Young athletes from Canada’s North earned a bundle of medals on Thursday at the North American Indigenous Games on Vancouver Island.

Swimmers from the Northwest Territories won six medals Thursday night, including gold for Mason Hachey of Hay River, N.W.T., and Candace Elatiak of Yellowknife.

Hachey won gold in the male 50-metre breaststroke event with a time of 39.12 seconds, while Elatiak struck gold in the 200-metre butterfly race.

Colton Yee of Hay River won silver in the 50-metre freestyle and a bronze medal in the 200-metre individual race.

Amy Harman of Yellowknife won a bronze medal in the 50-metre breaststroke.

Other medal winners include Laura McBride and Jessica Williams, who with Harman and Elatiak, took home a silver medal in the 200-metre freestyle relay.

More than 4,500 aboriginal athletes, coaches and officials from 23 teams across Canada and the United States have been competing since Aug. 3 in the games, taking place in the Cowichan Valley area of Vancouver Island.

The games end Sunday.

Yukon, N.W.T., excel in 3D archery

Also on Thursday, athletes from the N.W.T. and the Yukon dominated 3D archery, one of the games’ most unique events.

In the co-ed sport, participants trek along a rugged, wooded trail through the forest, uncovering life-sized targets depicting moose, elk and other animals hiding in the bush.

Competitors shoot one arrow at each of the wildlife targets. The arrow that’s closest to what would be considered a kill shot in hunting gets the most points.

Yukoner Kristin Van Bibber, 16, of Dawson City won a gold medal in the sport. Silver medals went to Jenna Mills and Aaron Workman, both of Haines Junction, as well as Victoria Medcalf of Ross River and Shelley Inkster of Whitehorse.

Bronze medals in 3D archery went to Charabelle Silverfox of Pelly Crossing and Riley Jonathan of Haines Junction.

Four rookie archers from the Northwest Territories also won medals in the sport.

Melvin Vital of Nahanni Butte and Lynsey Landry of Fort Providence earned silver medals, and Matthew Bird of Fort Smith and Logan Matou of Nahanni Butte scored bronze.

Saskatchewan leads medal count

Earlier this week, 15-year-old Johnny McKinney of Hay River won two bronze medals, in the midget boys’ high jump and shot put events.

As of Friday afternoon, Team Northwest Territories had a total of 22 medals, 12 of which are bronze, seven are silver and three are gold.

Team Yukon is just ahead of Team N.W.T. in the medal standings, having earned 23 medals.

Athletes from Team Nunavut have a total of five medals to date, four of which are silver. The territory’s lone bronze medal went to Taylor Paniyuk, a wrestler from Coral Harbour.

Team Saskatchewan leads the overall standings with 136 medals, followed by Ontario with 74 and Alberta with 67.

Nunavik vies for spot in future games

One northern region that hopes to send a team to future games is the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. A delegation from the mostly Inuit region has travelled to the Cowichan Valley to check out the games.

Frankie Gordon, a Nunavik delegate from Kuujjuaq, told CBC News his team is interested in participating in the next North American Indigenous Games in 2011.

Athletes from Nunavik normally take part in winter games, but Gordon said they are interested in summer sports as well.

“For example, rifle shooting. There’s a lot of kids or kids that handle the .22 [calibre] rifles, so they are used to shooting targets like ptarmigans and all that,” Gordon said.

“This is sort of an example why we’re just looking at the specifics, the techniques and all that. And also different kinds of events that we might be able to get into like individual events for badminton.”

Gordon said participating in future games would allow Nunavik youth to travel and develop their skills in summer sports.