Search Results

< Back Barry Powless Barry Powless Onondaga Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete/Coach 2023 Barry Powless is from the Onondaga Nation and is Eel clan. His elders told him Deyhontsigwa’ ehs (They bump hips) is a medicine game given to the people and played for the enjoyment of the Creator. In 1975, his senior year, he was a high school All American attackman and then played at Syracuse University. He played in two World Championship tournaments; 1980 World Box Lacrosse Championships, silver medal with Can Am Warriors and 1990 World Field Championships in Perth, Australia with the Iroquois Nationals. During his summers, he played box lacrosse at the amateur and professional levels throughout his career in the US and Canada. He was the first overall pick in 1991 with a professional Canadian-US indoor lacrosse league (National Lacrosse League). He received his first pro title, Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL) World Championship, when playing for the Buffalo Bandits in 1992. Barry received multiple league awards for being a High Scorer, MVP, Most Sportsman award, all-star teams, 1978 Cornwall Ontario Lions Club Player of the Year, and 1981 President’s Cup tournament MVP. He won three Canadian National Championships, one Mann Cup and two Presidents Cups. He participated in ten Canadian Championship tournaments and won six British Columbia Provincial Championships. He played senior lacrosse for four decades starting in the 1970’s and retired at age fifty. He was a head coach at the high school, senior, and professional level. He earned his second pro title in 1997 when leading the Rochester Knighthawks to the MILL World Championship and was the first Indigenous head coach to win a world title. Barry also was the VP of Lacrosse Operations for the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and currently is an executive host at Seneca Niagara Casino. Barry is honored, proud and humbled to now be inducted into seven Hall of Fames with those who also played the Creator’s game including 1999 Ontario Lacrosse, 2013 Greater Syracuse Sports, 2015 US Lacrosse Upstate NY Chapter, 2016 LaFayette Central School Sports, 2018 Akwesasne Lacrosse, 2021 Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame - Team Category, and the 2023 North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame. <Back

< Back Elizabeth (Liz) Mary Duval Elizabeth (Liz) Mary Duval Metis Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2022 Liz was born and raised in Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada. From a very early age her athletic prowess preceded her in all the sports she played. At the age of 10 years, she began playing ice hockey and at the time she was one of only two girls who were given permission to play with “the boys” in her local hockey association. Her hockey skills were above average and soon many people took notice of her exceptional play. While still in her teens she was selected by Hockey Ontario to compete in the 1988 Ontario Winter Games. After graduating from secondary school, she was recruited to play women’s varsity hockey for the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. Liz served as Captain for her final three years while also leading her team-mates in scoring for that same period. In the 1994-95* season, she led the Gryphons to the Ontario Women’s Interuniversity Athletic Association Championship. Also in that year, and as the team’s MVP, she was a finalist for the University of Guelph’s Sportswoman of the Year. It’s also worthy to make note of the fact that Liz was selected as an OWIAA All-Star for each of her four years she suited up for the Gryphons. Upon graduation from university, Liz starred for the Mississauga Chiefs of the Central Ontario Women’s Hockey League from 1993 through to 2000. In 1996, she scored the overtime winning goal and led the Chiefs to capture the Ontario Senior AA hockey title. Liz finished her hockey career by playing professional women’s hockey in France. In 2016 the 1994-95 Gryphons women’s hockey team was inducted into the University of Guelph’s Sports Hall of Fame. <Back

< Back James Nells James Nells Navajo Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 James Nells, born in Winslow, Arizona is full blood Navajo Nation tribal member. His mother was Dorothea (Jackson) Shirley, father was Edward Nells. He is Salt clan, born for under his cover clan, grandparents are Black streak in the wood (mother) and Red bottom (father). James has three sisters living on the Navajo reservation including Brenda, Sandra and Dixie. They grew up around the Cedar Springs, Seba Dalkai, White Cone area of Arizona. They finally moved to Church Rock, New Mexico and James attended Church Rock Elementary, Bountiful Junior High and South Bountiful Jr. High in Bountiful, Utah. He attended and graduated from Wingate High School, Fort Wingate, New Mexico in 1977. James attended Haskell Indian Junior College (1978-80), Lawrence, Kansas, and graduated from Central State University (1980-83), Edmond, Oklahoma with a Bachelor degree in Teaching Physical Education and Health with a coaching option. He participated in Cross Country, Wrestling and Track. In college he ran both cross country and track. He is a state high school champion in the two-mile run (1976) and state runner-up in cross country, track mile and two mile run several times. He is also a High School All-American in Track. In college he was a two time All-American in Indoor Track and held the cross country course record while attending Haskell in 24:47 for 8K. James served in the US Army from 1984-92, was second in command in his unit while in Desert Storm with the 2-16 Infantry Rangers, Fort Riley, KS and received a Bronze Star. James and his wife Daisy Elana (Pratt) Nells have been married 38 years and they have two daughters and five sons and 13 grandkids. Photo: James and Elana Nells in 2022 <Back

