Search Results

Brian Chrupalo Pine Creek Frist Nation 282 Induction Category: Year Inducted Official 2023 <Back Brian Chrupalo was born and raised in the city of Winnipeg. Brian grew up in Manitoba housing that is a low-income housing complex in the cities north end. Brian is married to Lori and they have raised three adult boys, Tanner and twins Andrew and Carter. Brian is the first Treaty Status Canadian (registered to 282 Pine Creek First Nation) to work in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as an on field official. Brian has worked seventeen seasons in the CFL. During his career he has worked 278 games, he has been assigned numerous playoff assignments and worked in five Grey Cup championships. Brian was part of the 2017 season CFL/NFL officials exchange program which saw CFL officials work NFL camps and a preseason game in Jacksonville Florida. Since September 2021, Brian has been learning the Ojibwe language by taking virtual classes, this provided the unique opportunity on September 2022 to allow Brian to announce all of the game’s penalties in Ojibwe and English during the truth and reconciliation game. This was the first time in the history of the Canadian Football League that penalties were announced by an on field official in an indigenous language. Brian will announce the penalties again during the same game for the 2023 season When Brian isn’t working as a Staff Sergeant for the Winnipeg Police Service or working a CFL game he can be found volunteering as the Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the Bear Clan Patrol Inc., an indigenous community-based organization. Brian was instrumental in obtaining funding for a food hamper program during Covid-19. This program saw four hundred families receive healthy food every week for a year. Brian will be introducing marginalized indigenous youth, opportunities to participate in football camps in 2023.

< 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

< Back Aspen Wesley Aspen Wesley Choctaw Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2025 Aspen Wesley was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 2000. She is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and grew up in the Pearl River Community on the Choctaw Indian reservation. She sees playing softball as her way to inspire the next generation of native kids in her tribe and others. Aspen graduated from Mississippi State University, earning a Bachelor of Science in the spring of 2024 and played on a softball scholarship for five years. She was named 2024 second team all-SEC, two-time NCAA Pitcher of the Week, two-time SEC Pitcher of the Week, and 2023 NFCA All-America scholar-athlete. Aspen helped Mississippi State to their first-ever super regional in 2022. She then played professionally for the Texas Monarchs and was selected as an all-star. She also played overseas in New Zealand. She went to Neshoba Central High School and is a six-time state champion and four-time Mississippi softball Gatorade Player of the Year. When Aspen is done playing softball, she wants to be a pitching coach for college schools. She would love to give back to her community and educate/motivate Native kids to see the world, whether sports-related or academics. Her family and her native people are what have given her the drive to strive for more. Aspen remains committed to pushing the boundaries, learning, and helping others. She hopes to make a meaningful impact in her professional work and community. <Back

< Back Bryan Trottier Bryan Trottier Chippewa Cree Métis Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2024 Bryan Trottier is Cree Métis from Val Marie, Saskatchewan and he was one of the National Hockey League's premier centremen. Trottier won six Stanley Cups as a player, including four-straight championships with the New York Islanders between 1980 and 1983, and two back-to-back in 1991 and 1992 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and a seventh as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. Trottier began his hockey career playing for the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Canada Junior Hockey League during the seasons of 1972-1973 and 1973-1974. In the latter season, he scored 41 goals and 71 assists for a total of 112 points in 68 games. He finished his first season with league records for a rookie in assists (63) and points (95), earning the NHL's Calder Trophy awarded annually to the most outstanding newcomer. Playing in 77 games in the 1977-78 season, Trottier had 46 goals and 77 assists for a total of 123 points. During the 1978-79 season, Trottier compiled his best season statistics ever, scoring 47 goals and 87 assists for a total of 134 points, making him the league's top scorer and earning him the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player. Trottier was also the recipient of the Art Ross Trophy in 1979, and the Hart Memorial Trophy also in 1979. In 1980 he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most outstanding performer in NHL post-season play. In 1989 he won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy. In 1998 he was honored with the National Aboriginal Achievement Award. Trottier was selected to nine NHL All Star Games and had his number raised to the rafters by the New York Islanders on October 20, 2001. He shares the NHL single period record of scoring six points including four goals and two assists and is one of only eight NHL players to have multiple five goal games. After his playing career was over, he was hired as the head coach of the New York Rangers for a season. He also worked as head coach for the Portland Pirates of the AHL for the 1997-1998 season, and he was also a Colorado Avalanche assistant coach. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001. In 2014 he was an assistant coach for the Buffalo Sabres. Trottier won countless awards and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was named in the “Top 100 Greatest Players in the NHL.” In 2022, he authored his memoir, “All Roads Home: A Life On and Off the Ice” and it has become a national bestseller. <Back

