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< Back Rebekah Howe Rebekah Howe Crow Creek Sioux Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Rebekah (Bekah) Howe is Crow Creek Sioux. She plays competitive pétanque and has medaled at regional, national, and international events. Bekah started playing pétanque casually in 2012. She began competing regionally in 2014, and played her first national competition in 2015, bringing home a silver medal in the National Women’s Doubles category. In 2018 she won gold in the National Women’s Singles event and the National Mixed Doubles event. Her first international competition was in 2022, where she represented the U.S. at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama alongside her teammates Janice Bissonnette, Juanita Celix, and Chia Vang. In addition to the women’s team competition, Bekah participated in the precision shooting event where she took the silver medal, earning the first international medal for the United States in pétanque. Most recently, her women’s triples team of Gerda Jorgensen and Chia Vang qualified to represent the U.S. at the 2023 Pétanque World Championships in Thailand. Bekah believes in the power of sport to build community. She has served on the board of her local pétanque club since its inception, and encourages everyone to learn more about her favorite sport, pétanque, and come out and play. She lives in Port Townsend, WA with her husband Silas Holm, who also plays competitive pétanque, and her dog Lou. One of her favorite sport moments was winning the 2018 National Mixed Doubles with Silas. She hopes to play pétanque well into her old age, with her walker or wheelchair if necessary. Photo Credits: Carlos Chavez and Federation of Petanque USA <Back

< Back Ross Anderson Ross Anderson Cheyenne and Arapaho Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 How did an adopted, full blooded Native American son become one of the most successful speed skiers in the world? The Native American alpine speed skier and racer with the fastest time in the Western Hemisphere did it through hard work, desire, perseverance and a ton of ability. Growing up in the mountains of Durango, CO Ross Anderson has held the record for the fastest American ever on skis. His 154.06 miles per hour (247.930KPH) was achieved in 2006. Born in New Mexico, Ross was adopted into an Anglo-American family. At three years old, Ross began learning the winter sport that put him into the history books. He was a six time national champion, and a member of the US Speed Skiing Team. Ross’ rise was a solitary one as the only competitor of color on this intensely competitive circuit. Not only did Ross set records becoming one of the top competitors in the world, including number two in 20O1 and number three in 2005, but he also understood the need to give back to this sport and all the youngsters who consider Ross their role model. The desire to give back is understandable considering that no Native American has ever come close to achieving the international stature that Ross has consistently earned while setting the highest standards in a remarkable career. In 2022 Ross was the featured athlete in a national television commercial produced by the New Mexico Travel Bureau that was released November 1, 2022. His unparalleled accomplishments continue to radiate hope for literally thousands of inspired youths, especially those of color who see that their dreams of standing atop a podium one day truly can come true. <Back

< Back Vic Mercredi Vic Mercredi Métis Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2024 Vic Mercredi achieved the honour of being the first player born and raised in the Northwest Territories to be drafted and signed by a National Hockey League Team in 1973. Mercredi started his junior career in 1969 playing in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League for the Penticton Broncos. In his first season he scored 16 goals and 34 points in 48 games. He followed this season by continuing and improving with 50 goals and 106 points in 51 games, making many take note of his skills as an offensive player. He was awarded the British Columbia Junior Hockey League Most Valuable Player trophy and was a unanimous First Team All-Star. After two seasons with the Broncos, Mercredi moved up to major junior hockey playing two seasons with the New Westminster Bruins in the Western Canada Junior Hockey League. He continued to grow and establish himself as a solid offensive player, scoring 24 goals and 54 points in 68 games. Mercredi could shoot equally well both left-handed and right handed. He took advantage of this unique ability by using a straight stick. In 1973, Mercredi was drafted 16th overall in the first round of the 1973 National Hockey League Amateur Draft by the Atlanta Flames and 35th overall in the 1973 World Hockey Association Amateur Draft by the Houston Aeros. This was a start of a successful professional career that included 68 games with the 1973 Omaha Knights, scoring 21 goals and 57 points, two games in the National Hockey League with the 1974 Atlanta Flames, 64 games with the 1974 Omaha Knights scoring 10 goals and 26 points, three games with the 1975 Calgary Cowboys in the World Hockey Association, and 52 games with the 1975 Baltimore Clippers in the American Hockey League. His next stop was Stockholm, Sweden with the Hammarby IF in 1976. There he played 18 games, scoring five goals and 14 points. He returned home to the successful career with two seasons in the Pacific Hockey League playing 42 games with the 1977 Phoenix Roadrunners, scoring 16 goals and 40 points and 29 games with the 1978 Tucson Rustlers, scoring 8 goals and 28 points. Mercredi finished his career with the 1979 Delta Kings in the British Columbia Senior Hockey League. <Back

