Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving knows the importance of his Native American heritage

BOSTON – Native American Chief Hélà uniquely wore brown moccasin styled-sneakers while playing a vital role in vaulting the Dallas Mavericks to the 2024 NBA Finals. It was a way for the Mavericks star guard, also known as Kyrie Irving, to pay tribute to his beloved Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

“It’s a tribe win for me just in terms of whether it be Native American, Indigenous, colored, Negro, Black, white, red, yellow,” Irving told Andscape after the Mavericks advanced to the 2024 NBA Finals by defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-103 in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals May 30. “This is for all the people who have been supporting me, and I’ve been supporting them. They have been going out of their way to do things for me to feel good as a person and I’ve had intimate conversations that have gone a long way.

“These are my tribal shoes, for sure. Shout-out to Anta for having my back before the series started and they donned those shoes on me before Game 1. And I saw the fringes and it just reminded me of all the things that I had gone through in the past few years to find out who I was, — find out who my mom’s side was, my dad’s side was — and to really appreciate not only my culture but multiple cultures. That’s what is really cool about being Indigenous is that you find out the way of the Native American Indigenous is to accept all walks of life, to deal with human emotions life a chief, a chieftress, man or woman, because we’ve dealt with a lot in history. Basketball is a small part of it, but it is also a connector or bridge. I’m appreciative I get a chance to represent.”

Irving was educated about his African American heritage since his youth primarily from his father, Drederick, who raised him. But it wasn’t until about 2016 that Irving began to learn more about his late mother’s Native American heritage. Irving’s mother, Elizabeth Larson, died when he was 4 years old on Sept. 9, 1996, according to ESPN. His parents separated when he was very young and he stayed with his father in New Jersey while she moved across the country before she died.

Larson was born a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North Dakota before being adopted in 1968. Larson left the reservation after being adopted by white Lutheran ministers, George and Norma Larson, from Seattle. According to The Nation, it was common at that time for Native American children to be removed from their birth families until the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978, which gave Indigenous families priority in the adoption of Indigenous children. In 1968, the Association of American Indian Affairs reported “that 25-35 percent of children were removed from their families and adopted at rates 16 times higher than the national average and most Indigenous children were adopted by white parents.”

Journalist Brian Ward told The Nation in 2018, “With Kyrie embracing his Hunkpapa Lakota heritage, he is running against the intention the U.S. government had with their adoptive practices, which is both courageous, inspiring and gives an example to so many adopted Indigenous children around this country.”

As Irving got older, he yearned to find out more about his mother’s roots. He first publicly acknowledged a connection with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe during an ESPN Christmas interview in 2016. At that time, most Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members were unaware that the 2016 NBA champion was related. Irving also donated $100,000 to the tribe in 2017 and tweeted out support and solidarity in support of Standing Rock environmental activists who were protesting the Dakota Access pipeline. There is also a Standing Rock Sioux Tribe logo tattooed on the back of his neck.

Irving’s stepmother and agent Shetellia Riley Irving recalls when the eight-time NBA All-Star yearned to connect with his mother’s side of the family.

“I think that because his mother passed away when he was so young, it was really kind of about understanding that aspect of who she is and where she came from and what that community was,” Riley Irving said. “And that just brings him closer to his mother.”

The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation was originally established as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, according to standingrock.org. Its territory includes present-day South Dakota west of the Missouri River, including the sacred Black Hills and the Missouri River. Often called Sioux, the Standing Rock people are members of the Dakota and Lakota nations.

Irving told ESPN there was a time “where I had come almost at a crossroads with my dad, my sister, my friends, my grandparents, and I had no idea what direction to go in because I had lost the sense of a foundation.” So, on Aug. 23, 2018, the then-Boston Celtics guard visited the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation for the first time to learn more about his mother and Native American heritage.

Irving became a sovereign citizen and was given the name “Little Mountain,” translated as “Hélà” in Lakota, during a traditional naming ceremony in his honor at the Prairie Knights Casino north of Fort Yates, North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. Hélà was tied to his family’s White Mountain lineage from the South Dakota portion of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, according to ESPN. Irving enthusiastically embraced his Native American roots during the five-hour ceremony by donning traditional clothing as numerous speeches, drumming, chanting, praying and dancing took place in front of 1,000 people, according to ESPN and The Nation. He shook everyone’s hand, which included people wearing his Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers gear, before he departed.

Irving met his grandfather and numerous cousins, which “completed the cycle” in his family life.

“It was amazing, man. I got a chance to go and visit my family members in North Dakota and South Dakota,” Irving told Andscape in 2022. “I became a sovereign citizen and it really completed the cycle for me of doing what I felt like was part of my purpose of connecting the dots to my mom. That was one of the strong things.

“She was adopted out of the tribe. So, [I was] connecting back and learning the history and seeing that I’m part of it. They’re my family, but there’s still a lot going on. So. it’s a lot to still serve the community and I’m just being a leader in that.”

Irving learned his family was from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which sits on the North and South Dakota border, McLaughlin, South Dakota, the largest city in the Standing Rock, Reservation with a population nearing 600, and other parts of North Dakota. He added that he learned that the true story of his family history and Native American history was different from what he grew up reading in American history books.

