Shiyazh Pete celebrated at Indigenous Peoples Day event in Albuquerque
Former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Shiyazh Pete will greet fans at an Albuquerque event on Monday. He made history as the first Navajo Nation citizen to sign with an NFL team.
Pete entered the field for a preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals in August. Thousands of supporters traveled from the Navajo Nation to cheer. Fans waved tribal flags and shouted “yéego.”
The rookie offensive lineman played six snaps during the game. Fans gave him a standing ovation when he returned to the sideline. He is now an NFL free agent.
The Cowboys waived Pete following the preseason game. He returned home to the Navajo Nation to thank supporters. He is currently seeking his next opportunity in the league.
Pete visited his alma mater, Shiprock High School. He surprised students at their homecoming pep rally. Pete also served as the Northern Navajo Nation Fair Parade grand marshal.
Native athletes broke barriers in Olympic competitions
Pete stands among many Native athletes who inspired pride across their communities. Jim Thorpe, of the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma, won Olympic gold in 1912. He won both the decathlon and the pentathlon events.
Thorpe competed in Major League Baseball for six seasons. He also played 12 seasons of professional football. That included play in the American Professional Football Association.
Hopi runner Louis Tewanima attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania with Thorpe. Tewanima placed ninth in the 1908 Olympic marathon in London. He placed second in the 10,000 meters in 1912.
Native Hawaiian swimmer Duke Kahanamoku earned medals in the 1912, 1920 and 1924 Olympics. His international demonstrations helped make surfing widely known. He served as Honolulu sheriff from 1935 to 1961.
Distance runners achieved historic twentieth-century milestones
Ellison Myers “Tarzan” Brown was an athlete from the Narragansett Tribe in Rhode Island. Brown won the Boston Marathon in 1936 and 1939. He ran for the United States team in Berlin.
Oglala Lakota runner Billy Mills set an Olympic record at the 1964 Tokyo Games. Mills won gold in the 10-kilometer run. No American Olympian has equaled his gold in that race.
Patti Catalano Dillon, who is of Mi’kmaw descent, was raised in Massachusetts. She ran a marathon under 2 hours, 30 minutes. She was the first American woman to achieve that mark.
Dillon earned second place in three Boston marathons. She was runner-up in the 1980 New York Marathon. She held world records in the half marathon.
Indigenous competitors built legacies in modern sports
Ryneldi Becenti joined the Phoenix Mercury during the 1997 season. Becenti was the first Native American athlete in the WNBA. She grew up playing basketball across the Navajo Nation.
Becenti played college basketball for Scottsdale Community College and Arizona State University. She later played professional basketball in Europe.
Aaliyah Nye is a basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks. Nye belongs to the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi in Michigan. She was a draft pick for the Las Vegas Aces.
Nye was drafted and waived by two teams in 2026. The Sparks claimed her after she left the Toronto Tempo and Atlanta Dream.
Golfer Notah Begay III earned four PGA Tour wins across 1999 and 2000. Begay holds Navajo, San Felipe and Isleta heritage. He created a foundation to promote wellness for Native youth.
Begay works as a golf analyst on television. His youth foundation promotes health through soccer and golf programs. The Monday gathering in Albuquerque highlights this broad history of athletic achievement.
Community events provide public gathering spaces for local youth and families to celebrate shared cultural traditions. Fans often assemble at open forums to welcome sports figures back to their home communities.
Pete continues to engage with regional groups across New Mexico as he pursues his professional football career.