< Back Michael G. Robinson Michael G. Robinson White Earth Ojibwe Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Michael G Robinson grew up in Cass Lake, Minnesota, on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. He is Anishinaabe, and an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation. Sports have always been important to Michael. In junior high school, Michael discovered boxing. By the age of 16, he won the Regional Golden Glove Championship, along with the Best Boxer award. In his teens his family moved to Tacoma, Washington and he continued fighting. He represented the Tacoma Boxing team regionally and in the Seattle Golden Gloves. Michael returned to Minnesota, boxing for Minneapolis South Central Gym and Leech Lake. In his career Michael had 152 fights. He won the Regional Golden Gloves tournament eight times, eight Minnesota State Indian Boxing Tournaments and the 1981 and 1984 National Indian Boxing Championships. Michael has been a coach, judge, and promoter of boxing. In both the amateur and professional ranks, Michael has been a positive role model for fighters throughout the Midwestern United States. Michael has always been a positive mentor, giving freely of himself, for benefit of his community. This includes his knowledge of traditional wild rice harvesting. Every fall, he freely passes on what he knows to the next generation of ricers. His devotion to Indian Country public safety paralleled his fighting career. He has been an officer in Mescalero, New Mexico, Red Lake, White Earth and finally, at home for the Leech Lake. Michael recently retired from Law Enforcement after serving for 32 years. <Back

< Back Sydney Daniels Sydney Daniels Mistawasis Nêhiyawak Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2024 Sydney Daniels is a proud member of Mistawasis Nêhiyawak First Nation on Treaty 6 Territory. Daniels completed a four-year NCAA Division 1 ice hockey career at Harvard University where she obtained many accolades including ECAC Hockey All-Academic selection, Multiple ECAC Player of the Month, All-ECAC Hockey Team, All-Ivy League Team. Most importantly, Sydney was selected to captain the team her senior year. Daniels has also participated in multiple tournaments as a member of Team USA bringing home both a silver and gold medal in the IIHF World Championships at both the U-18 and U-22 levels. After her collegiate career, Daniels was drafted third overall in the NWHL to the New York Riveters. She played her first professional ice hockey season with the Boston Pride of NWHL. Daniels spent four seasons as an NCAA Division 1 Assistant Coach for Harvard University from 2018-2022. As a coach, she helped the team in winning the Ivy League, the ECAC regular season, and the Beanpot Championship. Most recently, Daniels was hired by the Winnipeg Jets as a member of the NHL scouting staff, with a specific focus on recruiting within the NCAA. She is the first female from Treaty 6 Territory to be an operations staff member of an NHL team. Daniels is passionate about finding ways to use her experiences to uplift Indigenous Youth. For the past six years, Daniels and her father, Scott Daniels, also a 2024 NAIAHF inductee and former NHL player, run the Daniels Hockey School, a multi-day youth hockey camp for Indigenous youth. Daniels Hockey focuses on creating safe and inclusive spaces for Indigenous Youth to feel safe, have fun, and develop their hockey skills. She hopes to continue to find ways to support and empower Indigenous youth to chase their dreams. <Back

< Back Alwyn Morris Alwyn Morris Kahnawake Mohawk Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Alwyn Morris was born on the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake. At the age of fourteen, he became interested in the Onake Paddling Club that operated on the Mohawk territory despite questions about why he didn’t want to pursue hockey or lacrosse. Morris excelled in the sport quickly, and at the age of 18 moved to Vancouver to train, where he met Hugh Fisher, his future kayak partner. In 1977, he won the K-1 1,000-metre and the K-1 500-metre junior national championships. That same year he was named the recipient of the Tom Longboat Award for the first time and one of the most prestigious awards for Aboriginal athletes in the country. In 1980, Alwyn Morris earned a spot on the Canadian Olympic team. He did not compete that year, but Alwyn and Hugh Fisher teamed up and continued to train in preparation for the Los Angeles Olympics. They raced in the 1984 Summer Olympic paddling competition in the K-2 event (kayak pairs) winning gold in the 1,000-metre competition and bronze in the 500 meter event. Alwyn was once again named as the recipient of the Tom Longboat Award, was later inducted into the Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and appointed to the Order of Canada for outstanding service and achievement. Alwyn proudly raised an eagle feather on the Olympic podium. This gesture was an important symbolic moment about honouring lessons he had learned from his grandfather including perseverance and dedication. Following his career as a high-level and influential athlete for Team Canada, Morris has focused much of his time and energy in addressing barriers for Indigenous athletes. He established the Alwyn Morris Education and Athletic Foundation and continues to coach the youth of Kahnawake in kayaking, canoeing, and hockey. He was influential in the development of and continues to serve with the Aboriginal Sports Circle and has served with the Canada Games Council, the Canadian Sport Secretariat, and as a Special Policy Advisor for Aboriginal People and the Constitution to the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark during the Meech Lake and Charlottetown processes. In 1988, 2004 and 2010, Alwyn had the honour of bearing the Olympic torch through the Kahnawake Territory for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. On June 21, 2022, Western University bestowed an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Indigenous sports in Canada. <Back

