The heroic Native American Taffy Abel Story is about one man, an Ice Warrior Olympian, fighting to overcome systemic Racial Injustices to play and win in the Game of Hockey, and more importantly in the Game of Life.
There are inspiring lessons in courage in this Real-Life Story about Taffy Abel ‘Breaking the NHL Color Barrier’ so he could help remove shackles put on his life by White NHL leaders because of his Native American race and skin color.
Taffy Abel just wanted to be seen and appreciated for the ‘Real First American’ he was born as.
Sadly, sometimes a person’s Real-Me and Real-Heritage cannot flourish or be appreciated simply because of the person’s race and skin color.
Such was the case in the early 1900s for Native American persons such as Taffy Abel who fought and won in the Olympics and the National Hockey League to be themselves and their ‘Real-Me’ in the Game of Hockey as well as in their Creator’s larger Game of Life.
Taffy believed in his Creator and also in the Principles of Decency, Human Rights and in the Dignity of Man.
With his egregious and willful disrespect for the Taffy Abel Legacy, the National Hockey League Commissioner, Gary Bettman, has shown himself not to be a believer in these basic and fundamental Human Rights principles.
The ‘best-known’ Sports Color Barrier Breaker is MLB Baseball’s African American Jackie Robinson in 1947. However, the ‘first and mainly unknown’ Baseball Color Barrier Breaker was actually William Edward White in 1879 who was a lite complected African American racially passing as a White person.
Even rarer, there were also racially passing lite complected Native American athletes such as Taffy Abel who earned his ‘Mr. Hockey’ place in hockey history in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan.
The NHL’s hidden (and ongoing scandalous coverup) story about Native American Taffy Abel not being the NHL Hockey Color Barrier Breaker in 1926 is a unique and very troubling story.
Like African American William Edward White in Baseball in the late 1800s, Native American Taffy Abel in Hockey in the early 1900s also racially passed as a White person because of rampant racial discrimination. In 1926, Taffy Abel became the NHL’s first player of color.
The NHL’s Gary Bettman is cowardly afraid and won’t tell Uncle Taffy’s story, so I am.
Native Americans are often referred to as ‘First Americans’. As we will see later, this more meaningful and patriotic ‘First American’ term is appropriate for this story.
First American Taffy Abel (1900 - 1964) broke the NHL Hockey Color Barrier on ‘November 16th’ 1926 with the New York Rangers. In over 8 years and 333 games in the NHL, this heroic First American “Ice Warrior” won 2 prestigious Stanley Cups and earned his place in the USA Hockey Hall of Fame.
However, the NHL Commissioner and the NHL has refused to honor him for breaking the NHL Color Barrier. That’s shameful and simply un-American.
In comparison, African American Jackie Robinson broke the MLB Baseball Color Barrier much later in 1947 and is widely honored today by the MLB with a special ‘Jackie Robinson Day’ on ‘April 15th’. I honor Jackie Robinson even more so now knowing now how the NHL is deliberately tarnishing the Color Barrier Breaking legacy of Taffy Abel and the noble dignity of Native American people.
So, what are the true reasons that Native American Taffy Abel is not significantly honored at all by the NHL for breaking the NHL Color Barrier? We explore those reasons in the Taffy Abel Story.
It’s really shameful and scandalous of the NHL to not honor Taffy Abel. In the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s, in the Game of Life and the Game of Hockey and other sports, it was equally rough and discriminatory times for both Native Americans, African Americans, and other non-Whites.
That period was the Golden Age of Discrimination in Sports and White Nationalist led sports organizations such as the NHL were the most discriminating in all of sports and still are. Such racism is called Systemic Institutional Racism. The mainly all White NHL Board of Governors and Gary Bettman head up the NHL Institution.
Taffy Abel would not be beat down in defeat by the NHL or anyone else. His motto was: “I’m in the business of winning.”
On his ‘November 16th’, 1926 NHL debut with the New York Rangers Taffy helped to beat the NHL Montreal Maroons, a very strong Canadian Hockey Team, who had just won a Stanley Cup.
The official national winter sport in Canada is Ice Hockey. Hockey is almost like a religion in Canada.
Canadians still call Hockey ‘Our Game’ and look down their nose at American Hockey Players. Taffy Abel lived right across the Saint Marys River from Canada in Sault St. Marie, Michigan USA and from an early age he learned to play Hockey and to beat white Canadian Hockey Players.
Taffy was a superb Hockey Defenseman. The Canadians called Taffy the ‘Michigan Mountain’ because he was big, tough and knew how to win. He was not afraid of a fight and knew how to defend himself and his teammates. He was an enforcer on the ice and his opponents knew it.
A New York Times reporter called this 1926 Canadian versus American hockey game "a fast and savagely played hockey game." This historic Miracle like win on ‘November 16th’ 1926 helped Taffy to avenge the American Gold Medal loss to Canada in the 1924 Winter Olympics.
In an Un-American manner, the NHL and cowardly leaders there, have egregiously failed to honor Taffy Abel. In fact, they have hidden his story and don’t want to talk about it … specially talk about Taffy Abel … the Native American Hockey Player who broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
‘November 16th’ 2026 will mark the Centennial of this Color Barrier breaking event in the NHL and surely, after 100 years, many Americans agree it is certainly time now for the NHL and the American President to formally honor Taffy Abel.
This honor would send a subtle but forceful ‘America First’ signal to the Canadians from President Trump. Trump’s honoring of a Native American Hockey Hero, who knew how to take on the Canadians and beat them, would magnify the President’s ‘51st State’ message. This would really be great messaging since Hockey is the official Winter Sport in Canada.
Taffy Abel was a Citizen from the Sovreign Chippewa Nation as well as a Sovereign USA Citizen born in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan who carried a USA Passport on the way to the 1924 Winter Olympics in France where he was the official USA Flag Bearer.
Taffy was the Patriotic USA Flag Bearer in the 1924 Winter Olympics winning a Silver Medal in Hockey after barely losing to Canada because of Hockey USA’s management and strategy failures. Taffy avenged this 1924 Olympic loss to the Canadians in New York on ‘November 16th’ 1926 playing his debut game with the NHL New York Rangers.
Jim Thorpe, a Native American member of the Sac and Fox Nation, was not a U.S. citizen when he won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Most U.S. Native Americans such as Jim Thorpe were not granted USA citizenship until 1924 with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act.
One of President Trump’s meaningful ‘America First Priorities’ should include formally celebrating ‘Historic First Americans’ such as Taffy Abel by designating ‘November 16th’ as ‘First American Day’ in coordination with the National Hockey League, the Chippewa Nation, all 574 USA federally recognized First American Nations and organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians.
By designating ‘First American Day’ as ‘November 16th’, President Trump will be seen historically as a courageous Warrior for those in Indian Country and Patriotic Americans. It will send a clear message to Canadians and those in other nations that Americans know how to fight and win.
With the naming of ‘Gulf of America’ versus ‘Gulf of Mexic0’, President Trump sent a similar message to Mexico.
By designating ‘First American Day’, President Trump will receive accolades from ‘First Americans’ in the U.S. and Indigenous Canadians as well as from Patriotic Americans of both political parties.
These accolades most likely would also include prominent Americans such as the new American Catholic Pope from Chicago who has championed Indigenous Rights and Reconciliation in North America and South America.
Taffy Abel was a Catholic and played with the Chicago Blackhawks after his stint with the New York Rangers. Pope Leo XIV is widely respected for his commitment to the poor and marginalized, including Native American populations.
As the head of the Catholic Church—whose global membership numbers approximately 1.4 billion—Pope Leo XIV now also shepherds the spiritual lives of over 200,000 Native American Catholics across Indian Country.
Pope Leo XIV’s predecessor, Pope Francis gave an apology about Residential Boarding Schools to Canadian First Nation people during a visit to Canada in July 2022. Cardinal Prevost, now Pope Leo, has acknowledged the historical context of residential schools, recognizing the harm caused to Native American communities. He has emphasized the importance of reconciliation and healing.
In addition, we would suggest that President Trump, as well as Congress, officially codify the use of the patriotic and more dignified ‘First Americans’ terminology versus the currently used and dated ‘Native Americans’ terminology.
‘First American Day’ on November 16th is a day that the NHL Commissioner and the American President should consider as one of both ‘Historical American & Native American Significance’ and ‘Hockey Significance’.
There is precedence for this since MLB Baseball already celebrates April 15th as a ‘Baseball Significant’ day when African American Jackie Robinson broke the MLB Baseball Color Barrier on April 15th, 1947.
This was 21 years after Taffy Abel broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. Both African American and First American heroes should ‘BOTH’ be fairly honored in a respectful and dignified way. It’s not fair or American to exclude a First American hero as the NHL’s Gary Bettman wishes to do.
Because of NHL Injustices - Egregious Prejudices - Systemic Racism - Orchestrated Silence, the NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the 32 NHL Team Owners & Governors in the United States and Canada have deliberately failed by not celebrating Taffy Abel and November 16th nor undertaking substantive actions to help overcome Systemic Racism against Native Americans in the United States as well as in Canada.
What’s even worse is that Hockey, as with Lacrosse, was originated by Indigenous people many hundreds of years ago in North America, in what is now the United States and Canada.
Both Hockey and Lacrosse are original Indigenous “Creator’s Games” hijacked for profit and to exclude non-white players in White dominated organizations such as with the NHL which started in Canada in 1917.
The NHL and Canadians seek to hide and obscure not only the history of Taffy Abel, but also to hide and obscure the Indigenous origins of Ice Hockey. Where did hockey really start? Die hard and biased White Canadian Nationalists claim it was in Montreal “CANADA” between 1850 to 1880.
Ice Hockey was not "invented" nor “originated” in Montreal by white “CANADAINS”.
"First Americans” invented and originated Lacrosse and Ice Hockey as their sacred and spiritual “Creator’s Games” hundreds of years earlier.
This all seems to be covering over of Indigenous stick-and-ball ice games, particularly those of the Mi'kmaq Indigenous people of Nova Scotia. These Indigenous people are likely the true originators of Ice Hockey in North America … not a group of CANADIAN WHITE NATIONLISTS in Montreal CANADA.