< 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 Ray Miller Ray Miller Shawnee Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2026 Ray Miller was born on November 8, 1969, in the southwestern Oklahoma town of Marlow. His dad was a carpenter and mom was a housewife. Miller gained his first state title in fifth grade. He won another grade school state title in sixth grade and then went on to win three junior high state titles in seventh, eighth and ninth grade. He finished out high school with three state titles, two times ending up as the outstanding wrestler of the tournament, and in his senior year being voted the outstanding wrestler of Oklahoma. During his senior year he was invited to wrestle in the Pittsburgh Classic and it pit what were voted as the best senior high school wrestlers in the United States against Pennsylvania teams in one big dual meet. He won defeating Troy Sunderland of Pennsylvania. It was at the Pittsburgh classic that he would meet his future coach Bobby Douglas. That's when everything came full circle because when he was a child he grew up on Bobby Douglas's wrestling books, The Takedown 1 and The Takedown 2. Miller studied the books while growing up and had already trained to Coach Douglas's style. He ended up signing with Arizona State and Coach Bobby Douglas. He spent the next five years, redshirting his freshman year, honing his skills under Coach Douglas and then his senior year under Coach Leroy Smith. Miller ended up with four All American titles being a two time finalist and attaining a national title in 1993 at 167 lbs. He coached at Arizona State for another year and then moved back to Oklahoma and coached at the University of Oklahoma for another year and a half. He currently lives back in his home town of Marlow and helps out with the wrestling program whenever he can. <Back

< Back Alexandria Town Alexandria Town Mi’kmaw Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2024 Born and raised in Scarborough, ON, Alexandria Town is a competitive wrestler who has been competing on the Canadian National Team since 2018. Town is of mixed race with Black, Indigenous, and European ancestry. She is Mi’kmaw of the Bear Clan and is an engaged member of her local Urban Indigenous community. Town began wrestling in high school at the age of 15. She continued wrestling at York University where her achievements sky-rocketed as she trail-blazed a path for her school’s program, becoming the most decorated female wrestler in York University’s history. Upon graduation in 2018 she was named to the Canadian National team and began competing on the international stage. That same year Town competed at the U23 World Championships in Bucharest, Romania, where she won the U23 world title, putting her name down in Canadian record books as the first ever Canadian wrestler to do so. Town has garnered an impressive collection of international medals including five Pan American Championship medals, gold at the 2023 Egypt Ranking Series, and bronze at the 2019 Poland Open. Town still wrestles for Team Canada today with hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Games. <Back

