Search Results

< Back Ron Powless Ron Powless Oneida Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2025 Ron Powless was born on March 17, 1931, in Milwaukee Wisconsin and passed away September 9, 2011, in Marietta, GA while enroute to his winter home in Ft. Myers, FL. His father was Merville Powless from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. His mother, Jesse Snow Powless, was from the Red Lake Chippewa Nation. Ron, the oldest of three brothers, was highly motivated and an athletically talented youth. He played high school football at Morgan Park, Chicago, IL and Washington High School, Milwaukee, WI. His success as a receiver and punter led to his recruitment and scholarship offers. Ron attended Indiana University on an athletic scholarship playing football for the Hoosiers in the Big Ten. Following his time at Indiana, Ron served in the military stationed in Tokyo, Japan, where he was selected to the U.S. Army All-Star football team and played in the first American football game in Tokyo Stadium against the Marine All-Star’s. After his time in the military and playing for the U.S. Army All-Star football team, he continued his education in Mexico City at Mexico City College and later graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Marketing and Economics. Ron’s competitive nature led to successful careers with companies like Xerox and Itek before founding his own corporation, International Data Systems. His success allowed him to contribute to American Indian causes and enjoy homes in Wisconsin and Florida. Ron’s legacy lives on as he had a son and daughter both of whom followed him with successful careers and healthy families. <Back

Jim Neilson Category Athlete Tribe Big River First Nation Year Inducted 2022 D.O.B. 11/28/1941 - 11/6/2020 Jim Neilson was one of the first Indigenous superstars in the sport of hockey, playing in the National Hockey League for 16 seasons. Born in Big River, Saskatchewan and raised at an orphanage in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Neilson honed his hockey skills through his youth. At 17 he played Junior A with the Prince Albert Mintos in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He made his professional debut at 19 for the Kitchener-Waterloo Beavers of the Eastern Professional Hockey League, named the league’s top rookie in 1962. That fall he joined the New York Rangers of the NHL for the next 12 seasons. He was named the Rangers top defenseman in 1966 and was runner-up to Bobby Orr for the Norris Trophy (top defenseman) in 1967-68. Neilson and the Rangers lost in the 1972 Stanley Cup Final to Boston in 6 games. In 1974 he was traded to the California Golden Seals, where he was named team captain and Team MVP in 1975-76. Neilson finished his NHL career with the Cleveland Barons for 2 seasons, where he again was the team captain. He was the team nominee for the Bill Masterton Award presented to the player who depicts perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication. His professional career concluded in 1978-79 when he played with the Edmonton Oilers in the World Hockey Association where he was a teammate of 17 year-old Wayne Gretzky. In 1,023 regular season NHL games, Neilson had 69 goals and 299 assists and was named to 4 NHL All Star Teams. Jim Neilson was inducted into the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. Home 2025 Banquet 2025 Banquet Sponsorship About Inductee Search Provincial Nominees Contact More

Eddie Lone Eagle Category Athlete Tribe Red Lake Band of Ojibwe Year Inducted 2022 Eddie Lone Eagle grew up on the streets of Minneapolis as a young man and wanted to give his life more meaning by being a part of something much bigger than himself. In 2011 he witnessed local powerlifters at the Los Campeones Gym on Franklin Avenue in South Minneapolis and discovered his true calling. Lone Eagle is a citizen of the Red Lake Ojibwe Nation, a member of the Eagle Clan, and also a descendant of the White Earth Nation. After finding himself intrigued by the power of lifting, he started powerlifting in 2011 at the Los Campeones Gym. He knew he wanted to be committed to be one, too. In 2013, he won the International Powerlifting League (IPL) World Powerlifting Championships in the 165 lb. weight class with a 529 lb. squat, 352 lb. bench, and a 551 lb. deadlift, with a 1432 lb. total. He became a World Champion in the World Affiliate of United States Powerlifting Association (USPA) Federation. In 2020, Lone Eagle was invited to lift at the Pro Day at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio. His personal records were 925 lb. squat, 535 lb. bench, and 615 lb. deadlift for a qualifying total of 2075 lbs. in the 220 lb. weight class, qualifying him for the World Powerlifting Congress (WPC) World Championships in Illinois that following October. His future and main goals in powerlifting are to be invited to lift at the World Powerlifting Organization (WPO). Home 2025 Banquet 2025 Banquet Sponsorship About Inductee Search Provincial Nominees Contact More