LA Williams <Back Diné Induction Category: Media Year Inducted 2023 L.A. Williams is a longtime Diné broadcaster, sports announcer, commentator, and public speaker from the Navajo Nation. She has worked as a sports radio broadcaster for nearly 30 years, bringing sports events to the Navajo people through the radio airwaves. She started her broadcasting career while attending Fort Lewis College in the early ‘90s before becoming the sports voice of the Navajo Nation as the sports director at KTNN, a local Navajo radio station that prides itself in delivering a Navajo language only broadcast. While at KTNN, she attended many sporting events, commentating and announcing in the Navajo language for the people. During the 1993/1994 NBA season, she signed a contract with the Phoenix Suns, and worked closely with Suns announcer Al McCoy, who challenged the idea that a Phoenix Suns game play-by-play could be done entirely in Navajo. Williams not only made it happen, but went on to interview sports celebrities Robin Roberts, Kobie Bryant, and Chery Miller, to name a few. Williams also regularly broadcasts in Navajo from the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and has broadcasted a number of NFL games in Diné. She spent 20 years at KTNN and was dubbed “The Voice of Navajo Sports,” before taking up the communications specialist position at Winslow Indian Health Care Center from 2016-2019. During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she used her Navajo language skills to translate and relay pandemic-related information to the Diné. During the 2021/2022 NBA season, she returned to Phoenix and provided play-by-play during the NBA Playoffs. Williams is now the program manager at Diné College’s KXWR station, where she trains Navajo students to become the next generation of Navajo radio broadcasters, in hopes of continuing the Diné language.

Jason Peters <Back Mi’kmaw Induction Category: Year Inducted Coach 2022 Jason Peters, a Mi’kmaw, is a member of Glooscap First Nation located within the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. He has been a coach and an Indigenous and mainstream sport leader for 33 years. Peters is also a recognized sport administrator, Chartered Professional Coach (ChPC), and a National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) Coach Developer, Basketball Coaches of Canada Advisory Board member and Head Coach of Team Yukon’s U18 Women’s program that will be attending the 2022 Canada Games. Peters’ is believed to soon be Canada’s first Indigenous basketball Head Coach at the Canada Games taking place in Niagara in 2022. He is a two-time provincial champion at Bayside Middle School and former Head Coach of the Simonds High School Seabees women’s program in Saint John, New Brunswick. He served as the Chef de Mission of Aboriginal Team New Brunswick during the 2014 (Regina) and 2017 (Toronto) North American Indigenous Games. In 2013. he was inductee of the New Brunswick Aboriginal Sports Hall of Fame and in 2011 his book Aboriginal Sport Heroes: Atlantic Canada was published. In 2009 Peters served as an Assistant Coach of the New Brunswick women’s Canada Games basketball team (PEI), Canada Basketball’s Nike Centre for Performance and received the New Brunswick Aboriginal Coaching Award. In 2012 he received Basketball New Brunswick’s Special Merit Award for his ongoing service to the basketball community. Peters’ coaching career started in 1989 when he volunteered to coach a Junior Mini team in the newly established East Saint John Minor Basketball Association (ESJMBA). He eventually became a rep team coach, a member of the board of directors and President. Jason also served as a board member of the Coaching Association of Canada, Coach New Brunswick, the Aboriginal Sport Circle, and the North American Indigenous Games Council. Photo Credits: 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee and Jason Peters