The North Americans Team/Builders 2025 Induction Category: Year Inducted <Back The North Americans were a men’s major fast pitch team comprised of Indigenous players from the US and Canada. From 1989 to 1997, they traveled North America playing in softball tournaments, while establishing the “Straight Arrow” Program. The program was conceptualized and promoted to encourage Native peoples to say NO to drugs and alcohol. Each tournament coincided with speaking engagements at local community halls, schools, and correctional facilities to speak of the dangers of drugs and alcohol. The 1993-1994 season proved to be a banner year for the North Americans as they were crowned All-Indian Fast Pitch Tournament National Champions and qualified for the 1993 International Softball Congress (ISC) World Fast Pitch Tournament as the only all-Native team to qualify at Kimberly, Wisconsin and 1994 Prince Edward Island, Canada Tournament that had teams from the US, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand. At the 1993 ISC World Tournament, they finished 33rd in the world. During the leadup to the 1994 ISC World Tournament, they won seven games at the 1993 41st All-Indian Men’s Fast Pitch National Tournament in Oklahoma City, OK to capture their third straight national title becoming the first team to do so. Needing to win a qualifying tournament for the 1994 ISC World Tournament, the team traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to play in the Blue-Gray Invitational, which had 34 teams vying for one qualifying spot. Going undefeated and winning six games, they qualified for their second ever ISC World Tournament. At the 1994 ISC World Tournament, they finished 47th in the world and made it back in 1995 in Sioux City, Iowa finishing 17th, 33rd in 1996 in Kimberly, Wisconsin, and 33rd in 1997 in Victoria, British Colombia. The 1993-94 roster included JoJo Barnett, Creek Nation; William (Bill) Berry, Apache; Ken Billingsley, Hunkpapa Lakota; Rich Brewer, Oglala Sioux; Mike Henson, Comanche; Frank La Mere (Coach & Manager), Winnebago; Mark Lunderman, Rosebud Sioux; Tuffy Lunderman, Rosebud Sioux; Jim McClung, Comanche; Darwin "Flip"; Snyder, Winnebago; Eric Tiger, Creek Nation; Tony Valladolid, Winnebago; Mike Joseph, Iroquois; Earl LaForte, Ojibway; Lyle Normand, Cree; and Wayne "Windy"; Ward, Choctaw.

< Back Joy SpearChief-Morris Joy SpearChief-Morris Blackfoot (Kanai) Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2022 Joy is an Indigenous Black Canadian writer, advocate, and athlete. She is a proud member of the Kainai Blood Tribe and grew up in Lethbridge, Alberta. Joy is a retired 100m hurdler in athletics, three-time Canadian National Championship finalist and two-time Team Canada member. As a member of Team Canada, she is a 2014 North American Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) U23 silver medalist and a fifth place finisher at the 2019 FISU World Universidad. She has sat on the AthletesCAN Board of Directors and Athletics Canada’s Athletes Council, and now sits on the AthletesCAN Diversity and Equity Advisory Committee. Joy has achieved several notable accolades. Most notably, she was the 2016 and 2017 OUA Female Track MVP, 2017 USports Student-Athlete Community Service Award winner, 2017 Tom Longboat Award winner and the featured cover athlete for the 2019 May/June issue of Canadian Running Magazine. Joy has a Bachelor’s degree in History and First Nations Studies and a Master’s degree in Political Science specializing in Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction from Western University. Joy is now pursuing a career as a journalist, having bylines in The Globe and Mail and CBC Sports. She is currently in the Master of Journalism program at Carleton University. <Back

< Back Shayna Powless Shayna Powless Oneida Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2022 Shayna Powless is a member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, a USA Cycling-certified coach and a professional cyclist for DNA Pro Cycling. She grew up in Roseville, California and currently resides in Jacksonville, Florida. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2016 and was a member of the UCLA cycling team for four years. She co-founded the Dreamcatcher Foundation with her fiance, Eli Ankou, who is a professional football player and member of the Dokis First Nation in Canada. The foundation aims to empower Native youth through sports by providing equipment and camps. The foundation also aims to raise awareness of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) crisis in North America, as well as raise funds for organizations actively fighting this crisis. Shayna has domestic and international professional race experience in road, track, gravel, mountain biking and virtual (Zwift) racing. She also has experience racing at events such as the World Championships, National Championships, Pan Am Games, World Cups, Swiss Cups, criteriums, one-day races, and stage races. <Back

< Back Angelo Baca Angelo Baca Diné/Hopi Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2022 Angelo Baca is a cultural activist, scholar, filmmaker and currently a doctoral student in anthropology at New York University. He is the cultural resources coordinator at Utah Diné Bikéyah, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense and protection of culturally significant ancestral lands. The National Parks Conservation Association recently designated him as one of “10 Under 40” dynamic cultural activists who make up the association’s Next Generation Advisory Council. He has published a widely read op-ed in the New York Times. Shash Jaa’: Bears Ears is Angelo Baca’s latest award-winning film about the five tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition that worked together to protect 1.9 million acres of Utah wilderness through a national monument designation. His work reflects a long-standing dedication to both Western and Indigenous knowledge. Baca is also the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Champion in Cross Country and on the outdoor track in the 3000 meters steeplechase and 5000 meters in 2002-03. He also is a seven-time NJCAA All American in Cross Country, Track and the Half Marathon. Currently, he is training for trail races and long distances runs across Indigenous landscapes in Navajo country. <Back

