazy Horse are members of the All Nations Conference, which voted Thursday to move its season to the spring.

The plan is for the season to begin after the conclusion of basketball season, Lower Brule superintendent/athletic director Lance Witte said in an update posted to the school’s Facebook page.

“Much like you’ve seen across the nation with college seasons and so forth, we felt for the safety and well-being of our children (this was the right decision),” he said.

Witte said just five of the 16 member schools would have been able to play football this fall, two from South Dakota, plus Standing Rock, Omaha Nation and Winnebago. 

Crazy Horse athletic director James Bagwell said Wednesday night that they would look to start the season in the beginning of April, adding their recommendation has been passed on to the SDHSAA for approval. While not part of the state activities association, the SDHSAA does provide officials for the All Nations Conference.

Swartos said conversations are “ongoing.”

“We’re still hoping for that opportunity,” Bagwell added. “It would be great (to play), especially for those seniors.” 

Asked if any of the reservation schools had explored the possibility of playing non-sanctioned games amongst themselves as a way to keep kids active, Blaine said that has not been discussed.

“We haven’t looked at that because a lot of our school children are being raised by grandparents and a lot of our grandparents have underlying health conditions, something that if they get the virus it’s going to affect them more seriously than the non-Native American population. That’s really concerning for all of our schools.”

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.