Brady Fairbanks Category Athlete Tribe Leech Lake Ojibwe Year Inducted 2022 D.O.B. 8/11/1989 Brady Fairbanks, 2007 graduate of Cass Lake Bena High School (MN), was a Minnesota High School All-State athlete in football and basketball. During his high school career, Fairbanks was a three-year starter on the basketball team leading CLB to an 83-11 record, including 42-0 in conference play. In 2006-2007, he led CLB to the Class A State Championship game where the team came up just shy of victory in a memorable game. Accomplishments include: • Conference MVP (‘06 and ‘07), • Section 6 MVP (‘06 and ‘07), • Honorable Mention State (‘06), • 2nd Team All State (‘07), • McDonald’s All-American Nominee, • Minnesota Native American Athlete of the Year, • National High School Player of the Year (Native Elite Showcase) Fairbanks accepted a full scholarship to NCAA DII Bemidji State University, becoming a starter and earning a spot on the All-Freshman Team in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). Transferring to Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) after his junior year, Fairbanks had a historical year becoming the school’s first male athlete to become a NAIA All-American. Accomplishments include: • 7th nationally in scoring (20.9), • 14th in rebounding (6.3), • First Team All-Conference, • Conference New-Comer of the Year, • Team MVP, • 1,000+ Points (Collegiate Career). Photos: Haskell Athletics and Ryan White Home 2025 Banquet 2025 Banquet Sponsorship About Inductee Search Provincial Nominees Contact More

< Back Waneek Horn-Miller Waneek Horn-Miller Mohawk Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete/Builder/Media 2025 Similar to the arduous process of making wampum beads, the journey of Waneek Horn-Miller doesn’t begin and end with being an Olympic Water Polo athlete. A Mohawk from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory near Montreal, Waneek was behind the lines during the Oka crisis in 1990 when she was stabbed by a Canadian soldier’s bayonet. It was a near-death experience that marked a turning point in her life. Waneek has overcome discrimination and violence to emerge as one of North America’s most inspiring female Indigenous speakers with a compelling perspective and dynamic stories to share. Her presentations and keynotes are aimed at bridging the gap and repairing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. While she recently stepped down from her role as for the MMIWG Inquiry to focus on her family, she continues to support the goal of the Inquiry and advocates on Indigenous issues in other ways to help build healthy and prosperous communities. Waneek is an advocate for building indigenous sport and has worked with the Assembly of First Nations to develop their sport, fitness and health strategy. Drawing on her experiences as the former co-captain of Canada's Olympic women's water polo team, Waneek shares her story and teaches how to build self-esteem through a balance of education and sport. Waneek travels extensively from border to border, speaking to Indigenous and non- indigenous audiences on issues of reconciliation, sport and why it is important we must all strive for our dreams. Waneek is currently working with the Indigenous forward company Manitobah Mukluks in several capacities. As one of Canada’s few Indigenous Olympians, Waneek has used her unique experiences in life and sport combined with a passion for her culture to influence Indigenous and non-Indigenous leadership in sport and wellness, Indigenous business, women in business and community building. The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Recently named her one of Canada’s most influential women in sport. If we want reconciliation, for ourselves and our children, we need to have hard conversations, build common ground, and really listen to each other. Waneek served as one of the coaches on the first season of CBC's reality competition series, Canada's Ultimate Challenge and most recently a prime time panelists for the CBC coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics. <Back

John Alexander Hunter Muscogee Creek Induction Category: Year Inducted Builder 2024 <Back John Alexander Hunter is a Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska descendant and White Earth Nation descendant living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. He is a Muscogee Creek Nation citizen through his paternal grandmother’s (Alexander) family. Encouraged and supported by parents and family, Hunter took great interests in most sports in his home community of St. Paul, Minnesota. He earned the Dave Winfield Scholarship Award for athletic, scholarly, and service achievement in high school. With little more than the encouragement of a literature teacher, John started the first ever organized lacrosse team for his high school in 1994, which went on the state championship its first two years of play. Many of the players had been looked over for the school's most popular sports of baseball and hockey. Lacrosse quickly became popular as many of these student athletes were without an outlet for competitive team athletics. This was an exciting time to organize lacrosse, since there were only 8 teams in the inaugural statewide league, and interest was growing rapidly. Hunter took his lacrosse skills to Stanford University, he played four years of lacrosse and earned team captain honors his senior year. Focusing on starting a family and career, John took a break from lacrosse organizing until 2014 when he co-founded the non-profit sports organization, Twin Cities Native Lacrosse. He was inspired by other local indigenous lacrosse groups such as the Lightning Sticks Society. Since its beginning, Twin Cities Native Lacrosse has helped inspire the rapid growth of the traditional lacrosse games throughout the western Great Lakes communities. The traditional lacrosse game had not been played on a large scale in the region for over 100 years. Facilitating games, hosting skills clinics, and promoting traditional stick-making arts was the core work of the group. Hunter used the network of schools and indigenous youth groups in the Twin Cities to place the Anishinaabe and Dakota ball games directly in front of hundreds of Indigenous youth. Many now teach the game themselves. In 2018, the success of the community work was honored with a Super Bowl Legacy Grant. In 2020, Hunter was selected as the Head Coach for the Minneapolis Boys’ High School Lacrosse team, and became one of the first indigenous lacrosse head coaches in the state’s history. Also in 2020, John became the founding board member for the international non-profit organization, Anishinaabe Baagaadowewin, with a mission to share Anishinaabe history and culture -- specifically about traditional ball games. Hunter helped Anishinabe Baagaadowewin complete the initial work towards the the formation of an Anishinaabe National team. In 2022, Hunter was the primary consultant to BBC Radio’s podcast about ‘Great Lakes’ traditional lacrosse, which was broadcast to millions of listeners worldwide.