Thanks to the American civil rights movement, racial discrimination was gradually outlawed by the federal government and came to be perceived as socially and morally unacceptable by large elements of American society. The exception is with WHITE DOMINATED organizations such as the NHL.
Contrast the NHL against the MLB celebrating African American Jackie Robinson for breaking the MLB Baseball Color Barrier in 1947. Unlike the NHL’s discriminatory actions against Native American Taffy Abel, the more progressive MLB embraces celebrating the accomplishments of the Black Jackie Robinson in helping to overcome Systemic Racism against African Americans and other minorities in the United States.
MLB Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred met with President Donald Trump at the White House in April 2025. “President Trump is a longtime fan of baseball,” MLB said in a statement. Manfred’s meeting with Trump also comes after the MLB Careers home page removed references to “diversity” in the midst of Trump’s executive orders in recent months aimed at eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the government and trying to do so also in private organizations such as the NHL, MLB, NBA, NFL, Walmart, etc.
Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar criticized Trump’s anti-DEI policies, calling them a “ruse to discriminate.” A key article about Jackie Robinson on the Department of Defense’s website was scrubbed — and later restored — following public outrage.
If President Donald Trump is serious about meaningful relationships with Canada, he should call the NHL’s Gary Bettman into the Oval Office for a meeting and discuss why the NHL and Canadians continue to discriminate against patriotic First American Taffy Abel.
If the Trump - Bettman meeting doesn’t happen, perhaps NHL Sponsors - Advertisers - Broadcasters can have a talk with the NHL about their discriminatory policies regarding First American Taffy Abel.
This ‘Social Injustice & Fairness’ narrative should also take into account how the United States only observes ‘two minor days’ celebrating Native American Heritage and Culture.
Contrast these ‘two minor days’ about Native Americans with the much more widely known ‘major federal holiday’ of Martin Luther King Day which celebrates (on the third Monday in January) the life of an African American Civil Rights leader.
In reality, more days and periods are dedicated to celebrating the history, culture, and achievements of African American people than Native American people.
These African American days and periods include Black History Month in February, Juneteenth, Kwanzaa, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as well as various other holidays and events throughout the year.
Not only the does the federal government and organizations celebrate ‘days’ and ‘months’ for various American minority groups, so does Major Professional Sports League Organizations such as NHL Hockey which celebrates Black History Month.
By a wide margin, the NHL is the least diverse of the Four Major League Sports. The MLB Baseball League has always been much more interested in diversity and integration than the NHL. See additional material about Sports Color Barriers.
Based on some known NHL Commissioner xenophobia biases, the NHL picks and chooses which NHL African American or NHL Native American athlete they will or will not celebrate with a special day such as breaking the NHL Color Barrier.
The NHL African American Willie O’Ree Day has been designated as ‘January 18th’. In addition, the NHL went one step further in 2022 by helping to get Willie O’Ree a prestigious US Congressional Gold Medal while fraudulently supporting the falsehood that he broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958. He did not.
The truth is that the NHL knew, and negligently failed to disclose to Congress, that First American Taffy Abel broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926 on ‘November 16th’. Perhaps President Trump and his DOJ Civil Rights Division should look into this.
The NHL has refused to celebrate with a special day, or any other accolades, NHL Native American Taffy Abel who broke the NHL Color Barrier on ‘November 16th’, 1926.
November 16, 2026 is Taffy’s Centennial of this Color Barrier Braking accomplishment. The NHL is ignoring this 2026 Centennial and trying to erase any history of Taffy Abel as a Heroic and Iconic First American Athlete.
In 1924, Taffy was the Patriotic Native American Winter Olympic Athlete, Hockey Silver Medal winner, Iconic USA Flag Bearer, and the person who broke the Winter Olympic Color Barrier that year.
In 1926, Native American Taffy Abel broke the N.H.L - National Hockey League Color Barrier with the New York Rangers. Between 1926 and 1934, Taffy helped win 2 Stanley Cups. He was one of the first inductees in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. In every sense of the word, he is a Legendary Native American Trailblazer.
The first ‘day’ recognized by the federal government is Indigenous Peoples Day which is celebrated the second Monday in October. It coincides with Columbus Day. Similar to the N.H.L, wanting to erase the Native American history of Taffy Abel, in 2025 President Trump decided to do away with Indigenous Peoples Day.
The second ‘day’ recognized by the federal government is Native American Heritage Day in November which is celebrated each Friday after Thanksgiving.
President Trump should do away these two similar and duplicons days and replace them with one significant ‘First American Day’ on November 16th.
In 2024 two Native American Civil Rights Advocates and Icons were celebrated during their 100-year Centennials of achievement.
In their own ways, each was able to lessen the shackles of Indian Boarding Schools and years of Native American Systemic Racism which President Biden said is one of the most horrific chapters in our Nation’s history. Via his December 9, 2024 Proclamation, President Biden designated a new National Monument in Carlisle, PA honoring the victims of Indian Boarding Schools.
‘Sorry, not Sorry’: Trump administration goes silent on boarding school history details a recent story how President Trump shows his insensitivities toward Native American Culture and Native American Injustices. He can rectify this by declaring ‘First American Day’ on November 16.
Native American Civil Rights Advocate Zitkala-Ša (translated “Red Bird” and also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) 1876-1938 was a member of the Yankton Dakota Sioux on South Dakota’s Yankton Indian Reservation. Her advocacy led to the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted American Indians US citizenship while maintaining their tribal standing. She was also a co-founder of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in 1926. Zitkala-Ša, the Native American Citizenship and Rights Activist is Honored on a New 2024 U.S. Mint Quarter.
First American Ice Hockey Player Clarence “Taffy” Abel 1900-1964, was from the Sault Ste. Marie Michigan Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Taffy was the first Native American in the 1924 Winter Olympics where he won a Hockey Silver Medal and was also the patriotic USA Flag Bearer. In 1926 he broke the NHL Color Barrier and was the first Native American in the National Hockey League where he helped win 2 Stanley Cups.
He broke the NHL Hockey Color Barrier in 1926 long before African American Jackie Robinson broke the MLB Baseball Color Barrier in 1947.
The first NHL African American player debuted in 1958, 32 tears after NHL Native American Taffy Abel debuted in 1926.
While the NHL honors Willie O’Ree as the first African American NHL player, the discriminating NHL organization and 32 Team Owners refuse to honor Taffy Abel, the first Native American NHL player. That’s like MLB Baseball not honoring Jackie Robinson for breaking the Baseball Color Barrier.
To survive and make a living, Taffy knew he had to live and work in three nations and cultures. Navigating his original Native Chippewa Culture, growing up in the White American Segregationist Culture and then working in the Racist NHL Hockey Culture.
In ways similar to Zitkala-Ša, Taffy Abel was also a Civil Rights advocate for Native Americans. As a Sports Trailblazer he advocated for Native American rights on their own terms, not just the majority White man’s terms. His true and inspirational story continues below as told by his nephew, George Jones, a Native American Hockey Historian.
Native American Heritage Month was designated to be the month of November by President George H. W. Bush in 1990. In 2024, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation reaffirming it and said: “We honor the history, rich cultures, and vast contributions of Native American people.”
Biden added: “I have always believed that we must know the good, the bad, and the truth of who we are as a Nation and the people and institutions that make up our nation — we must acknowledge our history so that we can begin to remember and heal. That is why I became the first President to issue a formal apology for the Federal Indian Boarding School era, one of the most horrific chapters in our Nation’s history.”
“For 150 years, the Federal Government mandated the removal of Native children from their families and Tribes — and as a result, generations of Native children had their childhoods stolen and many vestiges of Native American Culture were erased.”
The Taffy Abel family and Native American people are awaiting a formal apology from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Racist NHL for the NHL Indian Exclusion era and the ongoing era of Native American Cultural Erasure of NHL players such as Taffy Abel.
This is prime evidence of the NHL and Bettman’s hypocritical “Cancel Culture” toward Taffy Abel and Native Americans.
So that we may remember and heal, this website describes this sad NHL chapter which is also one of the most horrific chapters in our Nation’s history as well as in the annals 0f Major Sports Leagues.
In 1905, the parents of 5-year-old Clarence “Taffy” Abel, a Native American Chippewa Citizen and US Citizen, from Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, did not wish to see their only son have his childhood stolen by being taken from his family and then sent away to an Indian Boarding School. They took action and saved their son. Their son studied hard in school and learned to play hockey with a warrior like determination.
Taffy started playing neighborhood back yard Ice Hockey before 1915 (Taffy is 2nd from left). Taffy played in the 1919 USA Amateur Hockey Championship and his Field National (aka Soo Indians) team from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan were the winners. (Taffy in the right bottom section of photo). In 1920 Taffy’s father passed away leaving only Taffy to support his family. He supported his family by going to Minnesota where he played Hockey and worked as an ice sweeper.
Then in the 1924 Winter Olympics, Taffy won a Silver Medal for Team USA in Ice Hockey. He was the first Native American athlete in the Winter Olympics just as 12 years earlier Jim Thorpe had been the first Native American athlete in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Patriotic Taffy Abel is widely noted for being the first and only Native American USA Flag Bearer in either the Winter Olympics or the Summer Olympics. This was quite an accomplishment.
Trailblazing Taffy Abel was the first Native American NHL Hockey Player in 1926 and broke the NHL Color Bearer on November 16, 1926 with the New York Rangers.
He also played for the Chicago Blackhawks and retired from the NHL in 1935. He won 2 Stanley Cups and played 333 NHL games as a Defenseman. In 1973 he was posthumously inducted into the very first class of the US Hockey Hall of Fame. His hometown named a 4000 seat Hockey Arena to honor him.
With a warrior like determination, Taffy did all this while the odds were stacked against him. That’s the true Native American warrior tradition that words alone can only start to tell a small part of such a wonderful and courageous story.
Taffy Abel was both a fearless Hockey Defenseman - a fearless Indian Warrior - a Courageous US Citizen who believed in Christain D.E.I. - Decency, Empathy, Integrity. He’s a Native American Hero.
