The first Native American woman to compete in the Winter Olympics, Naomi Lang, 早在2002年盐湖城冬奥会上，她就发现自己已经登上了国际舞台.
在开幕式上，朗，一个联邦认可的注册会员 Karuk tribe in Siskiyou and Humboldt counties, 他是被选中向犹他州主要部落首领献花圈的五名运动员之一, Goshute, Shoshone, Paiute, and Navajo/Dine.
Trailed by a procession of dancing and chanting tribal members, the Native American leaders rode on horseback across the stadium. Raising his arm, Goshute董事长鲁珀特·斯蒂尔站在朗面前，为她念了一段祝福——那一刻在她的记忆中依然清晰. 的确，这是他开创性的运动生涯中的一个高潮，其中包括五次美国奥运会.S. 与她的滑冰搭档一起获得了全国冰舞冠军和两项四大洲冠军, Peter Tchernyshev.
“It was all pure white,” Lang recalls. “There were glittering lights in the stands. 然后我看见那五个骑士从体育场的另一边向bbin游戏官网走来. 他们穿着全套的王室服装，就像bbin游戏官网见证了原始时代的历史. It was the most spectacular thing I could have imagined. They were opening the games and each one of them spoke in their own language. Everything was so beautiful. 你可以看到，当我抬头看着那些漂亮的马时，我面带微笑，合耳而听. I gave him the gift. It was like the best thing in my life.”
A Life in Skating
朗现在住在亚利桑那州，在ice Den Chandler担任花样滑冰和冰上舞蹈教练. A mother of five with children ranging in age from 5 to 19, 在她的竞技生涯之后，朗在世界各地的冰上表演中表演. She was born in Arcata, but lived apart from the Karuk culture as she grew up. 她的父亲杰森与酗酒作斗争，她的外祖母在密歇根州与疾病作斗争, as a young girl Lang moved with her mother to the Upper Midwest.
One day proved especially momentous when Lang was eight. “My mother took me to see the Ice Capades show in Kalamazoo,” she says. “Ice Capades and Disney on Ice were there the same week. I fell in love with the performance value of what the skaters were doing. 我下到冰面上，被雪橇拉着，被滑冰者拉着. 我能感觉到风拂过我的头发和自由，即使是在雪橇上，只是在冰上. I fell in love with that feeling right away. So I asked my mom to sign me up for skating classes.”
Before she began the classes, 在溜冰场的一次公开活动中，朗走上了冰面，想看看自己是否真的喜欢滑冰. Turns out she was a natural. After initially staying close to the boards, 她的信心迅速增强，到一个小时结束时，她已经超过了其他选手. “我走得很快，心想，‘哇，这太酷了，我还挺擅长这个的. I like it.’”
From the time she was three years old, Lang had studied ballet. 她的教练是维吉尼亚·涅克拉斯-劳伦特，朗甚至在红木音乐会芭蕾舞团的作品《 The Nutcracker. 朗相信她的芭蕾舞训练通过帮助她发展良好的平衡和姿势，为滑冰奠定了坚实的基础, as well as an overall sense of body positioning.
“My look on the ice was more balletic and I had the proper lines,” Lang says. “It was perfect for ice dancing. Ice dancing came super easily to me because of my ballet background.”
Lang continued with both ballet and skating into high school. 严格的训练计划意味着她错过了足球比赛和其他大多数人认为理所当然的成长过程. Then at 15, she gave up ballet to dedicate herself fully to skating. Lang competed in all four disciplines—figures, freestyle, pairs skating, and ice dance—before committing to ice dancing. 在一起练习后，她的教练告诉她，她是一个天生的冰上舞者. 她的芭蕾舞背景给了她更多的是舞者的风格，而不是跳跃者的技术, and, paradoxically, 她发现和同伴一起滑冰比自己一个人滑冰更舒服、更自由.
She clearly made the right decision. With partner John Lee, Lang won the 1995 U.S. 第二年在美国举行的青少年比赛中获得了新手冠军和银牌.S. National Championships. Lang was on the way to the Olympics and her place in history. As proud as she was to become the first Native American woman Winter Olympian, 朗承认她无法完全理解这一里程碑的意义. “I hadn’t connected with myself,” she says. “I kind of felt that I didn’t belong in that role yet.”
Rediscovering Her Karuk Roots
Growing up in Michigan, 朗想象着有一天去加利福尼亚和她父亲那边的家人呆在一起，了解她的卡鲁克血统会是什么样子. “作为一个孩子，我认为如果我去参观，我不知道我会发现什么. I knew that it was a part of my life that I eventually wanted to discover. But I wasn’t ready.”
在与父亲只有零星联系之后，朗开始与他联系. 家人告诉她，他一直在与酒精相关的健康问题作斗争，住在老年人的房子里. But through her cousin Brian D. Tripp她是一位著名的卡鲁克艺术家和诗人，她得知她的父亲想要说话.
It was 2020. “I was finally ready. Perfect, I got this. I’m going to meet my dad. I’m going to finally figure out who I am, where I came from. All of it. I was super excited.”
When the day came for a phone conversation, Lang says family members called her six hours ahead of schedule. She was caught off guard and, in a panic, didn’t take the call, figuring they would try again later to reach her. 接下来的两天里，她杳无音信，直到她的叔叔朱利安·朗, a traditional Karuk storyteller, broke the sad news that her father had passed away.
“那一刻我想，‘娜奥米，你必须自己做这件事，’”她回忆道. “There’s not going to be anybody to help you. You have to take the step. This all happened for a reason.’”
2022年，42岁的朗终于去了加州，拜访了她父亲的家人. “I hadn’t seen them since I was maybe 10,” she says. “It was the most awesome experience. 我妈妈和我长得不太像，我是在一个金发碧眼的世界长大的. 但我长得和我父亲一模一样，他那边的人鼻子都一样. We all have the same eye shape. We all have the same hair.
“I felt like I belonged. They opened their arms and took me in. 开始带我参观卡鲁克人的领地以及他们举行仪式的地方. The river where they catch salmon. The songs they sing. The art they create. Their regalia. I have just learned so much in the past two years. Amazing things. And my journey is just beginning.”
Lang’s goal is to give back to the Karuk community in whatever way she can. “我想丰富孩子们的生活，讲述我的故事，成为一个积极的影响. To give a sense of what it takes to be a successful person. For them to hear a story of struggle that leads to success. That was my story. There are a lot of kids who deal with parents with alcoholism. And not having a second parent. I never had a second parent. But I didn’t blame my dad. I could tell he was struggling and knew he was proud of me.”
While in California, Lang spoke to Karuk tribal members and alongside the Northern California Indian Development Council organized a roller skating event (there was no ice available) for Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa children. 现在，她正在亚利桑那州和加利福尼亚州开展丰富活动，鼓励人们积极参与, healthy lifestyle among Indigenous youth.
In April of 2022, 当朗在凤凰城的赫德博物馆演出时，她的卡鲁克血统和滑冰的一生终于融合在一起. During a skating program set to the sound of ocean waves, her cousin Brian’s poetry, and flute music, 朗戴着卡鲁克家族成员为她精心制作的传统王冠.
“我为了滑冰走遍了世界各地，但当我两年前回到北加州看望我的家人时，我终于觉得我应该在那里. The Klamath River was calling my name my whole life. I was finally home.”