Indigenous Athletics Advancement Council Formed to Increase Indigenous Representation and Engagement at 2022 NCAA Women’s Final Four and Beyond
A group of Native leaders strategize on how to advance Native involvement in all levels of sport.
Minneapolis, Minnesota*
FOR RELEASE MARCH 1, 2022
Kicking off at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Final Four, the Indigenous Athletics Advancement Council (IAAC) will shine a spotlight on the underutilization of Native American talent on the court and behind the scenes in sports. When Jessie Stomski Seim, General Counsel of the Prairie Island Indian Community, former professional basketball player, and University of Wisconsin hall-of-famer, was asked to be on the Minnesota Local Organizing Committee (MLOC) for the 2022 NCAA Women’s Final Four, she took the opportunity to create a platform for the often-overlooked Indigenous community. After events of 2021 highlighted the continued need for equity in college sports, this is the perfect opportunity to show the importance of the local Indigenous community to major sporting events.
Shortly after joining the MLOC in the summer of 2021, Stomski Seim, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, brought together a roster of athlete advocates across Indian Country including Alisse Ali-Joseph (Choctaw, Northern Arizona University), Nicole Been (Muscogee Creek/Thlopthlocco, University of Oklahoma), Brent Cahwee (Pawnee, NDNSports.com), and Natalie Welch (Eastern Cherokee, Linfield University). The group quickly realized they wouldn’t be putting together programming for just one event and formed the Indigenous Athletics Advancement Council to continue their work beyond the tournament. The IAAC, along with Dominic Tiger-Cortes (Muscogee Creek/Thlopthlocco) of HOOP Medicine, aim to expand upon the grassroots efforts in Indian Country to disrupt power structures in all of sport business, and to provide enhanced education, support, and resources for Native American student-athletes, coaches and administrators and the abundant communities they come from.
To “Indigenize” the Women’s Final Four means more than just a land acknowledgment or a one-time youth basketball camp. While those elements are important, there will also be strategic connections made between acknowledgment, opportunity, and advancement. With support, bringing awareness of Native people will be done through an in-arena video as well as a half-time ceremony featuring the beauty of Minnesota’s Indigenous communities through traditional dance, drum, and song. To expose youth to the NCAA championship experience the IAAC and LOC will give away 150 tickets to the national semifinal games and another 150 to the championship game of the Women’s Final Four through local Native organizations. On Saturday, April 2nd the IAAC will host a youth basketball clinic and feast at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. The IAAC will also engage NCAA coaches in partnership with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) at its Convention, and utilize current and former women’s college basketball athletes to share their stories and their ideas for more progress.
The IAAC is raising resources for these efforts, with committed partnership from supporters such as Xcel Energy (an Original Ally Partner), the Minnesota Twins, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, Winthrop & Weinstine, the Jacobson Law Group, the Prairie Island Indian Community, and Minnesota Sports & Events. The IAAC greatly appreciates these allies in addition to the LOC, the NCAA, and the WBCA for their commitment to this work. The IAAC plans to formally incorporate as a nonprofit organization and continue programming to benefit Native youth and communities after the Women’s Final Four.
For more information visit IndigenousAthleticsAdvancement.com. For media or donation, inquiries contact Jessie Stomski Seim at 651-764-1328 or jessie.seim@piic.org.
*We are honored to acknowledge that the 2022 Women’s Final Four will take place in Mni Sóta Maḳoce, the land where the water reflects the clouds. Minneapolis is located within the original homeland of the Dakota Oyate, and also to the north is the land of the Ojibwe. There are four Dakota Tribes and seven Ojibwe Tribes that Mni Sóta shares geography with, and they are the original hosts to the IAAC and the Women’s Final Four.
**This release uses the terms Indigenous, Native American, and Indian Country interchangeably but does not intend to discount the importance of terminology. We use terms as originally used when possible.