Long before African American Hero Jackie Robinson broke the MLB Baseball Color Barrier in 1947, there was the NHL Hockey First American Taffy Abel breaking the NHL Hockey Color Barrier in 1926.
Every year on April 15th, the MLB and the country celebrates African American Jackie Robinson ‘Day’. However, the NHL organization, 32 NHL Team Owners, sports media and others do not celebrate Native American Taffy Abel on any ‘Day’ let alone on November 16th when he broke a Major Sports Color Barrier.
In a shameful and discriminatory manner, the NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has refused to publicly honor Native American Taffy Abel for breaking the NHL Color Bearer in 1926.
Instead, the NHL Commissioner falsely implies it was an African American NHL player in 1958 who broke the NHL Color Bearer and who is most deserving of a US Congressional Gold Medal as a NHL Player. A serious journalist should rigorously question Gary Bettman and each of the 32 NHL Team Owners why they are engaging in their discriminatory behavior of Native American Injustice.
Most Native American Historians are familiar with the difficult times brought about from unrelenting Systemic Racism against Native Americans in the early 1900s and that many Native Americans elected not to disclose their Indigenous heritage or used Racial Passing to be perceived as a White.
Some Native people, if they could because of their lighter skin color, would ‘pass’ as a White person. Out of necessity and survival, Taffy Abel did not disclose his Indigenous heritage and utilized racial passing until 1939 after his Chippewa mother had passed and after he had retired from the NHL in 1935.
Taffy knew that to win in high level NHL Whites Only Hockey in the early 1900s he needed to have 3 things going for him: FIRST: Warrior like Courage. SECOND: Great Hockey Skills. THIRD: Be perceived as coming from the White Race. He knew that to win in the NHL White Man’s game of hockey, his first priority was to get into the game.
Clarence John Abel, aka “Taffy Abel, was born on May 28, 1900, in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan USA as an American Citizen and as a Native American Citizen of the Sault Chippewa (Ojibwe) sovereign nation.
Taffy along with his mother and sister are officially listed as Native American Chippewa in the official US Government 1908 Durant Census Rolls for Native Americans. Street address 311 W Spruce St.
In the 1910 US Census Clarence ‘Taffy’ Abel is listed as a White at 311 W Spruce St.
The Taffy Abel 1918 WWI Draft Card also has the 311 W Spruce St. address.
His allegiances were to two nations, and he had to courageously balance those 2 allegiances along with the allegiances to the NHL controlled Hockey nation. He knew that to ‘play the game’ of hockey at a high level, you must first ‘get yourself into the game’. Because the racially biased NHL and society in the early 1900s would not help him get into the game, he had to use his courage and wile and do it by himself.
In the 1924 Winter Olympics he was the patriotic USA Flag Bearer. A flag that both Americans and Native Americans pledge allegiance to with the promise of liberty and justice for all.
He received the nickname "Taffy" because he would sneak taffy into school. He received the “Michigan Mountain” nickname in the press because of his towering size and ferocity as a Hockey Defenseman. Taffy Abel’s Motto: “I’m in the business of Winning” and he knew how to talk the talk as well as to walk and skate the talk.
Native Americans or First Americans were the first or original Americas people in North America. In Canada, Indigenous people are called the First Nations people.
The Native American ancestors of Taffy Abel were in North America long before White colonizers arrived.
In life, as well as in the afterlife, Native Americans, including Taffy Abel, have faced great discrimination and years of systemic racism. This is particularly true for Taffy Abel, the Native American Ice Hockey Trailblazer and Hero in the Olympics as well as in the NHL.
The first achievements by Native Americans, as well as other minority groups, in diverse sports fields have historically marked footholds, often, but not always immediately, leading over time to more widespread cultural and societal change. The shorthand phrase for this is "breaking the color barrier" or “crossing the color line”.
Native Americans have been a rarity in the Summer Olympics, Winter Olympics and Major Professional Sports Leagues in all Sports Categories.
In the Winter Olympics for the Ice Hockey Category over the past 100 years, there have only been 3 Olympic Native American Ice Hockey Medalists. Taffy Abel was the first in 1924 and broke the Winter Olympic color barrier that year, then nearly 50 years later Henry Boucha in 1972, and then 90 years later T.J. Oshie in 2014.
Taffy Abel went on to break the NHL color barrier in 1926. Stellar accomplishments for any American athlete and even more stellar for a First American athlete.
Even rarer is when a First American athlete is chosen as the USA Flag Bearer in the Olympics as Taffy Abel was in 1924. Here’s a list of USA Olympic Flag Bearers. Taffy Abel has been the only official Native American male USA Flag Bearer in either the Summer Olympics or the Winter Olympics.
In addition, he has been the only Hockey athlete to be a USA Flag Bearer in Winter Olympic history. This is something the NHL and the NHL Commissioner should be proud of … but they are not. By contrast, NBA Basketball was proud when African American Labron James was selected as the USA Flag Bearer for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Taffy began his Hockey career in Michigan and helped make Hockey popular there and then helped make Hockey popular in Minnesota and then New York and Illinois. He played in Minnesota prior to and right after the 1924 Winter Olympics. Both Boucha and Oshie also have Minnesota Hockey origins.
The main reasons for such low Native American numbers in Hockey are Systemic Racism at the professional NHL level and at the amateur USA Hockey level. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and his lieutenants tightly control both organizations as well as the US Hockey Hall of Fame.
As examples of playing the ‘race card’ to fill seats, the NHL in 1926, invented “fake named” Jewish and Italian hockey players to attract a greater number of Jewish and Italian fans in New York.
In 2022, just as in 1926, the NHL invented a fake story to help sportswash their poor D.E.I. record and low racial diversity in their nearly all-White fan base. The NHL falsely invented the story that an African American in 1958 broke the NHL Color Bearer in an effort to attract a greater number of Black Hockey fans across the U.S.
The NHL then falsely and deceptively helped this Black 1958 NHL player to get a prestigious US Congressional Gold Medal in 2022 for supposedly breaking the NHL Color Bearer and becoming the “Jackie Robinson of Hockey”. To do all this, the NHL had to throw a noble and patriotic First American under the bus. That was Taffy Abel my uncle.
Ice Hockey is a sport, like Lacrosse, which North American Indigenous people invented and played.
To this day, the discriminatory NHL promotes a false notion that some White men in Canada in the late 1800s invented Ice Hockey. They did not.
Against the multi billion dollar NHL organization, this is a cultural survival saga as well as a struggle for racial justice for a Trailblazing First American … Taffy Abel, the Michigan Mountain.
To this day in his afterlife, many leaders in the NHL and USA Hockey have sought to, but failed to, kill Taffy’s legacy and accomplishments by ignoring with silence, disparaging or embellishing historical reality. This is egregiously shameful behavior by a major league sports organization.
Hence, we can call this Native American Cultural Genocidal story the “Killers of the Michigan Mountain”.
NHL leaders such as Gary Bettman and USA Hockey President Mike Trimboli have declared a virtual war on Taffy Abel’s legacy because of his First American heritage.
They both consciously elected not to significantly honor First American Taffy Abel’s Olympic Centennial in 2024 while at the same time honoring Frederic McLaughlin as the founder of the Chicago Blackhawks and who designed the racist logo that the NCAI and others object to. It’s shameful and far from racial justice. It’s racism pure and simple.
When Taffy Abel broke the NHL Color Bearer in 1926, and two years earlier won an Olympic Silver Medal and was the patriotic USA Flag Bearer in the 1924 Winter Olympics, and on the Centennial in 2024, it should be a time for the NHL and USA Hockey and the nation to celebrate and reflect on those moments of national pride for a patriotic First American.
But the NHL does nothing and instead invents a false story about an African American breaking the NHL Color Bearer in 1958 … and gets him awarded a US Congressional Gold Medal. That’s Sportswashing and Deceitful and Shameful.
And even more so on the 100th year Winter Olympic Centennial in 2024, with the NHL and USA Hockey “definitely knowing Taffy Abel was a Native American.” Adding to this importance is the fact that Taffy Abel was also the iconic and patriotic First American USA Flag Bearer in the Olympics. Such makes the NHL and USA Hockey un-patriotic when they fail to honor a USA Flag Bearer such as Taffy Abel.
In 1924 and 1926, because of racist times then, this honorable and Christian First American had to pass as a White man to compete in the Olympics as well as in the NHL.
In other words, Taffy was forced to not expose or identify his First American heritage. We now know the true and courageous story that Taffy Abel was a Native American hero and times have changed in the USA about racial diversity … but not for some racist leaders in the NHL and USA Hockey.
Some senior leaders in the NHL and USA Hockey do not wish to celebrate Taffy Abel and in doing so they perpetuate a form of Cultural Genocide against Native American people.
Only one of the 32 NHL Teams has informally recognized the Olympic Centennial of Taffy Abel. They speak with a straight and honest tongue while others in the NHL and USA Hockey continue to speak with forked tongues or no tongues at all regarding Taffy Abel.
It’s helpful to read this first on what a journalist with the NHL Washington Capitals said on November 28, 2023 about Taffy Abel. T.J. Oshie is presently the only American born First American in the NHL. He plays for the Washington Capitals.
The Capital’s Owners, Ted Leonsis and Dick Patrick, got it RIGHT in honoring the trailblazing legacy of Native American Taffy Abel in the Winter Olympics and in the NHL. It’s disappointing that Gary Bettman and others in the NHL and USA Hockey have failed to get it Right about Taffy Abel.
Taffy Abel, the Indian Hockey Hero, was the first Native American Winter Olympian in 1924. It is important to note that the NHL Washington Capitals has courageously said in writing that Taffy Abel was the first Native American in the NHL and broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. Why can’t the rest of the NHL and Gary Bettman also tell the truth?
The 1924 Winter Olympic Centennial was celebrated starting January 25, 2024.
Taffy Abel won a Silver Medal in Hockey that could have been the Gold in 1924. More here about how the 1924 USA Hockey organizers failed to stress ‘teamwork’ in the Team Sport of Hockey. The USA Hockey organizers did such a poor job in 1924 that the USA did not even field a Hockey Team at the 1928 Winter Olympics.
