Native People

Janee' Kassanavoid, born January 19, 1995, is a Native American track and field athlete renowned for her achievements in the hammer throw. A proud member of the Comanche Nation, Kassanavoid has become a trailblazer in the world of athletics, setting records and breaking barriers.Professional Career Highlights:
Personal Best: Kassanavoid achieved her personal best throw of 78.00 meters (255 feet, 10 inches) on April 30, 2022, in Tucson, Arizona. This remarkable feat solidified her as one of the top hammer throwers globally.
World Athletics Championships 2022: On July 17, 2022, at the prestigious World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Kassanavoid made history by winning the bronze medal with a throw of 74.86 meters. This accomplishment marked her as the first Native American woman to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships.

Her name was Emma Ngahiraka Waitangi Wood, but to many, she was simply Ngahiraka Kennedy—a woman whose life rippled through the tides of two worlds. Born in 1842 in the coastal settlement of Ōpōtiki, New Zealand, she was the daughter of James Wood and Materena Rangiwhiuwhiu Waitangi, a lineage that carried both colonial and Māori heritage. With blue eyes and fair skin, Ngahiraka bore the sacred *moko kauae*—a traditional Māori chin tattoo—etched with pride, a permanent mark of identity and honor passed through generations of Māori women.

In 1873, in Auckland, she married Joseph Bond Kennedy, weaving her story into the broader narrative of a changing New Zealand. But Ngahiraka was never one to fade into the background. Her moko wasn’t just a cultural symbol—it was a declaration of strength, mana, and resilience. In every line was the legacy of her ancestors and the echo of the great migration from Hawaiki. She stood as a bridge between eras, fiercely graceful in both the Māori world she honored and the colonial world she navigated.

Ngahiraka Kennedy’s life was brief but indelible. She passed away in Gisborne in 1890, only 48 years old, but her image—marked by that unmistakable moko and her quiet strength—still speaks across time. Who was she really? A daughter of chiefs, a wife, a bearer of ancient knowledge? Her gaze invites more questions than answers, leaving behind a mystery stitched into the land she loved.

The Last Winter of Freedom – A Kiowa Family’s Story, 1902In the bitter winter of 1902, deep in the sacred Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma, a small Kiowa family made camp — holding onto their way of life as the world around them changed forever.
Tsonetah, an aging warrior and elder, refused to abandon the old ways. With him were his daughter Nali, her husband Red Elk, and their young son. Their canvas-and-hide tipi stood by a stream flowing from Mount Scott, where deer still roamed and wild turkey could still be hunted. The buffalo were gone, but tradition remained.
Snow came early that year. Government agents came too, pressing them to relocate. But at night, under the flicker of firelight, Tsonetah told his grandson stories — of sky people, medicine men, and the buffalo spirits that once thundered across the plains.
Nali stitched warm clothing from worn army blankets. Red Elk traded pelts for cornmeal with a Choctaw man who still understood.
When spring returned, they agreed to move to the reservation. But in the boy’s memory, that final winter stayed alive — the smell of wood smoke, the rhythm of the drums, the frost on the tipi walls.
It was the last season his family lived free on their own land, guided only by tradition, spirit, and sky.