A number of Six Nations athletes were inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame (NAIAHF) earlier this month.

Locals Awehiyo Thomas (lacrosse), Dean Hill (lacrosse), Delby Powless (lacrosse), were all apart of the inaugural 2022 class meanwhile Glenn Styres (sprint car racing), Kevin Sandy (lacrosse), Oliver "Cap" Bomberry (lacrosse), Roger Vyse (lacrosse) and Ross Powless (lacrosse) have all been inducted in the 2023 class.

Delby Powless, a member of the inaugural 2022 class, described the experience of being recognized alongside all of the other Indigenous athletes as "very cool." Powless was recognized for his lacrosse career which spanned across both box (indoor) and field lacrosse. He was a 2x All-American at Rutgers University, the 2003 recipient of the Tom Longboat Award as Canada's top male Aboriginal athlete. Powless is also the author of "Medicine Game."

Powless spoke on sharing the honours with other athletes from Six Nations.

"There's so many good athletes here in Six Nations that aren't recognized enough; people don't know about some of the people that were not only great athletes recently but back in the 60s and 70s."

"I think its really important that people kind of understand that, that some of the great athletes that have already come before us maybe weren't recognized in some of these other areas or Hall of Fames. Maybe people didn't know about a guy like Cap Bomberry or Ross Powless, so it's good for people to read about and find that out that there were some really good athletes to come from Six Nations and for them to be recognized, I think its really cool," he added.

He also spoke on Six Nations and how the community continues to develop some of the world's top lacrosse athletes

"I think it's just the love of the sport, to be honest," he said. "The game is just something that is embedded early at a young age and kids just take to it and not just guys either, obviously, women have really taken to lacrosse and have gone on to university and world games levels. It's something that's just embedded in us at a young age and its a sport that we love,  and we love to play it, love to have fun, love to coach it, and love to watch it."

"It's just one of those sports that can really get inside a person and just take over their lives sometimes," he added.

Powless offered advice to future Indigenous athletes hoping to follow in his footsteps, saying that focusing on school is a major thing to do for anyone looking to pursue athletics at the next level.

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