Taffy was also the first Native American NHL Player in 1926 and played 333 NHL games and winning 2 Stanley Cups. Taffy Abel broke the NHL Hockey Color Barrier in 1926 long before African American Jackie Robinson broke the MLB Baseball Color Barrier in 1947.
A journalist for the Washington Post got it RIGHT about Taffy Abel and told the true story how he got into the Olympics and the NHL. Taffy Abel had to pass as a White man starting in 1905 to escape going to the infamous Indian Boarding Schools … their slogan was “Kill the Indian in him and save the Man”
This article by a prominent French Journalist explains about Taffy Abel from a European perspective and the first ever Winter Olympics in Chamonix France on January 25, 1924. This French Journalist also got it RIGHT.
Then there is this 1-25-2024 article by Eric Zweig, one of the most respected Hockey Historians and Hockey Authors out there. This esteemed Hockey Historian also got it RIGHT.
More importantly he says the NHL should honor Taffy Abel as do other commentors such as Roger Godin from the US Hockey Hall of Fame: “I do think the NHL should recognize his unique status.”
In addition, there’s this 1-25-2024 Winter Olympic Centennial Article by Stephen Smith, another of the most admired Hockey Historians and Hockey Authors. This respected Hockey Historian also got it RIGHT for a noble Native American Hockey Athlete. "Waving the American flag was his teammate, Taffy Abel, 23, who would go on to a long and distinguished career with the New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks. Of Chippewa background, he’s now generally recognized as the NHL’s first Indigenous player. He remains the only Indigenous athlete to have borne the Stars and Stripes at an Olympics."
The Governor of Michigan and the Mayor of Sault Ste Marie, MI and the Native American Chippewa Tribe also got it RIGHT about Taffy Abel, the Michigan Mountain.
An esteemed U.S. Congressman from Michigan got it RIGHT about Taffy Abel.
U.S. President Joe Biden and the Whitehouse got it RIGHT about Taffy Abel.
The Smithsonian in Washington DC also got it RIGHT.
The US National Archives in Washington DC has also got it RIGHT about Taffy Abel.
With an Instagram posting, the Native American Museum in Washington DC also got it RIGHT.
The US Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs also got it D.E.I. RIGHT.
In Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the LSSU Lakers Hockey Team at the Taffy Abel Arena, on January 26, 2024 got it RIGHT by winning their game 3 to 1 in honor of Taffy Abel on his Olympic Centennial. VIDEO
Newspapers across the country got it RIGHT about Taffy Abel.
However, all these RIGHTS showing RACIAL JUSTICE for a Native American Hockey Hero mean nothing to a man in New York City.
This man in New York City has got it historically, morally and ethically VERY WRONG. The NHL Commissioner’s stance and justifications for doing so are just weird. We know of no other Major League Sports Commissioner who has done similar racist things. That is certainly Not Racial Justice for a Native American Sports Icon.
It’s Institutional Racism by the billion-dollar NHL Sports Organization headed up by a dated NHL Commissioner.
The NHL’s Very Wrong stance is more than just bad and more than un-just.
It’s the Hockey equivalent of not having honored a Native American athletic hero from the 1912 Summer Olympics, Jim Thorpe just because of his Native American race.
In ‘his’ NHL World, this dated NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, appears to be solely favoring a hockey player from the African American race and there is no room to include, or be Inclusive, with a player from the smaller and more oppressed First American race.
That’s egregiously concerning and tantamount to declaring a Race War on the Native American Community and throwing the patriotic Native American and Olympian Taffy Abel under the bus.
It’s similar to the sinister and the corrupt plot by White persons against Native Americans in the Killers of the Flower Moon. "But there are lessons offered by “Killers” that have been overlooked, unexpected lessons about empathy, the soul of the American public and how a reckoning with American colonialism must begin.”
Shamelessly the NHL and USA Hockey (funded by the NHL) and the US HHOF (supported by USA Hockey) intentionally and maliciously did not formally honor, on the Winter Olympic Centennial or at any time, the patriotic Hockey Olympian, Taffy Abel, as the first Native American in Winter Olympic history.
To add insult to injury, the NHL - USA Hockey - US HHOF enterprise elected to honor Frederic Mclaughlin from the Chicago Blackhawks who came up with the racist and native themed Blackhawk name and logo.
The NHL has honored the first African American in the NHL by falsely implying to the media and Congressional Members he broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958 and then spent an estimated $1Mil+ in 2022 to help him get awarded a US Congressional Gold Medal despite having played in only 45 NHL games and winning no Stanley Cups. This is a major scandal, and reporters should closely investigate and revisit the awarding of this particular US Congressional Gold Medal.
Congress has awarded only one Congressional Gold Medal to a Hockey player, and they got it wrong because of false or misleading information provided by the NHL.
The NHL Commissioner and the NHL Board of Governors ‘could have’ and ‘should have’ done the RIGHT THING and equally honored Native American Taffy Abel in the modern spirit of Racial Justice.
However, they did not and it now appears they believe it is morally and ethically OK in eliminating the “I” for Indigenous from BIPOC. This is Cultural Erasure.
So, we ask, when will the NHL Commissioner and the NHL 32 Board of Governor members meaningfully and formally honor the legacy of Native American Taffy Abel as the “first” Native American athlete in the Winter Olympics and the “first” Native American athlete in the NHL?
What do NHL Advertisers - Sponsors - TV Network broadcasters have to say on this? What do members of Congress have to say on this? Do they condone the NHL’s egregious and racist behavior?
We think the Executive Committee of the NHL Board of Governors is taking a hardline and belligerent stance and will continue to dishonor Taffy Abel. We have irrefutable evidence on this, including, the Heroic Hockey Journalist and Book Author Stan Fischler, who told the truth, got the initial go ahead to write a NHL.com story honoring Native American Taffy Abel on his Olympic Centennial, then that story got TOMAHAWKED by someone at the highest levels at the NHL Headquarters in New York.
This is the same old ‘Capture and Kill’ MO that Donald Trump and others with power, influence, and money have used to protect themselves from unflattering news stories.
We think it now appears that the NHL Commissioner does not want the media to question his wisdom in spending more than $1 million in 2022 to get (buy) an African American NHL Player a US Congressional Gold Medal for saying, ‘without facts and evidence’, that this person was the first NHL player to break the NHL Color Barrier.
Native American Taffy Abel debuted with the NHL New York Rangers in 1926 and broke the NHL Color Barrier that year. That’s a ‘fact’ the NHL wants hidden.
We do not think the Cartel like NHL also stands for the National History League and that they can churn out their own self-serving Hockey History Fantasies.
The NHL Hockey brass think they can dictate their own version of Hockey History so as to make the mainly White NHL appear more diverse than it really is by trampling the legacy of a Native American Hockey Hero. At the leadership and player level and fan level, the NHL is by far the least diverse major American sports league.
The NHL Commissioner and NHL Governors are making a Custer like mistake in taking on Indian Country and tarnishing the legacy of Taffy Abel.
People get rightfully upset when rich and powerful people disparage or try to diminish those in the Native American race or any other minority race.
The NHL Commissioner should ask the former NFL Team owner, Dan Snyder about his Washington Redskins controversy.
We predict the NHL will be looking for a Crisis Management consultant and a new NHL Commissioner.
There’s no doubt that the “Old NHL” discriminated against non-white hockey players who were Black, Asian or Native American just because of their race and skin color.
And now in 2024 and 2025 the “New Bettman NHL”, with their cynical “Hockey is for Everyone” PR slogan, is discriminating against a patriotic Native American Hero, Taffy Abel, the Michigan Mountain.
We and others are calling for a US Congressional Investigation and Hearing about the NHL. Let the arrows fall where they may.
The NHL the Chicago Blackhawks already owe Taffy Abel $88.33 backpay from 1935. That's $2,195.91 in 2025 dollars and enough to get a family into a pricey NHL Game and buy some popcorn and hockey toys. The middle of the Great Depression was in 1935. In 1934, Taffy Abel helped the Blackhawks win their first Stanley Cup. Nice way to treat star athletes by not paying them.
We would like to see the NHL Commissioner and the Chicago Blackhawk Wirtz family pay this debt by donating $2195 to a Native American youth organization in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to purchase Hockey Equipment. Just run the $2195 through the NHL Foundation and get a tax write-off like billionaire NHL Team Owners can.
Taffy Abel was invited to be on the 1920 Winter Olympic Hockey Team. He could not go in 1920 because he was poor and did not have the money. This article provides the details.
However, the 1924 Winter Olympics was a different story when his friends donated money to get him to the Winter Olympics in France.
Taffy Abel was the first Native American (Ojibwe) ice hockey player in the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France where he won a Silver Medal on February 3, 1924. Sailing to Cherbourg, France from New York on January 9, 1924 aboard the SS President Garfield, Taffy wrote a letter home on January 19, 1924 saying the team moto was ‘Beat Canada’. Taffy did not like the elitist White Canadian Hockey Players.
Seems that as it is now in 2024, 100 years ago in 1924, Canadians didn’t like American Hockey Players.
Canadian Conn Smythe, on January 4, 1924 while in Boston, commented on Taffy Abel and how it was getting harder for Canadian Hockey Teams to win when playing American Hockey Teams.
From Cherbourg, the USA Hockey Team took a train to Paris. Then a day later a train to Chamonix where on January 25, 1924 Native American Taffy Abel took the Olympic Oath and was the USA Flag Bearer. See this rare 1924 Winter Olympic video.
Taffy returned to the USA Port of New York on February 13, 1924.
He received a hero’s welcome on February 18, 1924 upon arriving back to his home in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan USA.
Taffy is the Winter Olympic counterpart to his distant Native American (Sauk / Sac) cousin Jim Thorpe who was the first notable Gold Medalist Native American in the 1912 Summer Olympics. Less notable, but the first Native American in a Summer Olympics, was Frank Pierce (Seneca) in the marathon held in 1904 in St. louis. He did not finish the race or medal.
