MITCHELL — Corn Palace officials were pleased with its collaboration with the Dakota Oyate Challenge on Jan. 25-27.

The annual event featuring Native American student-athletes competing in basketball, along with other activities, moved from Huron to Mitchell this year and Corn Palace Director Doug Greenway was pleased with hosting it. 

“Everyone here has been enjoying themselves,” Greenway said. “They are very polite. They have been very appreciative of having the opportunity to be here. We’ve gotten a lot of compliments about hosting the event.”

The DOC Board of Directors will meet in March to iron out the event’s future, but Greenway said next year’s dates are tentatively set for Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2025 at the Corn Palace. The DOC will also bring an eight-team volleyball tournament to the Corn Palace in September, which will be a Friday and Saturday event.  

This year, Greenway said the DOC brought in “about a 1,000 a day,” for attendance and roughly 320 student-athletes participated in the event. 

“Small compared to some of our other classics that we have,” Greenway said. “But for this group that’s a good crowd. They have been happy with the crowds.”

The lack of hotel rooms to accommodate fans was a driving force behind moving it to Mitchell, and Greenway said “We know 600-plus hotel rooms were used over this tournament, 200 a night. That’s just the teams. We have whatever spectators stayed and the vendors that stayed.”

The eight participating teams for basketball included Wakpala, Flandreau Indian, Lower Brule, Marty, Crazy Horse, Omaha Nation, Tiospaye Topa and Takini. 

Marty (70 miles) is the closest of the eight schools to Mitchell, while Flandreau Indian and Lower Brule are both 100 miles away. The five remaining schools range from 185-260 miles from Mitchell.

Locally, the DOC took a home weekend away from Mitchell High School and Dakota Wesleyan University basketball teams. The Kernels and Tigers share the city-owned facility for home basketball games.

The DOC created a scheduling conflict due to the Corn Palace’s logjam of classics during the season. In the past several weeks, the Corn Palace has hosted the Hoop City Classic, Sacred Hoops Classic, girls Hanson Classic and boys Hanson Classic. 

“So that puts pressure on our local teams,” Greenway said. “But we are a city facility and as a city facility, my job is to generate revenue for the city of Mitchell and this was an opportunity to bring something that would do that.”

In addition to hotels, Greenway was hopeful that restaurants and other local businesses profited from Mitchell hosting the three-day event. 

“For hotels and restaurants we hope it was a good weekend for them and that’s why we brought it here,” Greenway said. “I hope the city of Mitchell benefited from it. The kids have been great and they have enjoyed it.”