< Back Jim "Jake" Maloney Jim "Jake" Maloney Sipe’kneketik First Nation, Nova Scotia, Canada Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Jim “Jake” Maloney is a Karate Master Rank and 10th Degree Black Belt training uninterrupted for 55 years beginning in 1963. Jim is the first person in Canada to reach the rank of Black belt in Uechi Ryu Karate, in 1967, and in 1970 brought Uechi Ryu Karate to Canada. Jim grew up in Sipe’kneketik First Nation, Nova Scotia, Canada. At the young age of 16, Jim moved to Boston, Massachusetts and he soon found the Mattson Academy of Karate. The Academy was the founder of Uechi Ryu in the United States and when George Mattson took Jim in under his care, Jim found exactly what he was looking for. Jim studied alongside some of the most decorated competitors in the sport. Jim’s first instructor was Van Canna, one of the top tournament competitors in the Northeastern United States. Jim trained under George Mattson, when Mattson singled him out and provided special attention to his training. Jim began and quickly became, “one of the top kumite competitors”. Jim was an undefeated New England champion in free fighting and cement breaking competitions (1967 -1973). As an official representative to Okinawa, Japan for Canada in the Uechi Ryu Karate Association, Jim has trained more than 16,000 students internationally spanning over four decades, while developing and training hundreds of fighting champions on full contact basis. Jim Maloney has organized and operate the first independent, all Aboriginal training institute in Canada named the First Nation Tribal Justice Institute. The Institute is responsible for training hundreds of First Nation peoples across Canada. Jim Maloney is a living legend, having already been recognized, honored and inducted into the Mi’kmaq Sports Hall of Fame in 2016, the Canadian Black Belt Hall of Fame in 2018 and the East Hants Sport Hall of Fame in 2020. <Back

Team 2025 AlgonCrees Induction Category: Year Inducted <Back In the fall of 2024, AlgonCrees had participated in the World Broomball Championship in Megeve/St. Gervais, France. The team was made up of Algonquin and Cree women within the province of Quebec in Canada, hence the name AlgonCrees. Not only was it a privilege to play in a high calibre tournament, it was an honour to play with our very own all-Indigenous broomball team. This is a prime example of unity for the love of broomball. While in France, the AlgonCrees were truly grateful for all the tremendous support we had received from our people back home. We felt the whole Algonquin and Cree Nation rooting for us from afar. The AlgonCrees are pictured with their silver medals. They lost by two points in the Gold Medal game versus the USA Gray Ducks. Top left: Katie Nottaway, Tanya Nottaway, Elizabeth Hester, Gwen Tenasco, Lorrain Nottaway, Aleasha Bush, Wynonna Ratt, Wanessa Thusky, Delci Wadden, Stephanie Wawatie-Whiteduck; Bottom left: Brooklyn Dixon, Destiney Isik- Blacksmith, Amanda M. Neeposh, Erin Gull, Shayden Decoursay, Koyesha Iserhoff

Coaches Craig Berube Cree Dano Thorne ’kwaliquinum’ Coast Salish Cowichan and Nez Perce Jason Peters Mi’kmaw Kelvin Sampson Lumbee Mark Burnam Mohawk Mohawk

Wilton Littlechild Cree Induction Category: Year Inducted Builder 2022 <Back An Indigenous lawyer of Cree ancestry, bestowed as Honourary Cree Chief and International Chief, Wilton Littlechild was elected a Member of Parliament in Canada and Vice-President of the Indigenous Parliament of the Americas. Known for his advocacy, nationally and internationally on Human Rights and Traditional Games and Sports. Born in Maskwacis (Treaty No. 6), raised by his grandparents but taken at the age of six where he spent fourteen years in the Indian Residential School system. He witnessed and experienced various forms of abuse but was also introduced to sports, which he used to motivate his pursuit of excellence and run from abuse. He eventually excelled academically and in athletics; credits his traditional upbringing to seek balance in life; underpinned by spirituality and family support. Achievements: • Ten Athlete of the Year Awards • Holds three University and five Honorary Doctorate degrees (Physical Education, Law) • Eight Sports Halls of Fame • University of Alberta Most Outstanding Indian Athlete in Canada (twice) • Major Sports: Hockey, Baseball, Swimming • Centennial medal - Top 100 in Hockey • Order of Sport as inductee to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame • Over seventy-five Championships • Twice honoured in Switzerland and Olympic Games Ambassador

Trainers Chamisa Goodwin Ojibwe Dominic Tiger-Cortes Muscogee Creek Tim Moccasin Cree Thomas Gardipy Jr. Beardy’s and Okemasis’ Cree Nation Harold Ladouceur Cree Gerald (Jerry) Gourneau Turtle Mountain Chippewa