< Back Cheri Madsen Cheri Madsen Omaha Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Cheri Madsen was born in Omaha, Nebraska and her hometown is Nebraska City, Nebraska. Madsen represented the United States as a four-time Paralympian (1996, 2000, 2016, and 2020) and ten-time Paralympic medalist (2 golds, 5 silvers, and 3 bronzes). She participated in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games earning silver (400-meter) and bronze (100-meter) places; the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games Rio 2016, earning silver (400-meter) and fifth (100-meter) places; the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games earning gold (100-meter, 400-meter), silver (200-meter), and fourth (800-meter) places; the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games earning silver (100-meter, 200-meter) and bronze (400-meter, 800-meter) places; and the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games earning bronze (800-meter exhibition race) place. Madsen’s World Championship experience includes in 2019 bronze (100-meter) and fifth (400-meter) places. She participated in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. She earned seven medals including three silver and four bronze: Silver – 2017 (100-meter, 200-meter); 2015 (200-meter) Bronze – 2019 (100m), 2017 (400m), 2013 (200m, 400m) Bronze – 2019 (100-meter); 2017 (400-meter); 2013 (200-meter, 400-meter) Personal: Daughter of Mario and Mary Becerra...Mother to Reese and Malayna Madsen...Married Eric Madsen on June 2, 2001...Was left paralyzed by an unknown virus at age three...Began wheelchair racing in 1994 and qualified for her first Paralympic Games just two years later in Atlanta...First Native American female to win an Olympic exhibition bronze medal...Her 1996 Olympic and Paralympic pursuits were chronicled in a Nebraska Educational Television documentary entitled “The Cheri Becerra Story: God Made Her for This Sport”...Left racing for 13 years, returning to competition for the 2013 world championships in memory of her younger brother, Mario III, and their father, Mario Jr., who were killed in a car-train crash in 2007...Hobbies include scrapbooking, reading and watching her daughters compete in sports. <Back

< Back Janee’ Kassanavoid Janee’ Kassanavoid Comanche Nation of Oklahoma Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Janee’ Kassanavoid, member of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, is the daughter of Janet and Ron Kassanavoid. Youngest of 6 siblings, she grew up with three all NCAA Division I athletes. Born and raised in Lawson, MO and graduated from Lawson High School. A multi-sport athlete, lettering in softball, volleyball, basketball, and track & field. In 2013, Janee’ attended Johnson County Community College on a Track & Field scholarship for one season. She became an Indoor NJCAA Runner-up in the weight throw and an Outdoor NJCAA Champion in the hammer throw. In 2014, she attended Kansas State University on a Track & Field scholarship, becoming a 3x Big 12 Champion and a 4x All-American during collegiate career. She is the current K-State weight throw 21.81m (71.60 feet) and hammer throw 68.21m (223.09 feet) school record holder. In 2018, Janee’ graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. She is currently a professional Nike Track and Field athlete, representing Team USA and as a Nike N7 ambassador she is representing culture and sharing the journey to gold as a Native Athlete. A history making moment was becoming the first Indigenous woman to medal at the World Athletics Track and Field Championships by claiming the bronze medal. Her personal best throw with the hammer was 78.00m (255.91 feet) becoming the third best in the USA All-Time and the sixth best in the World All-Time. This throw in May was named the USATF Athlete of the Week honors. Janee’ was the 2022 Indoor National weight throw Champion and the 2022 Outdoor National runner-up in the hammer throw. Closing out the 2022 season, claiming the GOLD medal as the NACAC Champion in the hammer throw. As an elite athlete competing on the biggest stages; the main goal is to inspire and empower the next generation of athletes. She is continuing to break barriers, to be a leader and pave the way for youth, women, and fellow natives both on and off the field and to create spaces where we never thought were possible before. Photos: 2022 World Athletics Track and Field Championship Hammer Throw Bronze Medalist First Indigenous Woman to medal at the World Athletics Track & Field Championships; Photographer: Getty Images <Back