< Back Tahnee Robinson Tahnee Robinson Northern Cheyenne, Eastern Shoshone, Skidi Pawnee Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Tahnee Robinson is from Fort Washakie, Wyoming, and the Wind River Reservation. She belongs to the Eastern Shoshone, Northern Cheyenne and Skidi Pawnee people. Her parents are Timmy and Sara Robinson. She has two siblings, Tim Robinson Jr and Buell Robinson. She also has a son, Julius Jeffrey Robinson. Robinson played basketball and volleyball for four years and graduated from Lander Valley High School in 2006. Tahnee earned WHSAA All-Conference and All-State in volleyball for three years, and WHSAA All-Conference and All-State in basketball for four years. She also earned Gatorade Wyoming Player of the Year in basketball, Ms. Basketball Wyoming, Milward Simpson Award for the outstanding female athlete in Wyoming, Converse All-American in basketball and was selected for the Wyoming All-Star team. She played college basketball at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming (2007-2009). While at Sheridan, she was ranked first in scoring nationally by the NJCAA averaging 27 ppg, and was named NJCAA 1st Team All-American, and NJCAA Region IX Player of the Year. The Lady Generals played in their first ever appearance in school history in the NJCAA National Tournament as Region IX tournament champions in Salina, KS. Tahnee graduated from Sheridan College with an Associate of Science degree in General Studies. She received a full basketball scholarship to the University of Nevada (UNR) in 2009 where she played two full years and graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in General Studies with an emphasis in Health Education, Communications and Native American Studies. While playing at the University of Nevada-Reno, Robinson won many accolades in her two years. Robinson was the 31st pick in the 2011 WNBA draft and played preseason games for the Connecticut Sun. She then played in Israel, Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine and China. In her career overseas, Robinson won awards including the Eurobasket.com player of the week, the Chengdu China Tournament MVP and helped her team in Kirovograd, Ukraine win a championship. After her overseas career ended, Robinson went back to her alma mater UNR and joined the women’s basketball team as a graduate assistant. She graduated with her Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership. Off the court Robinson also made an impact being a Nike N7 Basketball Ambassador, National Spokesperson for Let’s Move in Indian Country, National Spokesperson for Big Brother & Big Sisters program, and was chosen as the Violence Against Women Act national spokeswoman for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. Robinson was inducted into the 2022 UNR Athletics Hall of Fame. Photos: The University of Nevada Photography and NDNSPORTS <Back

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

< Back Robert ‘Bob’ Gawboy Robert ‘Bob’ Gawboy Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Although the sport of swimming isn’t often associated with Native Americans, Robert ‘Bob’ Gawboy became an aquatic sensation, setting high school and collegiate records, eventually going on to break a world record in 1955. Bob Gawboy was born on the Vermilion Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota, on June 28, 1932. At the age of 14, his family moved to Ely where he attended Ely High School. Bob joined the swim team because it practiced at noon and he could then take the bus home after school, instead of walking 10 miles. In 1949, Ely High School won the state championship. Bob placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke. The following year, he broke a state record in the 200-yard free, and set national high school records in two IM events. He went on to Purdue, placing first in the 150-yard IM at the East-West collegiate competition. In 1952, at the NCAA Nationals he placed second in the 150-yard IM. Suffering from coordination problems, and a congenital arterial condition of his left leg, he was forced to stop swimming. After surgery on his leg, he started working out again in February, 1955, at the University of Minnesota, on a scholarship. Despite the two year hiatus and short time training, Bob shocked the sports world on April 1, 1955 at the AAU Indoor National Championship at Yale, where he swam the 220-yard breaststroke in 2:38.0, cracking the world-record. The pain in his leg was so severe during the race and the pent-up emotion over two years so great, that, upon winning, he erupted in whoops and hollers that was called war-whoops by the press with celebratory splashing around the pool. Bob Gawboy passed away on July 15, 1987 from multiple sclerosis, but not before he was inducted into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in Lawrence, Kansas, as the sole swimmer. Photo Credits: Purdue University and AP/Wide World Photos <Back