< Back Gaylord Powless Gaylord Powless Mohawk, Wolf Clan Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2024 Gaylord Powless was a Mohawk lacrosse player from the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nations Reserve, Ontario, Canada where he was the eldest of 14 children born to Ross and Wilma Powless. Powless received his first lacrosse stick at age two and by age 17, he won the Tom Longboat Award as the best Indigenous athlete in Canada. In 1964, Gaylord was recruited by the Oshawa Green Gaels junior lacrosse team, by coach Jim Bishop to which he led to four consecutive Minto Cups from 1964 to 1967 and was chosen as the most valuable player in the series in 1964 and 1967. Powless turned professional in 1968 and, in 1969, played for the Rochester Chiefs, winning the Can-Am Lacrosse League title. He went on to a successful career in professional and senior amateur lacrosse with teams in Detroit, Syracuse, New York, Montreal, Brantford, Port Coquitlam, and Brampton as well as with the Six Nations team. Powless was also a star player for the Detroit Olympics of the National Lacrosse Association. He scored 63 goals in the 1968 season, twice as many as his nearest competition. He knew where everyone was at all times on the field of play, was an unselfish player, and an outstanding playmaker. Powless's career was cut short by injuries and in 1977, he retired at the age of 30. He had to withstand tremendous racism from coaches, players, fans, and sports writers. His reaction was to recognize that he was a target for bullying and abuse and to overcome it by being the best player, and the highest scoring athlete he could be. Sadly, Powless lost his battle with cancer on July 28, 2001, but his influence as a role model and inspiration to generations of Indigenous youth carries on. He left behind his wife Patti, daughters Michelle and Gaylene, and son Christopher (deceased 2015) who he coached in lacrosse to his Jr. career. His grandchildren Taylor, David, Kahner, Rachel and Kali continue his legacy through their love of sports, they would have been his greatest accomplishment. <Back

Sunnie R. Clahchischilgi Category Media Tribe Diné (Navajo) Year Inducted 2022 Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi is a longtime storyteller from the Navajo Nation. She spent over a decade as sportswriter for the Navajo Times, telling stories of high school, college, and professional Navajo athletes. Clahchischiligi, a former athlete, developed an admiration for sports and storytelling at a young age. She completed six internships in three years, one at Sports Illustrated magazine in New York City. Clahchischiligi earned multiple awards for her writing in sports, editorial, community coverage, elder coverage, and investigative reporting. She wrote for the St. Cloud Times, the Albuquerque Journal, the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Osage News, Searchlight NM, and the Salt Lake Tribune. From her extensive coverage of basketball on the Navajo Nation, she has been dubbed an expert in rezball, a fast-paced style of basketball played throughout Indian Country. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian, to name a few. Clahchischiligi has a bachelor’s degree in print journalism from the University of New Mexico, a master’s degree in rhetoric, writing, and digital media studies from Northern Arizona University, and is currently a PhD candidate in rhetoric and writing at UNM. She also teaches composition in the English department. Home 2025 Banquet 2025 Banquet Sponsorship About Inductee Search Provincial Nominees Contact More

< Back Ryneldi Becenti Ryneldi Becenti Navajo Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Ryneldi Becenti is Navajo from the Navajo Reservation. She has been playing basketball since she was five years old. She always had the passion, love, determination and commitment to be the best. She played collegiate and professional basketball and is retired now to continue to give back to the youth. Becenti played basketball at Window Rock High School (AZ) and Scottsdale Community College (AZ) where she was a two-time NJCAA All American. She was a two-time first team All Pac 10 and honorable mention All American at Arizona State University before she turned pro after two seasons. In 1983 she played in Sweden and also played in Greece and Turkey. In 1997 she played for the Phoenix Mercury and also was drafted with the Chicago Condor in 1998. Becenti was also a bronze medalist at the 1983 World University Games. Her induction into the NAIAHF follows five other Hall of Fames she is in including the American Indian Athletic HOF (1996), Arizona State HOF (2004), Arizona High School HOF (2009), Scottsdale Community College HOF (2011), and National Native American HOF (2022). Her Arizona State University #21 was retired on 12-21-2013. <Back

Dallas Soonias <Back Nehiyaw/Anishinaabe Induction Category: Media/Athlete Year Inducted 2025 Dallas Soonias is Nehiyaw/Anishinaabe. He is registered with The Chippewas of Nawash and has close ties with his father’s band, Red Pheasant. Soonias grew up living off-reserve in Red Deer, Alberta. Soonias was the first male Indigenous person to represent Canada in volleyball, and he did it for 15 years. He was a right side hitter. He was named the 2005 Tom Longboat Award winner. He also received the Inspire Award in the sports category in 2021. In 2023, Soonias wrote, directed, and produced his first short film, Frank Gets the Job Done, which was commissioned by the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival and Telus Storyhive. He had a feature film in development with TeleFilm Canada and was a director for CBC Olympics as well as being an Analyst for CBC Sports covering the 2024 Olympics. Photo: Kristian Bogner for BANFF World Media Festival.