A report by the International Olympic Commission (IOC) verifies that Taffy Abel was the first Native American / Indigenous athlete in the Winter Olympics in 1924. As noted in the above photo, he was also the patriotic Team USA Flag Bearer and took the Olympic Oath for all the American Winter Olympians.
He remains the only Native American USA Flag Bearer in either the Summer Olympics or the Winter Olympics.
Because of his stellar play in the Olympics, Taffy Abel then became the first Native American ice hockey player in the NHL on November 16, 1926. He broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926 becoming the first non-white player in the league when he played for the New York Rangers. Gary Bettman wants us to ignore this vital part of NHL History.
Immediately after the 1924 Winter Olympics, Taffy was in demand in professional hockey and was offered $4000 by a New York agent of Tex Rickard on March 16, 1924 and turned it down. The New York Rangers were not even officially in the NHL at that time in 1924.
A peer reviewed story and verified bio at the Society of International Hockey Research (SIHR) confirms Taffy Abel was the first NHL Native American Player and broke the NHL Color Barrier on November 16, 1926 in a historic game against a Canadian Team. The Canadian Team was the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Montreal Maroons, and Taffy got payback against Canada by beating them 1 to nothing.
As White explorers sought to colonize native lands and diminish the native presence, courageous Native Americans such as Taffy Abel responded in various ways to survive, assimilate and be accepted ‘on their own terms’ in the new White world.
Such a task was particularly hard in both the White ruled Winter Olympics and even harder in the White ruled NHL klannish cartel.
This website is about the courageous survival story of a noble Native American warrior, Taffy Abel, and how past and current White leaders of USA Hockey and the NHL seem to be using sophisticated amnesia (ghosting - cultural genocide - no comment responses) with the intent to culturally erase his Native American legacy and accomplishments.
We hope this strange - cruel - undeserved abysmal D.E.I. attitude toward Native Americans will cease and that the NHL Commissioner will be held to account for his key antagonist role in “Killers of the Michigan Mountain”.
The NHL and USA Hockey are pushing their two false narratives. Number one, that an African American broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958. Number two, that NHL Hockey Origins had no Indigenous background … it was all White men.
Systemic Racism in the NHL existed in 1926 when Taffy Abel started with the NHL and it exists now in 2025 some 100 years later.
Ice Hockey in North America grew out of Ice Lacrosse (Baggataway) among northern Indigenous tribes and was well established before Whites entered the sport and excluded Indigenous players. William George Beers from Montreal held prejudices against Indigenous people. Beers held a prejudicial notion that he and other Canadian White men created and developed Lacrosse (The National Summer Sport of Canada). Beers 1860 & 1869 Lacrosse Rules Section 6 says "No Indian must play in a match for a white club, unless previously agreed upon.” That’s racial segregation and discrimination.
Such Anti-Indigenous prejudices reappeared again in 1875 when White Canadian men, such as James Creighton, were writing the rules of ‘Modern Ice Hockey” for The National Winter Sport of Canada. Then again in 1917 when the NHL, National Hockey League, was founded in Montreal. There are 32 NHL Teams with 25 in the United States and 7 in Canada.
Out of 7826 NHL Players from 1917 to 2023, there have only been 8 (0.1%) USA Native American NHL Hockey Players. This 0.1% for Native American athletes is by far the lowest for any Major League Sport. In other words, the NHL has historically discriminated against Native American athletes!
Circa 1749, history shows that early forms of Ice Hockey in Canada began as an Indigenous Winter Sport. The Mi’kmaq indigenous people of Nova Scotia played hockey and carved hockey sticks. All the players were Indigenous.
On March 3, 1875, the first organized indoor Hockey Game was played at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink. James Creighton, a White Canadian, is credited with organizing this first recorded indoor ice hockey match. McGill University players were on a hockey team. All the players were White. It is important to note that Indigenous Mi’kmaq hockey sticks were used … but there was no Indigenous hockey players allowed.
In 1917 the National Hockey League (NHL) was founded by a group of White Canadian men led by NHL President Frank Calder and since then the klannish NHL has been a predominantly White sport. That’s racial segregation and discrimination. Nonwhite players in the NHL are a rarity and systemic racial discrimination plays a significant role in this rarity.
From 1917 to 2024 there have only been 100 NHL Indigenous hockey players from Canada (91), USA (8), Sweden (1). Click on the link and see their names and when they debuted in the NHL.
Out of 7826 NHL Players from 1917 to 2023, there have only been 8 (0.1%) USA Native American NHL Hockey Players. Taffy Abel was the ‘first’ NHL Native American player in 1926, played 8 years and in 333 NHL Games, won 2 Stanley Cups. The ‘second’ NHL Native American player was in 1972 … some 46 long years after Taffy Abel in 1926.
Out of 380 USA Hockey Olympic Players from 1924 to 2022. there have only been 3 (0.7%) USA Native American Olympic Hockey Players. All 3 are Ojibwe. Taffy Abel was the ‘first’ in 1924. He won a Silver Medal and was also the USA Flag Bearer.
T.J. Oshie with the Washington Capitals is presently the only NHL Native American player in the NHL out of 736 active roster NHL Players. This is a mere 0.1% of active NHL players. This 0.1% is even more striking when one considers that Native Americans comprise about 3% of USA’s population. Oshie competed in the 2014 Winter Olympics where he won a Silver Medal. He also won a Stanley Cup in 2018.
This photo of Abel and Oshie as Hockey Trailblazers is at the prestigious US National Archives in Washington DC. It helps illustrate both the NHL and USA Hockey lack of substantial progress toward recruiting and including more Native American players in their organizations. The US Congress has oversight responsibility in this area with the Ted Stevens Act and should hold hearings why Native American youth are so grossly underrepresented in playing hockey as members of USA Hockey and lessening their chances to compete in the Winter Olympics.
Clearly for Native Americans, the Slick NHL PR slogan of ‘Hockey is for Everyone’ is not working that well. Likewise, USA Hockey’s diversity and inclusion goals for young Native Americans are not working.
January 25, 2024 was the Centennial Anniversary for Taffy Abel as the first Native American Winter Olympian. The NHL did nothing to formally or significantly honor Taffy Abel on that day. The NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the USA Hockey President Mike Trimboli could have taken a major step forward in recognizing past and present marginalization of Native American hockey players and the anti-Indigenous racism (AIR) that has been perpetrated at the highest levels in the NHL and USA Hockey. A simple ‘no comment’ will not work because silence is the stealthy new racism.
For a Major League Sport, the NHL is at the bottom of the pack on this D.E.I. reconciliation issue for Native Americans. The NHL is also at the bottom in attracting new and diverse fans.
All this should be very concerning to companies that want to advertise with the NHL or pay a ton of money to be an Official NHL Sponsor or Broadcaster.
In 2022, the NHL honored the ‘first’ African American hockey player who debuted in 1958 and who played a meager 45 NHL games. We applaud that honor.
However to date, the NHL has failed to significantly honor the ‘first’ Native American player, Taffy Abel, who debuted in 1926 and who played 333 NHL games and won 2 Stanley Cups. In the 1924 Winter Olympics, he was the Team USA Flag Bearer, Hockey Team Captain, scored an amazing 15 goals and won a Silver Medal in Hockey.
The prestigious US National Archives, the Smithsonian, and others have all honored Taffy Abel as a Sports Trailblazer… but not the NHL in a meaningful way while cynically boasting ‘Hockey is for Everyone’.
Learn more about Native American History and view a timeline at the History Channel.
“Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History” - Ned Blackhawk. Ned Black, Native American Historian at Yale says: "White settlers, White leaders (Gary Bettman) and White historians have formed the historic center of our national story and have done so at the expense of the first Americas people—Native peoples—who have remained consistently excluded from the continent’s history. Either as hostile impediments or romanticized peoples awaiting discovery, American Indians appear as passive subjects in a larger drama, understudies in the very dramas remaking their homelands … and their sports”
"Scholars have recently come to view African-American slavery as central to the making of America, but few have seen Native Americans in a similar light."
In our “Killers of the Michigan Mountain” story about Native American Taffy Abel we use the terms First American / Native American / American Indian (USA) and First Nations (CAN) when discussing the Indigenous Heritage of Ice Hockey Players.
Native American Taffy Abel and his Firsts
In 1905, Taffy Abel had to pass as a white to avoid being sent to an Indian Boarding School. Such Schools have been described as ‘12 Years of Hell’ Over 973 Native American children died while attending Federal Indian boarding schools. There are also survivors of these Indian Boarding Schools as well as escapees and no-shows such as Taffy Abel who had to give up part of their Native American culture to survive.
It’s shameful that the NHL ignores this part of Taffy Abel’s Native American life. In doing so, they become key players in the “Killers and the Michigan Mountain”.
Taffy Abel was ‘The First’ Native American USA Olympic Hockey Player in 1924. Taffy Abel was ‘The First’ Native American USA Olympic Flag Bearer in 1924. Taffy Abel was ‘The First’ Native American NHL™ Player in 1926. Taffy Abel was ‘The First’ NHL Player to break the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. Taffy Abel was ‘The First’ NHL Native American to win Stanley Cups in 1928 & 1934.
In a cruel and biased manner, the NHL and USA Hockey refuse to Significantly Honor Native American Taffy Abel for his Ice Hockey Firsts. These White sports organizations play key roles in the “Killers and the Michigan Mountain” story.
Native Americans say Honor the Past and Embrace the Future
Why has the NHL Commissioner stolen the honor from Native American Taffy Abel for: 1. breaking the NHL Color Barrier in 1926? 2. being the first Native American NHL Player in 1926? The NHL has honored Willie O’Ree as the NHL’s first Black player in 1958, but they have not significantly honored Native American Taffy Abel as the NHL’s first stellar Native American player in 1926. Why?
In addition, from a sports meritocracy perspective, the Indigenous Taffy Abel was by far a much better NHL hockey player: Abel = 333 NHL Games Played vs O’Ree =45; Abel = 2 Stanley Cups vs O’Ree = 0; Abel = 1 Olympic Medal vs O’Ree = 0. Plus, Taffy Abel gave back to the game of hockey after his retirement by coaching - mentoring - inspiring hundreds of young men to get involved in hockey. But all this is not good enough for Gary Bettman and the NHL nor USA Hockey who pretend there is no “I” in BIPOC.