Pine Creek Frist Nation 282 Officials Jerod Phillips Cherokee Gary Hull Inupiaq Danny McCourt Algonquin/Iroquois Brian Chrupalo Pine Creek Frist Nation 282 Michael Thomas St. Croix Ojibwe

< Back Sam Horsechief Sam Horsechief Pawnee and Cherokee Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Sam Horsechief is the head coach of cross-country and track at Sequoyah High School, a Native American boarding school, located in Tahlequah, OK. He started in February 1987 and has been there ever since. In his 35-year coaching career, he has coached: Eight State Team Championships (Cross Country: 6 boys, 2 girls) 12 State Team Runner Ups (Cross Country 11, Track 1) 95 All-State Athletes (Track 39, Cross Country 56) 31 Regional Championships (20 Boys and 12 Girls) 32 Cross Country Honorable Mention All-State Athletes Horsechief was recognized as the 2006 Oklahoma NFHS Boys Cross Country Coach of the Year, Oklahoma Coaches Association Regional Coach of the Year in 2001, 2003, 2019 for Cross Country and again for Track in 2003. In 2019, he was inducted in the Oklahoma Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame. After graduating as a top running athlete from Muskogee High School, Sam Horsechief decided to continue his running career at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas then onto Central State University in Edmond, OK. He ran both track and cross-country. During his time as a collegiate athlete, he set the Haskell school record in the 800m run in 1979 with a time of 1:55.8. He also set more school records at CSU in the 1 mile run with a time of 4:19.3 in 1980 and the 800-meter with a time of 1:52.8 in 1981. In addition, he was a seven-time qualifier for the Nationals meets. In track, he qualified six times and once for the Cross Country National meet in 1980. In track, his events included the 800 meter, 1000m run, two-mile relay, distance medley relay, mile relay, and 1500 meter. He won various medals during his career. Most notable, he was a medalist in the NAIA National Indoor meet for the distance medley for placing sixth. He also earned All-American for that event, where he ran the 800m leg of that race. <Back

< Back Naomi Lang Strong Naomi Lang Strong Karuk Tribe of Northern California Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Naomi Lang was a competitive ice dancer, and represented the United States in numerous competitions around the world. She has five U.S. national titles, and has competed at five world championships, in which she placed in the top 10 each time. She is a member of the 2002 Olympic team, and became the first Native American woman to compete at the Winter Olympics. Naomi continued to skate professionally and appeared in several U.S. ice shows, including many of the Disson skating shows televised on NBC and the Hallmark Channel. She also toured extensively in Europe and Russia performing in Art on Ice, Kings on Ice with Evgeni Plushenko and composer and violinist Edvin Marton, and the Katarina Witt Farewell Tour. They performed at Jim Carrey's private Christmas party in Hollywood. She is a member of the Karuk tribe of northern California, and has Wiyot and Shasta decency. She was born in Arcata, California. Additionally, Naomi was inducted into the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. Naomi has been instructing figure skating for 18 years, and her goal in teaching figure skating is to inspire people, not only from her own experiences, but share everything she has discovered and learned along the way. Whether it be from her own amazing coaches or things she learned touring the world for figure skating, she wants to help make dreams come true, and strive to find the right path for everyone, and with the right balance of fun and hard work She believe dreams can come true. <Back

