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Veteran Announcers Named to Stage at All Nations Indian Relay Championships

Announcers/MC’s add to the excitement of Indian Relay

BILLINGS, Mont. – Kennard Real Bird and Randy Taylor have been selected to be announcers for the All Nations Indian Relay Championships being held in Billings, Mont. Sept. 17-20, 2015. Both Native American men have many years of experience announcing Indian Relay and will elevate this Championship event with their considerable talent.

Real Bird, a member of the Crow Indian Tribe, states that his family, “has been in the horse business for 400 years!” Since the horse was first introduced in North America, his ancestors have raised, trained and raced horses. Real Bird and his family live in Montana on the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and travel all over the West buying and selling horses. He is proud of the fact that he still lives the traditional life of the Crow Indians with some modern modifications.

Real Bird admires courage in people. Indian Relay, touted as “the most exciting five minutes in Indian Country” requires courage on the part of the competitors. Each team consists of one rider, three horses, and three “courageous teammates” who hold, catch and control the two extra horses as the rider leaps from one to another, making a single circuit of the track on each. This is an intense relay race where the rider is a human baton.

Randy Taylor is a professional sports and entertainment announcer with a degree in broadcasting from the University of Wyoming, where he was also a member of the rodeo team. Taylor is a former rodeo rider/competitor and was a qualifier for National Finals Rodeo (NFR) during his rodeo career. His dynamic presentations electrify audiences and participants alike, which makes for an exciting show! Taylor, who is known as the “Cherokee Cowboy”, lives in South Dakota with his wife and family.

“The spirit of man and horse have been together for centuries; Indian Relay allows this spirit to be engaged in competition, which appeals to people of all cultures and backgrounds,” said Taylor.

This year, the All Nations Indian Relay Championships will be held Sept.17-20 at the historic MetraPark Grandstands in Billings, Mont. The top teams representing 15 Indian nations will compete at the 2015 All Nations Championships for more than $75,000 in cash, travel, advance and prizes and the coveted Champions’ jackets and buckles. The teams come from Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and Canada. The tribes represented in relay include Oglala Lakota Sioux, Blackfeet, Crow, Shoshone-Bannock, Eastern Shoshone, the Colville Confederated Tribes and the Umatilla Confederated Tribes. The vision of the teams and the entire membership is for relay to become a viable cultural and economic entity on the reservations.

 

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