(JUNE 19) On June 5, 2022, I traveled down to Crescent City, California, to meet up with Darlene “Princess Blue Bird” Buckskin pioneer female boxer, a history-making professional boxer, as she and her sister, Theresa “Princess Red Star” Kibby were the first ever Native Americans to receive a professional boxing license in California in the mid 1970s, when female boxing was just beginning to make it’s own footprints in the sport.

Darlene was adopted by the Dave Kibby family--along with her sister Theresa when Theresa was about three years old, and three other siblings.

Darlene kept her name “Buckskin” that came from her four-times down (great) the line grandfather who created that name when the U.S. Census said he needed an English surname. Darlene carries the “Buckskin” name with pride.

Theresa always went by the name of Kibby, who adored her adoptive father Dave Kibby.

I would like to report that they both lived happily ever after but, like many of us, they fought many battles personally as they did professionally when attempting to create their own history in the sport of boxing.

Darlene said, "I only knew my dad and my mom for the first nine years of my life before we got taken away.  We were in foster homes for the next two years, and I was in 12 foster homes, because I was separated from my other siblings at the time.  Then when I was 12, my uncle adopted all of us, who was living in Smith River, California.  Then at that time the Kibby's took over the adoption because my uncle lived on their property." 

Roger Buckskin - passed away - Photo credit: Facebook

Darlene trained with her professional boxing brothers, with one of them, Roger Buckskin, that had a highly noted career in the sport, even defeating the likes of Carlos Palomino and many other prominent male boxers in the sport. Her other adopted brother, David Kibby Jr. also fought professionally for about 7 or 8 years.

As she and Theresa trained in Crescent City, and ran on the beach to do as all boxers need to do if they want to achieve anything in the sport.

Darlene told me as she and I overlooked the Crescent beach area of where they spent many countless days, months, years, running a long stretch of the area---while having water in their mouth the whole time, to teach them to not breath out their mouth, but always through their nose. Their adoptive father, Dave Kibby was a tough trainer, and expected the most out of Darlene, Theresa and their brothers.  Also,
Darlene said that she and Theresa trained with Archie Moore at one time, and how he supported them in their desire to fight professionally and women's boxing in general. (More details of this that will be in the video of Darlene Buckskin).

It did pay off as Darlene fought many exhibitions locally, and she won a split decision over me in 1977, at the Aladdin Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada. There was controversy surrounded around this card, that included that it was either a sanctioned bout, and/or exhibition, but that is left for another story.

Darlene, just as other female boxers of this time had a dream…a dream that unfortunately disappointed all of us in the end of all the struggle to gain respect, success to have a career that would take them far. But that was not to happen…and it has through the years, with some false hope happened for others, just to see the sport fall into another lull for females in general.

Regardless of financial gains in the sport, Darlene was rated #2 in the world as a middleweight and it was listed in the Boxing Illustrated Magazine in the 1970's.

After she left the sport, loving to be active, and in shape she moved on to softball, basketball, and volleyball. Although in boxing, she continued to trained numerous boxers in the sport. Also in the meantime she had daughter that was born at the time.

After she lived in Crescent City, she moved to Fortuna, California, for work. In that area she got a job at the State Park around 1982. After working their for four years, she moved up into a supervisory position.

Then being the over-achiever as she proved over and over with her employer, she found out about a position in the National Park. She went up to fill out an application and got the job. The first day she said, “It was really rough. Because I had to carry two- three foot huskavara chain saws, and four gallons of gas and oil, and had to go up a hill to prove that I had the ability to do it.”

“It was a kind of a test, and so obviously I passed it, and I got the job”, added Darlene.

While working this job 10 hours a day, still had time to play two to three games every night in Softball and tournaments on the weekend. She kept that up until she got injured in 2003, with a shattered knee, that ended her working career, and then had a downtime for a few years.

Darlene was a long-time competitor in softball, winning many awards each year that included the following: Jackets, trophies, best player of the year, and many more accolades. She actually played in competition until 2015, and then she took another break, and then one of the softball members asked her to pitch on her 69th birthday. Darlene, said “Okay, Okay, I will play.” That was the last time she played.

While visiting the old building that was the gym that she trained in, we got an opportunity for the doors to be open to check out the "Once upon a time" boxing gym, with Darlene reflecting on the good times, and some bad times that took place at the time.  It was surreal for Darlene to go up the same stairs she did when she was a professional boxer.  When we were finished checking out the gym, we took a photo in the same exact spot that once was photographed of she and Theresa Kibby in front of the gym.  I filled in for Theresa, who passed away in September of 2021.

Theresa Kibby (left)  Darlene Buckskin (right) - 1970's photo


Sue Fox (left)  Darlene Buckskin (right) taken 46 plus years later.

On October 22, 2022, Darlene will again receive a special award when she and her sister Theresa Kibby will be awarded the history-first Native American female boxers to be licensed in the sport. Full details of event:   Link

Darlene said upon learning about this highly respected achievement award, “I did think that nothing would ever come of it (boxing), but because of you, you pulled me out of the woodwork and tracked me down, and I never expected to be recognize in this way….my friends had no idea, as I never talked about it."

Note:  We will be publishing a video on Darlene soon...so be on the lookout about this great pioneer boxer! 

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