< Back Asa Shenandoah Asa Shenandoah Lumbee/Tuscarora/Onondaga Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2024 Asa Shenandoah, Daiaweñdodeh, represents two bloodlines. Her mother’s people, the Lumbee and Tuscarora Tribes of North Carolina, are river, swamp and coastal folk. Her father’s people welcomed the Peacemaker into Haudenosaunee territory on the Onondaga Lake. Though Shenandoah was adopted by her father’s nation at birth, her call to water comes from both sides. Shenandoah attended St. Andrew’s School in Delaware where she discovered rowing. She was moved to the top varsity boat as a sophomore, one of two underclassman on an all senior boat. That year she competed in the most prestigious high school rowing competition in the world, the 2004 Stotesbury Regatta. The team won with a time of 5:29:05 in the 1500m sprint. Their success secured them entry into the Henley Royal Regatta in England. Henley attracts Olympic and elite intercollegiate competitors from around the globe. Few high school programs participate. Her team set a divisional course record during the semifinals. They placed second in the finals. After college Shenandoah was approached to help create a Native crew team in Onondaga. At one time the lake had become one of the most polluted lakes in the world. She saw this as an opportunity to help to repair her community’s relationship with, and bring exposure to, the water. Shenandoah began coaching for the Syracuse City School crew team and Syracuse Chargers Rowing Club.These programs gave her the experience, certifications and support to grow the first indigenous crew team. Under her leadership the team gained representatives from across the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. She built connections that brought the team instruction from the head coach of Colgate University, training with Virginia Commonwealth University Women’s team and use of Syracuse University’s training facilities. They competed in several regattas within the first year. This crew of mothers, grandmothers, college students and aunties advocated for women and promoted wellness within their community. Since COVID, however, they are on hiatus. The goal for Shenandoah having a boathouse on the lake would be the first time the Onondaga People would occupy a place on the water in a very long time. <Back

Joy SpearChief-Morris Category Athlete Tribe Blackfoot (Blood Kainai) Year Inducted 2022 D.O.B. 3/17/1994 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. Home 2025 Banquet 2025 Banquet Sponsorship About Inductee Search Provincial Nominees Contact More

Mark D. Williams <Back Choctaw Induction Category: Media Year Inducted 2023 Mark D. Williams is an award-winning Choctaw filmmaker from Shawnee, Oklahoma. Having never been to film school, Mark was self-taught using friends and family for his first few projects. His first short film premiered at the Red Fork Film Festival in Tulsa in 2006. He would go on to write and direct more short films until 2012 when he made his first feature length film, “The Unrest” (winner of the BEST FILM award at the Mvskoke Film Festival). In 2016, his second feature film, “Violet”, won 12 awards in the US and overseas with 29 award nominations overall. In 2016, he began focusing on Native American sport and athletes’s stories with his first documentary titled “Beans” (Best Documentary at the Fort Worth Indie Film Showcase). It was followed by another award-winning boxing documentary titled, “Shiloh” which can be found on Amazon Prime. He followed up Shiloh with another boxing film, “Knifechief”. In 2020, his short film, “Warrior Coach”, won 2 awards (Bare Bones International Film Festival and Best Director at LA Skins Fest). Mark’s first feature length sports documentary, “Tvshka Nowvt Aya”, covered Oklahoma Choctaw stickball and won Best Film in 2018 at the NatiVisions Film Festival in Arizona. His second documentary with the Choctaw Nation, “Ikhaiyana la chi” (I Will Remember) won three awards (NatiVisions Film Festival, LA Skins Fest, Will Rogers International Film Festival). Mark’s latest film, “The Journey of Tiak Hikiya Ohoyo”, a sports documentary about Mississippi Choctaw Stickball was released in August 2022 in Film Festivals having won Best Feature Documentary (Fort Smith International Film Festival) and Best Feature Film (Indigenous Film Festival). He is currently writing his next script and researching more cultural projects to give the Native people an authentic voice. Photo Credits: Wasey Lamar and Delaney Pennock

< 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 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

< Back Autumn Apok Ridley Autumn Apok Ridley Inupiaq and Tlingit Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2023 Autumn Apok Ridley is from Anchorage, Alaska. She is a descendant from Wales, Alaska. She currently holds three world records in the Traditional Indigenous Northern Games. Her records are the Alaskan High Kick at 83”, the Two-foot High Kick at 79”, and the Traditional One-foot High Kick (Alaskan style) at 74”. She also shares the Traditional One-foot High Kick record with two other women, Erica Carson and Carol Hull. Autumn first started participating in the traditional games at the age of 6. She was influenced by her Uncle Gregory Nothstine since he was heavily involved in the games. She broke her first world record in The Alaskan High Kick in 2012 at the Native Youth Olympics at 82”. Two years later she went on and broke her record by one inch in the Alaskan High Kick at the same competition. The next day she went and broke a 25 year old record formerly held by Nicole Johnston in the Two-foot High Kick by one inch. In July of 2014 she tied the world record in The Traditional One-foot High Kick with Erica Carson (Meckel) at the World Eskimo Indian Olympics. Autumn still practices and participates in the games for fun and coaches when she has time. Photo Credit: Wayde Carroll Photography <Back

