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RaeQuan Battle’s first varsity three-pointer in high school came from the corner. 

Within 10 seconds of being checked into his debut game for Marysville-Pilchuck High School against Arlington High, Battle found himself open near the baseline. His teammates swung him the ball and the sharpshooter was money from deep. 

“He might’ve played a couple of JV games,” Battle’s high school coach, Bary Gould, said. “But then we brought him up because that’s where he needed to be.”

Four years later and wearing purple and gold instead of red and white, Battle rose again, this time from the left corner of Hec Edmundson Pavilion in his first career start for the Washington men’s basketball team against Oregon State. He hit nothing but net, raising his right arm in celebration as he ran back down the court. 

That corner shot has taken Battle from the gymnasium in Arlington all the way to Hec Ed. And about 45 minutes before tip off against Arizona on Jan. 30, the future and the past met there for just a moment. 

The past came in the form of Sonny Sixkiller, the famed Washington quarterback who started for the Huskies from 1970-72. A member of the Cherokee Nation, he made the cover of Sports Illustrated in October 1971 and was inducted into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987. 

The future though, is Battle. The 6-foot-5, quick-trigger shooter has been a revelation for the Huskies since an increase in minutes following the academic ineligibility of sophomore Quade Green.  

But Battle’s shooting, athleticism, and basketball skills aren’t the only thing that make him unique. The freshman is a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington, and spent his entire life on the reservation 40 miles north of Seattle. He’s the first person from the Tulalip people to earn a Division I scholarship.

“I think it’s awesome for a local native kid to be able to get a DI scholarship,” Sixkiller said.

Despite basketball being a huge part of life on reservations across the country, Native American representation both in college and beyond is limited. Pac-12 fans may remember Oregon State’s Joe Burton who became the first Native American to earn a scholarship for men’s basketball in the conference in 2009. 

“I grew up on the reservation my whole life,” Battle said. “That’s where my roots are. When I hit a three, I put my arm up, represent where I’m from. I have to. A lot’s happened through there, a lot of people don’t know what goes on.” 

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Battle was raised by his mother, Jacquie Williams-Battle. A basketball player in her own right at Marysville-Pilchuck, she raised her five sons and took care of several other family members as a single mother. Refusing to buy her children video games, she encouraged them to play sports instead. 

He took to athletics immediately — just not basketball. Battle originally loved football, only playing his mother’s old sport when it wasn’t time to strap on the pads.

Learn more at http://www.dailyuw.com/sports/article_af902a0e-52d0-11ea-bc80-ab9be6ae5a3d.html