{"id":690,"date":"2022-03-10T19:15:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T19:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/?p=690"},"modified":"2022-03-10T19:15:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T19:15:48","slug":"alum-using-ncaa-platform-to-raise-awareness-of-native-athlete-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/2022\/03\/10\/alum-using-ncaa-platform-to-raise-awareness-of-native-athlete-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"Alum using NCAA platform to raise awareness of Native athlete representation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Jessie Stomski Seim ’08 is general counsel for the Prairie Island Indian Community.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jessie Stomski Seim \u201908 is convinced she would have never attended law school or become general counsel for a tribal government if not for the scholarship she received to play basketball at the University of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

With the NCAA Women\u2019s Final Four coming to Minneapolis in April, Stomski Seim, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, is using her position as a member of the local organizing committee executive board to raise awareness of the dearth of Native student-athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNative student-athletes are not getting recruited,\u201d said Stomski Seim, who works for the Prairie Island Indian Community. \u201cAnd even when they are, there\u2019s a retention issue. If they come from tribal communities, the culture shock of going to a campus can be significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupporting those students is equally important.\u201d<\/p>\n

As important as basketball and sports are for many tribal communities, barely one percent of all NCAA student-athletes are Native. In Minnesota, for example, Red Lake High School has enjoyed success on the basketball court, earning several trips to state tournaments for both the boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 teams. But it wasn\u2019t until 2019 that the first Red Laker \u2013 Grace White \u2013 earned a scholarship to play Division I college basketball.<\/p>\n

Stomski Seim\u2019s career at the University of Wisconsin earned her an induction into the program\u2019s hall of fame. She was also drafted in the 2002 WNBA draft and played professionally in France and Greece. \u201cPhysical competition was part of our traditions long before contact with Europeans, and basketball is good medicine for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stomski Seim has worked to secure programming at the Women\u2019s Final Four, including a halftime show that showcases Minnesota\u2019s tribal culture; in-game videos that highlight former Native women student athletes discussing the need for more opportunity; a basketball clinic for Native youth; a WBCA clinic for coaches who recruit athletes; and 300 tickets for Native youth to attend.<\/p>\n

Long term, Stomski Seim hopes to see a culture change in the way college coaches recruit high school athletes. She notes tribal reservations are often several hours from city centers, which means less opportunity for athletes to be seen. But Stomski Seim says the NCAA can also be part of efforts to support students on the ground. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have somebody who can drive you to practice, that\u2019s a barrier,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of these efforts take money, and we have to support the people in tribal communities who are willing to do that work to encourage those young people to stay with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSports isn\u2019t for everyone, but we know from research there are so many benefits to kids who play sports, and it\u2019s time away from things that are unhealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2022 Women\u2019s Final Four will be played April 1 and 3 at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessie Stomski Seim \u201908 is convinced she would have never attended law school or become general counsel for a tribal government if not for the scholarship she received to play basketball at the University of Wisconsin. With the NCAA Women\u2019s Final Four coming to Minneapolis in April, Stomski Seim, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) … <\/p>\n

Alum using NCAA platform to raise awareness of Native athlete representation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news-and-events","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/native-american-law-and-sovereignty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}