If you are a person interested in Social Justice, you can learn on this website that the NHL has deceptively said that the Black Willie O’Ree broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958 and then, with nearly a $1,000,000 sophisticated lobbying campaign to reshape the NHL’s poor diversity image, encouraged Congress in 2022 to award Willie O’Ree a Congressional Gold Medal which falsely cites and implies O’Ree for breaking the NHL Color Barrier in 1958 … some 32 years after Taffy Abel did in 1926. Recovered documents show this was led by Bettman via his right-hand men Rob Wooley and Jeff Scott.
What Gary Bettman and the NHL have done against Native American Taffy Abel is eerily similar to what bigoted and racist leaders in the IOC Olympics did years ago against Native American Jim Thorpe who won Gold Medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics … but never received them.
Thanks to many courageous Americans, Jim Thorpe finally got justice in 2022. Those denying justice to Native American Taffy Abel in the NHL will not succeed. We believe Congressional Hearings to investigate the NHL and USA Hockey in this matter are needed since it involves a Congressional Gold Medal fraudulently awarded at the behest of the NHL.
In terms of fanbase and employees the NHL is the least diverse of the four major league sports: NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL.
The NHL Commissioner is a White man as are the 32 White billionaire team owners. In the most egregious form of Systemic Racism, lying and purposely promoting one race in favor of another or trying to make Native Americans culturally invisible, the NHL has deliberately elected to throw Native Americans under the bus and cheat Taffy Abel from NHL History, Native American History and American History.
This does not adhere to the NHL’s “Hockey is for Everyone” gimmicky slogan. But rather, this is a blatant form of Cultural Genocide perpetrated by the NHL toward Native Americans which White Nationalists, Project 2025 leaders affiliated with Donald Trump and US foreign adversaries such as China love to point out.
Because NHL Advertisers desire a more diverse TV audience, many firmly believe the NHL intentionally did this Jackie Robinson of Hockey razzle dazzle against Taffy Abel and Native Americans for economic reasons in an effort to attract younger Black hockey fans to the largely White and Nondiverse NHL. Directly from a NHL VP’s mouth, Jeff Scott, there is “smoking gun” evidence shown below to help substantiate this.
There is a history of discrimination and racism in the United States against Native Americans and this epic one by the NHL is the most egregious example in Sports … much worse than a degrading sports team name such as the former Washington Redskins.
NATIVE AMERICAN TIMELINE * MILESTONES * WARRIORS
“One of the Greatest Native American Warriors” Chief Joseph (1877) Nez Perce
“The Memorable” Chief Standing Bear … “I am a man” (1879) Ponca
“The Last” Native American Genocidal Massacre by the US Government (1890) Wounded Knee
“The First” Native American Hockey Player in the NHL, Taffy Abel, was born a Chippewa (aka Ojibwe) Warrior (1900) Sault Ste Marie, MI USA
“The First” Native American / Chippewa in the U.S. Amateur Hockey Assoc., Taffy Abel, (1918 to 1922) Michigan Soo Nationals
“The First” Native American Athlete in the Winter Olympics (Gold Standard), Taffy Abel, (1924) Hockey Silver Medal Olympian
“The First” Native American Hockey Player in the NHL, Taffy Abel, #2 (1926) 11-16-1926 New York Rangers
“The First” Native American with the Chicago Blackhawks, Taffy Abel, #2 (1929) 11-14-1929 Chicago Blackhawks. The NHL Blackhawks Wirtz family has never honored Taffy Abel and his accomplishments as a Native American!
“The First” BIPOC Hockey Player in the NHL to break the Color Barrier, Taffy Abel, (1926) NHL - New York Rangers. This is 32 years before the first Black debuted in the NHL in 1958.
“The First” BIPOC Pro Athlete in the Big Four to break the Color Barrier, Taffy Abel, (1926) NHL - New York Rangers. This is 21 years before African American Jackie Robinson broke the MLB Baseball Color Barrier in 1947.
“The First” Native American Hockey Player to Win two Stanley Cups™, Taffy Abel, (1928 & 1934) Rangers & Blackhawks
“The First” Native American Coach of the amateur Soo Indians Hockey Team, Taffy Abel, (1939 to 1942) Won 3 Championships
“The First” Native American Hockey Player in the NHL honors Lester Patrick, Taffy Abel, (1947) New York City
“The First” Native American Hockey Player in the NHL dies (obit), Taffy Abel, (1964) Sault Ste Marie, MI USA
“The First” Native American in the US Hockey Hall of Fame (USHOF), Taffy Abel, (1973) In the First Inaugural Class (2024) Frederick Mclaughlin, founder of the Chicago Blackhawks and creator of the racist Blackhawk logo (News) is being inducted in 2024 in the USHOF.
“The First” Native American Hockey Player in the NHL with a Hockey Arena Named for Taffy Abel News (1976)
“The First & Only” Native American Hockey Player in the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame. Taffy Abel, (1989)
A Noble Native American Hockey Trailblazer & Hero recognized as such by the Smithsonian, US National Archives Etc. Taffy Abel (1900 to 1964)
Taffy Abel’s Motto: “I’m in the business of winning”
Here’s a patriotic 1924 photo of Taffy Abel representing the United States at the 1924 Winter Olympics in France. It’s really a remarkable photo when you consider that if White Olympic or NHL leaders knew he was a Native American he would have never got into the Olympics in 1924 nor the NHL in 1926.
In 1924, Clarence John Abel from Sault Ste Marie, MI USA became “The First” Native American (Ojibwe) Hockey Player in the Winter Olympics. Known more commonly as Taffy Abel and called the ‘Michigan Mountain’, he won a Silver Medal. He was also the USA Flag Bearer. Because of anti-Indigenous Systemic Racism in the pro NHL and in amateur USA Hockey, there have only been three Native American Hockey Players in the Winter Olympics in the past 100 years. Out of 736 NHL Players in 2024, there is only one active Native American NHL Hockey Player.
The International Olympic Commission (IOC) readily acknowledges and honors Taffy Abel for his Native American heritage and being the USA's first Indigenous ice hockey player. However, the NHL, and USA Hockey, have failed time and again to significantly honor Taffy Abel for breaking the NHL Color Barrier in 1926 or in significantly honoring Taffy Abel on his 100th anniversary in the Winter Olympics in 1924.
This is like MLB Baseball having never honored Jackie Robinson in 1947 for breaking the Baseball Color Barrier.
In addition, the US National Archives in Washington DC credits Taffy Abel for being “The First” Native American in the Winter Olympics - 1924 as well as being “The First” Native American in the NHL - 1926.
These and other credible primary sources, such as at the Smithsonian and Olympedia, d0 unequivocally state that Taffy Abel broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926 and was “The First” Native American in the 1924 Winter Olympics.
After years of research, the leading Hockey Historian Stephen Smith readily acknowledges that Taffy Abel was “The First” Native American in the NHL in 1926 and broke the NHL Color Barrier that year. The Gold Standard for Hockey Research is the SIHR and Stephen Smith is a senior official with SIHR. The prestigious SIHR - Society of International Hockey Research also acknowledges that Taffy Abel was “The First” Native American in the NHL in 1926.
In addition, Naim Cardinal, who is the largest collector and historian of Indigenous Hockey Cards, clearly states that Taffy Abel was “The First” NHL Native American Player in 1926. Hockey Card Collectors are a serious group.
Despite these solid facts and research from numerous independent sources, the biased NHL will not significantly acknowledge that Taffy Abel was “The First” Native American in the NHL and the hockey player who broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. … that’s their Dirty Little Secret they want hidden from the American public.
The NHL wants us all to believe “the NHL” false narrative that Willie O’Ree broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958.
That’s 32 years after Taffy Abel had broken the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
The NHL big lie is similar to Trump saying he won the presidential election in 2020. Plain and simple through their misinformation, it appears the NHL does not like NHL Native Americans - specially Taffy Abel.
The prejudiced NHL will not honor Taffy Abel for “This Native American 1924 First” in the Olympics nor in breaking the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
Someone at the NHL was rumored to say: “I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee on the way to Blackhawks games and that’s all I am going to do in honoring Native Americans”
A former NHL employee has said “There is no “I” in BIPOC” for the NHL brass. This could be lame excuses #1 and #2 by the NHL in failing to honor Indigenous Taffy Abel.
The NHL, whose actions are clearly prejudiced against Native American Taffy Abel in favor of Willie O'Ree, then had a NHL PR hack give the Associated Press their official lame excuse #3 in December 2022 that “their NHL records” on early NHL Native American Players don’t go that far back.
That lame NHL excuse is similar to Trump in lying about the existence of Top-Secret Government documents at his Florida residence. Just as with Trump, Lies - Deception - Misinformation - Coverups is stock and trade of some people.
The NHL wants us all to believe their fantasy version of history that Willie O’Ree broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958. This violates our American core principles of fair play - decency - integrity - honesty. It certainly fails the NHL motto that “Hockey is for Everyone.”
Some think the NHL also stands for the ‘National History League’ and they can distort history as they like.
It’s strange that the NHL.com website DOES have NHL records going far back concerning the first Asian - Canadian NHL Player Larry Kwong from 1948. Even stranger is that the NHL.com website DOES have NHL records going far back concerning the Canadian Indigenous NHL Player Buddy Maracle from 1931.
Maracle was the second Indigenous NHL Player in 1931 because 5 years earlier in 1926 Taffy Abel was the first Indigenous NHL Player.
In regard to the NHL saying they don’t have early Taffy Abel NHL records, we say hogwash to their lame and fantasy excuses to distort history. Check the NHL website and you will find Taffy Abel’s record.
Check the 2022 NHL Twitter postings acknowledging Taffy Abel as a Native American. Check the 2023 NHL Washington Capitals article acknowledging Taffy Abel as the first Native American in the NHL in 1926. USA Hockey 2023. Instead of honestly saying that Taffy Abel was “The First” Native American NHL Player … the NHL deceptively say he was “The First Known” Native American NHL Player. We think they do this to continue their big lie that the African American Willie O’Ree broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958.
