Butler off to referee hoop games in Arizona

Tribal Elder Alton Butler will be on his way to Arizona between July 9-13 because he has been named a basketball referee in the annual Lori Piestewa National Native American Games, started in 2003 after the Hopi soldier was killed in Iraq.
Piestewa is thought to be the first Native American woman ever killed in combat.
The Piestewa games are part of the National Congress of State Games, a component of the U.S. Olympic Committee. They are being held in the Phoenix metropolitan area on the Fort McDowell and Salt River Indian communities.
Two-hundred Native American teams from Tribes across the nation are expected to compete in a variety of sports. Butler is among some 90 referees and he has offered to referee eight one-hour basketball games a day with an hour break in the middle.
"You have to be in great shape," Butler said.
Butler has been a referee since he was 25, after he left the Marine Corps.
"I always loved sports," he said.
He competed in baseball, football and wrestling during his years at Willamina High School.
Butler said he heard about the games when reading about Piestewa and offered his services as a referee a few years ago. This year, they called him.
He has been a referee in Salem, West Valley and Tri City leagues at one time or another working with all age groups and in football, basketball, baseball and softball.
He said that being a referee can be tough, but the comments roll off him. He once had a mother come up to the pitcher's mound to talk to him while the game was going on.
"I have people who are still mad at me from a call I made in Little League 20 years ago. It's normal to make 50 percent of the people mad at you during a game, but if you make 100 percent of them mad, that's a really good game."
He knows about getting angry at referees because before he became one, he said, "I yelled at the refs all the time."
Butler is the building official for the Tribe. Previously, he was recreation coordinator.