< Back Carey-Leigh Vyse Carey-Leigh Vyse Cayuga Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2025 Carey-Leigh Vyse is a member of the Cayuga Nation and the Deer Clan. She was born and raised on the Six Nations Reservation. She is a mother of three children, including Lyla-Shae, Lahnee-Leigh and Macqoy Vyse. She is married to Danny Vyse, who is an achieved lacrosse player. She is an elementary school teacher on her reservation. Vyse played softball on the infield for Team Canada from 2011-2017 including one year on the Jr. National team and six years on the Sr. National team. She studied, played and started as the third baseman at NCAA D1 Syracuse University. Vyse was on teams that were the Canadian National Champions in 2006, 2008, and 2011. She won the All-Star Short Stop Award at Canadian Nationals three times in the same years. Her Brantford Bobcats Team was inducted into the Ontario Softball Hall of Fame. Vyse competed in the 2012 World Championships held in Whitehorse, Yukon where they placed fourth. She took a year off in 2013 to have her daughter. She made a comeback the very next year, and became the first mother to be named to the Sr. Team. Her team placed fourth in the 2014 World Championships held in Netherlands, Amsterdam. In 2016 her team placed third at the World Championships held in Surrey, BC. She played six years total for the Canadian Women’s National Team and competed in three World Championships and one Pan American Qualifier. From 2016 to the present, she has competed in the Native Canadian Championships where she has played for Red Nation and in most recent years, has played for Six Nations E.C.M (Every Child Matters) and has won Native Canadian Championships with both teams. She won the All- Star Infield Award each year from 2016-2024. She has played in the All-Ontario’s Native Fast-pitch Championships as well since she was 16 where she and her Six Nations teams has earned championship titles. Vyse made the final roster for Team Haudenosaunee and earned a bronze medal at the first 2024 Women’s World Box Lacrosse Championships in Utica, NY. <Back

St. Croix Ojibwe Officials Jerod Phillips Cherokee Gary Hull Inupiaq Danny McCourt Algonquin/Iroquois Brian Chrupalo Pine Creek Frist Nation 282 Michael Thomas St. Croix Ojibwe

< Back Jayme Menzies Jayme Menzies Métis Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete/Coach 2023 A proud Métis living on her Nation’s home territory, Jayme is a mother, lawyer, athlete, coach, and community advocate, who relentlessly uses sport as a vehicle for social change. During her five years of studying sciences at the University of Winnipeg, Jayme played multiple positions on her university volleyball team, three years of which she served as team captain. She proceeded to pursue law and has been working with and for Indigenous communities in a variety of capacities ever since, one of which was with the National Inquiry in to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people. Jayme has been coaching for 19 years. She has represented Manitoba multiple times as an athlete and a coach, most recently in 2017 at the North American Indigenous Games in Toronto, and the Canada Games in Winnipeg where her team won Gold. For a fourth consecutive cycle, she has been once again named the head coach of the Manitoba volleyball team that will attend the 2023 North American Indigenous Games. Off the court, Jayme is a certified facilitator for the National Aboriginal Coaching Module - a course that, among other things, offers tactics to apply traditional teachings and address racism in sport contexts. Despite the Coronavirus pandemic, she trained more than 50 coaches in this course in 2021. Jayme has also served as President on both the Volleyball Manitoba and Manitoba Aboriginal Sport and Recreation boards, through which she was able to affect change at a policy level. It is extremely important to Jayme to employ a holistic approach to coaching and to help make sport accessible to Indigenous youth. In 2017, Jayme co-founded Agoojin Volleyball, which is a year-round program that sets a precedent in inclusivity, youth empowerment, celebrating Indigenous talent, and utilizing sport platforms for advocacy. Agoojin has spots designated for rural, northern, and remote Indigenous athletes, incorporates cultural teachings, mentors Indigenous female and two-spirit coaches, and prioritizes a trauma-informed, individualized approach for each member of the Agoojin family. Jayme is also the head coach of a college volleyball team, the CMU Blazers. Prior to the pandemic, Jayme’s team won the league championship and in 2022 placed 2nd. Jayme’s relentless dedication to safe, equitable, inclusive, and holistic sport has immensely impacted the volleyball and Indigenous communities in her home province and beyond. Jayme continues to raise the bar in coaching. It comes as no surprise that she has been awarded a number of coaching awards, most notably: Manitoba’s Female Indigenous Coach of the Decade. Photos: University of Winnipeg Wesmen, setter; Photo Credit: Kelly Morton Photography Head Coach, Blazers college female volleyball program; Photo Credit: Canadian Mennonite University <Back