Rely on external records provided by NHL Player families. Rely on the US National Archives. Rely on a search of relevant databases, primary documents, books, periodicals, and newspapers. Hire an outside Professional Genealogist if you must. Hire a Professional Hockey Historian if you must. Dust off your NHL archives if you must and then tell the truth to Taffy Abel's Family and Tribe.
Despite numerous requests, the NHL has not provided us any of their research to prove that Taffy Abel was not “The First” NHL Player to break the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
The reason for this NHL deception is likely they know our research is rock solid accurate and they don’t want to face repercussions for negligently and falsely helping get Willie O’Ree get a US Congressional Gold Medal for supposedly breaking the NHL Color Barrier in 1958 … some 32 years “after” Taffy Abel.
In this website and other material provided to the NHL, we have already provided extensive Taffy Abel family and genealogical records, photos and archival records.
We can conclusively prove:
1. Taffy Abel was born a Native American and died a Native American.
2. Taffy Abel made his Winter Olympic Hockey debut on January 25, 1924.
3. Taffy Abel made his NHL debut on November 16, 1926 well before any other Native American NHL Players or any other BIPOC or non-white NHL Players.
4. Taffy Abel was the first BIPOC NHL player and broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. Those records and others have been independently verified.
In addition, we have provided the NHL an expert carefully researched list of 100 Indigenous NHL Players who played one or more official NHL games between 1917 and 2023 sorted by NHL debut date and tribe. Taffy Abel is ranked as “The First” in 1926.
Taffy Abel is listed “First” in 1926 and he played in 333 NHL games between 1926 and 1935.
The 188 NHL players before Taffy Abel were mainly all White Canadians with Euro-Canadian ancestry.
Indigenous players who were just on an NHL roster, and who did not skate in an official NHL game, are not included. We only found one Indigenous player, Paul Jacobs, in that ‘roster only’ category.
We found no African American or Black players in the NHL prior to 1958.
After his superb Olympic hockey performance, Native American Taffy Abel was recruited to the NHL New York Rangers on April 7, 1926 by the now known NHL racist, Conn Smythe, and became “The First” NHL Native American Hockey Player when he formally signed with the Rangers on August 14, 1926.
Smythe and Hammond then went to Canada on April 8, 1926 recruiting other Rangers. What many journalists don’t know is that the Boston Bruins also wanted to sign Taffy Abel.
Taffy Abel made his Professional NHL debut in New York City with the New York Rangers on November 16, 1926. Taffy broke the NHL Color Barrier that day.
In his first NHL game, Taffy and the Rangers Team beat their Canadian opponent, the defending Stanley Cup™ champions, Montreal Maroons. For Taffy, it was sweet payback for the USA having lost the Olympic Gold Medal to Canada in 1924 because USA Hockey leaders such as William Haddock in 1923 failed to recruit the best American players.
The amateur hockey organization, USA Hockey, is largely funded by the NHL and there is a revolving door of cast off NHL people going to USA Hockey from the NHL.
The Canadian counterpart is the scandal ridden Hockey Canada. The NHL largely draws hockey players from USA Hockey and Hockey Canada.
There is no doubt in Hockey Historians verifiable data that the USA born and Native American Taffy Abel officially broke the NHL Color Barrier in that November 16, 1926 NHL game. The 188 NHL players before Taffy Abel were all White Canadiens where Hockey is not only their national sport, but practically their national religion.
The Canadians are extremely partisan against Americans when it comes to hockey.
The NHL and the Canadian government for many years falsely claimed that Fred Sasakamoose, an Indigenous hockey player from Canada, was the NHL’s first Indigenous player because he played a few games with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1953. This was 27 years after Native American Taffy Abel broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. Fact is that Fred was the seventh Indigenous player in the NHL … not the first.
In addition, both Fred Sasakamoose and Willie O’Ree were employed as NHL paid employees to serve as NHL Ambassadors. Shows you how the NHL is biased in favor of Fred and Willie and then greasing the skids and getting Willie that U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.
Now 100 years later, the NHL is refusing significant recognition and respect for Native American Taffy Abel’s November 16, 1926 Color Barrier NHL accomplishment.
While at the same time, the NHL Commissioner honors an NHL player from 1958 and gets him awarded a prestigious Congressional Gold Medal by falsely saying he broke the NHL Color Barrier. If something seems unjust and wrong in this scenario …. it is because it is wrong to most of us .
We don’t think the 32 White NHL Governors and Billionaire Team Owners show integrity when they permit the NHL Commissioner to honor a NHL Trailblazer of one larger ethnic race with a prestigious U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and then show egregious dishonor toward a heroic NHL Trailblazer from the smaller Native American race.
This NHL episode certainly does not bode well for the NHL’s Social Justice reimaging campaign … “Hockey is for Everyone™”.
We will try to explain the NHL dilemma here since they won’t.
Here’s the accepted definition of 'Color Barrier', which was first known as the ‘Color Line’: unspoken social code of racial segregation or discrimination, esp. in sports, education, public service, and the like. Note that the definition says nothing about where Blacks only can break a Color Barrier.
Don’t let anyone tell you that early NHL Team Owners didn’t impose a Color Barrier barring nonwhite Black and Indigenous players … they did and the Herb Carnegie story is one of many examples of NHL Systemic Racism.
Here’s three accepted facts: 1. In 1924, Taffy Abel became the First Native American in the Winter Olympics. 2. Because of his stellar Winter Olympic performance, in 1926, Taffy Abel was the First Native American NHL Player. 3. Taffy Abel broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
We have three questions concerning these accepted and indisputable facts.
Question 1: Why has the National Hockey League Commissioner Bettman failed to sincerely recognize Taffy Abel as the NHL’s “First” Native American player in 1926? Interestingly, he and the NHL do recognize the NHL’s “First” African American player in 1958 as well as the NHL’s “First” Asian player in 1948.
Question 2: Why has the National Hockey League Commissioner failed to recognize Taffy Abel for breaking the NHL™ Color Barrier in 1926? Interestingly, the NHL touts that the NHL’s “First” African American Player broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958 and wrongly helped him get a US Congressional Gold Medal.
Question 3: Why has the NHL staff remained silent and failed to respond to our several private efforts to have Taffy Abel’s November 16, 1926 NHL accomplishments conclusively recognized as barrier breaking? Our efforts are now being made in transparent public ways.
These earlier private ways included a November 16, 2022 private letter and electronic messages sent via various emissaries including a NHL Governor, a NHL DEI Consultant, NHL Associated Press reporters and others. The most recent round was on April 10, 2023 where an NHL Governor promised to contact the NHL’s Gary Bettman. We have not heard from him.
Facts and NHL records prove Native American Taffy Abel alone was the ”First" NHL player to break the NHL Color Barrier on November 16, 1926. Despite what the NHL and the NHL Commissioner proclaim, the NHL Color Barrier was not broken by Willie O’Ree in 1958. Even the Associated Press acknowledges this.
Here, and in the USA, we mostly use the term ‘Native American’ when discussing Indigenous persons. However, according to the National Museum of the American Indian, the term Native American has alternatives, and many Native people prefer American Indian (AI) or Indigenous American and, whenever possible, to be identified by their tribe.
In Canada, they use the term ‘First Nations’ when discussing Indigenous persons.
The “First" achievements by Native Americans or African Americans or any Minority in the field of Sports historically marked footholds, honor, acclaim for significant accomplishments of their race.
A prime example is Jackie Robinson in MLB Baseball. The shorthand phrase for this is "Breaking the Color Barrier" or “Breaking the Color Line”.
Taffy Abel certainly made a significant accomplishment for his Native American community as well as the Professional Hockey community.
This PR inspired NHL event to attract more Black hockey fans, along with heavy lobbying and other expenses (in the $1 million range), resulted in the US Congress awarding Willie O’Ree a 2022 Congressional Gold Medal for among other things, falsely proclaiming he broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958.
Furthermore, even Nancy Pelosi mistakenly on 1-20-2022 said the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal was for Willie O’Ree breaking the NHL Color Barrier. These phony 1958 Color Barrier talking points were the major ones the NHL and their paid lobbyists used on members of Congress to get the Congressional Medal approved.
Here are these phony talking points in writing. The official US Congressional Record on the ‘‘Willie O’Ree Congressional Gold Medal Act’’ repeats the NHL falsehood that Willie O’Ree broke the NHL Color Barrier: "In 2018, 60 years after O’Ree first broke the color barrier for ice hockey ..."
However, the Smithsonian African American Museum does not repeat this color barrier falsehood and only says: "On Jan. 18, 1958, O’Ree became the first Black player in NHL history ..."
Yes, “The first Black player in NHL history” is the correct annotation for Willie O’Ree. That’s the annotation which the Associated Press now uses. We honor Willie for such.
The NHL and NHL Paid Lobbyists started their efforts to get Willie O’Ree a Congressional Gold Medal in 2018 and 2019 when they put together a bus tour promoting Black Hockey History that ended in Washington DC.
“The 525-square-foot mobile museum will also highlight trailblazers like Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player who took to the ice and broke the color barrier in 1958.”
In 2018, the NHL Commissioner helped get himself and Willie O’Ree in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Even the HHOF, an old boys club, repeats the falsehood that Willie O’Ree broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958. “While breaking the colour barrier in the NHL didn't carry the magnitude that Jackie Robinson's debut with baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers did, nevertheless, it was a historic moment in the game's history.”
Like the NHL, the HHOF show no integrity in this matter since they do not honor nor respect a Native American for breaking the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. They are egregiously and shamefully perturbating Cultural Genocide against Indigenous people.
The NHL’s Black Kim Davis helped head this up along with consulting advice in 2018 from demographer William Frey.
This is when the NHL’s feeble attempts under Kim Davis to attract more Black Hockey fans launched because the NHL was realizing that Whites, and NHL White Hockey Fans, would be in a minority by about 2040. That’s not good for the NHL $$$ bottom-line benefitting billionaire NHL team owners .
