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Polygamist Town School Hosts First Basketball Game

Sporting long prairie-style dresses, girls play separately from the boys at a private school April 19, 2006 in Hildale, Utah. Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have kept a strict hold on every aspect of the FLDS life -- from the modest prairie-style clothes worn by members, to the time their kids stay in school and which house a family calls home.
(AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)

Sporting long prairie-style dresses, girls play separately from the boys at a private school April 19, 2006 in Hildale, Utah. Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have kept a strict hold on every aspect of the FLDS life -- from the modest prairie-style clothes worn by members, to the time their kids stay in school and which house a family calls home.

Last week, in a high-school gymnasium located in a small town on the Arizona and Utah border, there was a rare sight seen - a basketball game.

Water Canyon School in Hilldale, Utah, about two hours northeast of Las Vegas, hosted its first-ever basketball games, in a gymnasium that was previously used as a storehouse.

Hilldale and adjoining Colorado City, Arizona, collectively known as Short Creek, is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamist church whose leader, Warren Jeffs, was imprisoned in 2011.

Jeffs ordered the faith’s children removed from public schools in the early 2000s.

Salt Lake Tribune writer Nate Carlisle coveredthe basketball game and the reaction from the community. 

Nate Carlisle, reporter, Salt Lake Tribune 

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Prior to taking on the role of Broadcast Operations Manager in January 2021, Rachel was the senior producer of KNPR's State of Nevada program for 6 years. She helped compile newscasts and provided coverage for and about the people of Southern Nevada, as well as major events such as the October 1 shooting on the Las Vegas strip, protests of racial injustice, elections and more. Rachel graduated with a bachelor's degree of journalism and mass communications from New Mexico State University.