“I’m spread out all across the tribe and I have family members all around and I have aunts, uncles, grandparents, a lot of people in my family lineage that put me up on our history and gave me a real authentic view of our traditions,” Irving said. “Not what’s been told to me in school or what I learned in the education system. It just wasn’t the truth.”

Irving will be facing the Celtics in Game 1 back in Boston on Thursday night (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC). He told Andscape last week that he is looking forward to the “chess match” between the Celtics and Mavericks and didn’t delve into his past in Boston. The Celtics are known for having some of the loudest and verbal harsh fans in the NBA and Irving has been booed when he has the ball in games at Boston since he left the Celtics in 2019.

He appears to have the right frame of mind to deal with the TD Garden crowd during the Finals.

“You just got to breathe through it,” Irving said during Media Day on Wednesday. “To all my youngins out there that are dealing with some of the crowd reactions, what they’re saying to you, you have to breathe, realize that is not as hostile as you think it is. Don’t overthink it.

“Being able to work through that and understand that some of that is anxiety, some of that is nervousness, it could all be turned into a strength. There’s no fear out here, man. It’s basketball. The fans are going to say what they’re going to say. I appreciate them and their relationship they have to the game. But it’s about the players at the end of the day.”

Irving told Celtics fans during a Fan Appreciation Night in October 2018 that he planned to re-sign with the team after that season. Several days later, he told the local Boston media he wanted to have his No. 11 jersey retired by the franchise one day. Irving, however, changed his mind and ultimately decided to sign with the Brooklyn Nets instead, to the ire and confusion of Celtics fans. In 2022, Irving told Andscape his grandfather’s death had a profound impact on him changing his commitment to Boston and seeing a deeper picture of life.

“I lost my grandfather, and that was in 2018,” Irving said to Andscape in 2022. “And that was ironically during the same time I committed back to Boston and people were wondering what happened during that season. I lost my grandfather. He was connecting me back to my tribe …

“So, my mom was adopted out of the tribe by white parents. And then I went back and connected to my mom’s real parents. So, my [adopted] grandfather, he was a Lutheran pastor out in Washington. And then I learned [those were] her adoptive parents and my grandmother, my grandfather. But I was trying to find my mom’s Native history and my grandfather was always part of that community. So, he gave me the history before he passed. And when he told me it was like it caught me off guard. I’m just thinking, ‘I’m just going to be a great basketball player. I’m just going to be a legend. I want to be the Hall of Fame. And I want to be a Boston Celtic for the rest of my life.’ But that all changed once I started learning about my history. So, I wanted to get closer to home [New Jersey] so I could be able to make change where I wanted to. So that was one of the other reasons that it doesn’t get talked about as often. I don’t get this platform to really talk about it. But it never was about disrespecting Boston or disrespecting the NBA and what I was doing …

“I had other responsibilities. Once I learned who my family was outside of my dad, my mom, my sister. Just imagine you wake up one day and you find out you have 40 cousins. Got 50 uncles that have been waiting for you, and they’re like, we knew all along and we were just waiting for you to come home.”

Irving helped the Standing Rock Sioux Nation with a multimillion-dollar donation during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Native News Online. The website also said Irving revisited the Standing Rock Sioux Nation to formalize his affiliation with the tribe and enroll as a member in August 2021. He was approved officially as a Native American by the Standing Rock Lakota/Dakota Tribal Headquarters, according to KFYR-TV.

Irving is now fully aware of his family’s Native American history and has been long aware of his African American background. He also is quite familiar with both Native Americans and African Americans facing racism, hate and disrespect in America. Irving said it’s “important” for him to represent his African American and Native American heritage and “have a balance of both.”

“Being Native and African American in the United States of America, you’re not always seen as a human being first,” Irving told Andscape in 2022. “Sometimes people see you as a third-class citizen or they have a misunderstanding of the history of what’s taking place. There’s been genocide, there’s been hatred, there’s been racism. And when you think about the connection between the African race and the Native race, it’s one and the same in terms of how much oppression each community has dealt with. And I believe that we’re all one, but some people identify with different things.

“I’m just reclaiming my history, man, and our history in doing what I need to do in order to fulfill my role as a leader in our tribe. I got my name three years ago, Hélà, and I take that very serious. It’s separate from this basketball identity that I’ve built, which I’m grateful for because it gives me that purpose every day to wake up and be grateful.”

Irving will be wearing different “Playoff Energy” Antas during the NBA Finals, which will include “Enlightened Warrior ethos, blending performance and heritage into a visual and functional masterpiece.” Wearing his unique sneakers is just one of the ways for Chief Hélà to show his pride and attract attention to his Native American heritage.

“I’m grateful that I’m able to be in touch with my history, because if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t be able to be as grounded as I am,” Irving said in 2022. “I don’t get a chance to necessarily speak out in the open like I want to because usually I get basketball questions. But my life’s purpose is to continue to heal communities, be there for my family, and show people the truth of who we are.

“We’re very strong people. Strong warrior people. And we’ve made it through.”