< Back Jaci McCormack Jaci McCormack Nez Perce Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete/Builder 2025 Jaci McCormack grew up on the Nez Perce Reservation outside of Lewiston, Idaho. She fell in love with basketball early on and earned a scholarship to play for Illinois State University, where her team competed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. After her college career, Jaci was inspired to return home and give back to her community. She served as the Deputy Executive Director for the Nez Perce Tribe, as well as the Youth Prevention Director, building deep relationships with tribal and community partners. In 2015, Jaci founded Rise Above, a non-profit organization that gives Native American youth the skills and resilience to overcome their circumstances and write their own futures. As the CEO of Rise Above, Jaci leads the organization in its mission to empower youth through a variety of programs including sports, education, financial literacy, prevention skills, and mentorship, using prevention strategies that will spark change in people’s lives. Jaci attracted an incredible group of engaged and like-minded partners and donors across the country who believed in Rise Above’s mission to empower Native American youth, including over 30 tribes, investors, prevention advocates, sports legends, and hall-of-famers, and Hollywood stars including Three Time NBA Hall of Famer, Lenny Wilkens and Award-Winning Actor Danny Glover. In 2024 Rise Above established a formal partnership with the Seattle Storm to increase basketball opportunities for BIPOC, low-income, and historically underserved youth, with a focus on the Native community in Seattle and Washington State. Jaci’s life story will be the subject of an upcoming feature film, produced by Danny Glover, Preston Holmes and Lenny Wilkens. The screenplay was written by Erica Trembly, an award- winning native writer. The film is set for production in 2025 with a projected release in 2026. In 2022, Jaci was invited to be a presenter and panelist at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and she was appointed by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell to serve on Seattle's first Indigenous Advisory Council. She is also the recipient of the 2024 Seattle Sports Commission Sports Equity and Inclusion Award. <Back

< Back Jack Mark Edmo Jack Mark Edmo Shoshone-Bannock/Blackfeet Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2024 Jack Mark Edmo, 83, an all-around Indian cowboy who was a visionary and gifted horseman, passed away July 17, 2023 in Billings, Montana. He was born July 8, 1940 to Helen Monroe Sherman and William Bill Edmo. His beloved stepfather Alex Sherman also helped raise him. Edmo had an incredible life as an Indian cowboy and lived his dream. He won over 170 belt buckles. His mother Helen made him a pair of elk hide gloves and he used them riding broncs creating the idea of wearing gloves while bronc riding. He was a traditional cowboy, lived on a ranch, was a gifted horseman and he took pride in that. He rode saddle bronc, bareback, bulls and was a calf roper and team roper. He was a founder of the Rocky Mountain Indian Rodeo Association and helped organize the Indian National Finals Rodeo. He believed in his tribal traditions and was proud of his culture. He loved his family and his photo collection showed it. He shared his knowledge with his children and grandchildren. He was an avid elk hunter and fisherman. Edmo loved the mountains and told his children that’s where he will be, when they look for him. Edmo attended schools in Browning, Montana and graduated with a degree in agriculture from Northern Montana College. He was a tribal government specialist as he worked in planning and transportation. He and a co-worker submitted EDA grants to build the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Human Resource Development Center and Tribal Business Center in the 70s. In addition, the Fort Hall Indoor Arena and rodeo grounds including the grandstand. He worked as a planner for the Blackfeet Tribe for 15 years until he retired at age 70. His children included: Shelly (Ivan) McDonald, Jack (Casey) Edmo, Gaynell (Tim) Realbird, Dave (Mindy) Edmo, Mark Edmo, Hank McArthur Edmo and Andreen Edmo, along with numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers Melvin “Buzzer” Edmo and William Rusty Edmo, along with a grandson Ladel Kelly Omeaso. He’s buried at Willow Creek Cemetery in Browning, Montana. <Back

< Back Lloyd M. Powless Lloyd M. Powless Oneida Induction Category: Year Inducted Athlete 2025 Lloyd Powless was born on February 9, 1940 on the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. His father was Merville Powless from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. His mother, Adeline Powless, was a nurse from Minnesota of German heritage. Lloyd was athletically talented and he played high school football in Rock Island, Illinois. As a senior in 1956 he received Illinois All-State Football honors as a defensive linebacker. He was recruited to attend several NCAA Division 1 universities on a football scholarship. He accepted the Big 10’s Northwestern University’s offer. After the first year at Northwestern, he transferred to Augustana College at Rock Island, Illinois. At Augustana College, Lloyd became an outstanding middle-linebacker. He played three years for Augustana and received honors of All-Conference first team and “Little All-American” in 1963 as a middle linebacker. Years later Lloyd was inducted into the Augustana College Hall of Fame. At the end of his college football career in 1963, he was drafted into the National Football League (NFL) as the 17th draft choice of the Los Angeles Rams. He participated in three different training camps with the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Broncos, and the San Diego Charger but did not go further. Lloyd Powless’ life after football included working one year for Standard Oil and John Deere Company for 25 years. He has a son and a daughter who are both college graduates. His wife, an Augustana College graduate, and he are retired and live in Florida. <Back