< Back James Lavallée James Lavallée Métis Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2022 Born and raised in Winnipeg, James is a proud Métis who grew up paddling on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. James has represented Canada internationally at various kayak competitions including the 2014 and 2015 Canoe Sprint Junior World Championships. In 2016, James was named to Canada’s national canoe-kayak team. In 2017, James proudly wore his Métis sash on the podium after winning three medals for Team Manitoba at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg. In October 2017, he received the national Tom Longboat Award presented to the top Indigenous male and female athletes of the year. In 2019 James was presented with an Indspire award in the category of Métis youth. In the summer of 2020 James co-founded Waterways Recreation with the mission of supporting community wellness by using canoeing and outdoor recreation to connect Indigenous youth to cultural skills and identities. To date, Waterways has provided thousands of Indigenous youths with the opportunity to connect with their cultures through community led canoeing summer camps and paddling programs. When he is not out on the water sharing his passion for paddling James studies at Concordia University where he plans to major in management and minor in political science <Back

< Back Pamela White-Hanson Pamela White-Hanson Navajo/Diné Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete/Coach 2025 Born and raised on the Navajo Nation, where the sport of running has ancestral connections, Pamela White-Hanson began running, and developed the strength and endurance throughout the years to help her high school team win four consecutive State Cross Country Team titles. With this passion and success, Pamela was provided the opportunity to run with a team called Wings of America, a non-profit youth development program, during her sophomore year and traveled to New York City to compete in the USA Track and Field National Cross-Country Championships where her team placed runner-up. There, she was in awe of a collegiate team who won the national title which inspired her to attend Adams State College without any knowledge of where or what this school was about. Ready to spread her wings, Pamela White-Hanson left home from the comforts of family, community, and culture two years later to join an elite class of collegiate athletes, who became her second family at Adams State College, an NCAA Division II school in Alamosa, Colorado. As a member of the Adams State cross country team, she helped her team to three NCAA Division II National Championships becoming a six-time All- American and managed to complete two undergraduate degrees in Elementary Education and Exercise Physiology and a Masters in Bilingual Education. In 2000, Pamela received a prestigious Giants Steps award with the National Consortium for Academics and Sports as a Courageous Female Student-Athlete alongside other inductees such as Muhammad Ali and Pat Summit as well as being featured in two magazines, Native Peoples Magazine and the Santa Fean. Pamela worked with the Native youth, one of the most at-risk populations in the United States through Wings of America with the Earth Circle Foundation and gained proficiency to facilitate summer running and fitness camps to Native communities throughout the country. Wings of America used running as a catalyst to empower the youth which also empowered Pamela White-Hanson to become an educator. After running professionally for a couple years with Sports Warriors co-sponsored by ASICS, Pamela begin her education career in Flagstaff, AZ where she joined a unique trilingual school, Puente De Hozhó. Pamela returned to her home language and taught the Diné (Navajo) Language to indigenous students for 16 years. She received Arizona’s Rodell Exemplary Teachers Award for 2010 in Flagstaff and was also nominated for Arizona Teacher of the Year. Today, Pamela White-Hanson continues her passion for working with the Native youth at Sinagua Middle School as well as coaching high school Cross Country and Track at Northland Preparatory Academy (NPA). Last fall, her girl’s NPA cross country team won a State Title and the NPA Boys received runner-up with her youngest son on the team. Pamela White-Hanson’s legacy continues and is married to college sweetheart, Brent Hanson and is currently raising three beautiful sons and have been foster parents to many children. Her eldest is in the workforces, one who is currently running collegiately for Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO and her youngest is running in high school at Northland Prep where she currently coaches. <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.