A Congressional Gold Medal in the past has been earned and awarded to individuals on the merit of their exemplary service and contributions to the American people.
But here, the NHL and their paid lobbyists subverted this process to help burnish the NHL’s faltering brand and reputation as being a ‘real diverse’ sports organization in order to attract more Black hockey fans. That is clearly a commercial purpose and as such it tarnishes the prestige of a Congressional Gold Medal.
In addition, the NHL’s Black Jeff Scott has said the NHL favored the living Black Willie O’Ree versus other deserving Trailblazing NHL Players. "For the second part, the NHL decided they needed a compelling story to share with officials that was not only inspirational, but also advanced their cause. That’s where NHL legend Willie O’Ree comes into the story."
Scott also says: “There’s a first indigenous players in our game, you know, like Taffy Abel, right?” That’s one of the smoking guns against Bettman and the NHL. We have others.
We think the Taffy Abel Native American story is at least 10 times more compelling and inspirational than that of Willie O’Ree. But, the NHL put their $1,000,000 on Willie and then tried to Culturally Erase Taffy Abel. That’s shameful and morally bankrupt.
If that were done by a President of an American Corporation there would be calls for his resignation or firing and the same should hold true at a Sports organization such as the NHL.
Here’s a Quorum Public Affairs “smoking gun” transcript on how the NHL orchestrated and funded a campaign to convince Congress to award the Black Willie O’Ree a Congressional Gold Medal for breaking the NHL Color Barrier. This is some clear evidence for the American people that well-funded organizations like the NHL can buy a Congressional Gold Medal just as they can influence tax legislation that favors the rich class of NHL Team owners with better tax rates versus the working class.
This NHL sportswashing debacle is similar in ways to the Saudi Arabi government spending tons of money on sports such as PGA Golf to burnish / sportswash their reputation after killing a Washington Post reporter. In the NHL case, they did a Cultural Genocide kill job on Taffy Abel.
Willie O’Ree won zero Stanley Cups™ and played in only 45 NHL Games and made his 1958 NHL 32 years after Taffy Abel broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. Our professional assessment, like that of the Associated Press and other reporters, is that Willie O’Ree did not break any NHL Color Barrier, nor did he have as impressive NHL record as Taffy Abel.
So, an African American NHL Player gets honored, and a noble Native American NHL Player gets thrown under the bus … and the NHL Commissioner thinks he is morally right in doing this by ignoring history, ignoring NHL records and trashing the legacy of Taffy Abel? So much for “all men are created equal”. So much for the integrity of the NHL on it’s racial equality slogan “Hockey is for Everyone”™.
The NHL Commissioner and the 32 White NHL Governors have a demographics conundrum … put simply in about 2o years or about 2040, the US population of whites will decrease to under 50%. Whites will become a minority and that does not bode well financially for White Billionaire NHL Team Owners.
Right now 95% of NHL players are white and the NHL fanbase is over 90% white. Hockey has a perception in some circles as being ‘not for some’ (like blacks) and ‘only for others’ (like whites).
Now, more than ever, the 32 NHL Team hockey communities and their owners appear to be focusing on the drastic demographic and cultural change that is coming. African-American buying power grew to about $1.5 trillion in 2022 – the largest racial minority consumer market. When compared to other sports such as Basketball and Football, the NHL has the smallest percentage of African American fans.
Some will say that demographic financial reality about the future growth of the African American fanbase in hockey is why the NHL decided to say an untruth: “The Black Willie O’Ree broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1958”. They sealed it by paying to lobby for a Congressional Gold Medal. They ignored history and facts and threw under the bus the real NHL Color Barrier Breaker … Native American Taffy Abel who broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
We are more than willing to discuss the Taffy Abel Color Barrier story with investigative journalists or Congressional investigators. We think they can expose the lengths the NHL went to obtain a Congressional Gold Medal. That’s the big headline and NHL Scandal that should be investigated and reported on.
November is “Native American Heritage Month” and the NHL™ itself does not widely honor or celebrate this month. They seem to having a wholesale exit from DEI. Just as the NHL does not significantly honor Native American Taffy Abel for originally breaking the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
February is “Black History Month” and the NHL™ does honor and celebrate this month to the max. The NHL honors Willie O’Ree as the first NHL player of African heritage in 1958. So, African American / Black NHL Players get celebrated for their heritage and Native American NHL players get silence for their heritage. Such silence toward Native Americans is a form of Cultural Genocide … the NHL is essentially saying Culturally Erase Taffy Abel and Native Americans from history.
May is Asian American Heritage Month and the NHL™ does honor and celebrates this month. The NHL honors Larry Kwong as the first NHL player of Asian heritage in 1948.
September 15 to October 15 is “Hispanic Heritage Month” and the NHL™ does honor and celebrates this month. The NHL honors Bill Guerin as the first NHL player of Hispanic American heritage in 1992.
So, the NHL honors their smorgasbord of heritage months but not significantly Native American Heritage Month. These NHL™ sleights on Native Americans show poor integrity and are seen by many as morally wrong and a form of Racial Sportswashing.
Let us make this clear: we are in favor of the NHL™ fairly and equitably honoring EACH oppressed BIPOC / non-white player communities for their respective “Firsts”.
However, we cannot condone the NHL™ Commissioner excluding and discriminating against Native American Taffy Abel and the Native American community for his NHL “First” of originally breaking the NHL Color Barrier in 1926. He was the “First” of any ethnic or non-white group in the NHL and deserves recognition and respect versus NHL silence and NHL erasure.
Clarence “Taffy” Abel (1900-1964), “The First” Native American (Sault Chippewa / Ojibwe Indian) on January 25, 1924 to compete and Win a Silver Medal in the Winter Olympics for Team USA. He was born May 28, 1900 in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan USA. He was the Spiritual Captain for USA Hockey in the first ever Winter Olympics. Sault Ste Marie (Baawitigowininiwag) is commonly called the original “Hockey Town USA”.
It is important to note that Taffy Abel was born a mere 10 years after the U.S. Government ended their massacre or genocidal murder of Native Americans in 1890 at the Wounded Knee Massacre. There exists a long list of Native American Massacres.
Taffy was “The First” Native American USA Flag Bearer in the 1924 Winter Olympics. Photo here of Taffy Abel with the American Flag. That’s patriotism personified. As a Native American representing the United States, he swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The New York Times reported his August 1, 1964 death. Taffy ‘Mr. Hockey’ earned a well written obituary, not as a hockey enforcer, but rather as a much loved and respected hockey player. As an American Citizen with Native American Heritage, Taffy had a right and was proud to carry the American Flag in 1924, but few at that time knew he was a Native American. In addition, he was “The First” Indigenous National Hockey League player who was born in the United States.
“This First” NHL™ Native American Hockey Player, Taffy Abel, made his NHL debut in the USA with the New York Rangers on November 16, 1926. In his first NHL game, Taffy and the Rangers Team beat their Canadian opponent, the defending Stanley Cup™ champions, Montreal Maroons.
As a Defenseman, Taffy played very hard and used his 225-pound Michigan Mountain body as a weapon. As a Defenseman, his main job was not to score goals but to prevent goals. The Rangers became popular by playing hard and clean earning a reputation as “the classiest team in hockey.” Their teamwork led to a first season record of 25-13-6, the best in the NHL™, and a trip to the playoffs. Although they did not make the finals on their first try, they won the Stanley Cup™ on their second, one year later in 1928 when Taffy and his Rangers Team beat the Montreal Maroons from Canada. Again, some sweet payback.
When asked his business, Taffy always said: “I’m in the business of Winning”.
Next, Taffy Abel broke the NHL™ Chicago Blackhawks Color Barrier on November 14, 1929. He helped the Blackhawks Win a Stanley Cup™ in 1934. From 1926 to 1935 he played in over 333 NHL Games, helped Win 2 Stanley Cups, was inducted in the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973 and more. From 1936 to his passing in 1964, he mentored and coached local youth in hockey.
We respectfully recognize Willie O’Ree as the first NHL Black player who skated for the Boston Bruins in 1958. But it was not Willie who broke the NHL™ Color Barrier … it was Taffy Abel, the Native American NHL player in 1926 … some 32 years before Willie.
Taffy’s story as a Trailblazing Native American NHL™ Hockey Hero is an exciting one that the NHL and 32 Teams could use to create interest in attracting new NHL BIPOC fans .
See the new 2022 NHL Diversity and Inclusion Report about BIPOC demographics here. It’s the first one they ever did. They did it because they know of the momentous demographic shift downward in the White population.
Read here the Associated Press take on this report and about the NHL’s lack of diversity. "... where more than 90% of players and nearly all coaches and officials are white." "... and the results show that NHL hockey has a lot of work to do to increase diversity at all levels." "The results are not surprising for a sport that for many reasons, from socioeconomic to geographic and more, has remained predominantly white."
The NHL Commissioner hired Kim Davis as the NHL’s Senior VP for Diversity and Government Relations. She is a Black woman new to hockey and is a key person who headed up the very intense lobbying efforts to get the Black Willie O’Ree a Congressional Gold Medal for supposedly breaking the NHL Color Bearer. Davis said: “it is not as simple as recruiting people of color to work for the NHL, that it starts with improving how underrepresented communities ‘see and feel’ about the NHL itself.” Apparently, she and the Commissioner think a Congressional Gold Medal for a Black man will do a Hail Mary and solve the faltering NHL image and demographic problems.
Our strong inclination is that the NHL wants potential Black hockey fans to ‘see and feel’ that the Black Willie O’Ree is the diverse face of the NHL when quite the opposite is true with a near all white face of hockey at the owner level, the coaching level, at the player level, at the fan level.
In the meantime, the NHL throws a noble Native American, Taffy Abel, under the bus as they try to razzle dazzle their way in attracting more Black hockey fans. In the end, follow the money and it is all about more green wanted by the billionaire NHL team owners than honoring a NHL Player. Black sports fans are increasingly deserting hockey for basketball and football.
Only 0.5% of the NHL workforce are Indigenous versus a US 2020 Census benchmark of 3%. From all key areas - executive leadership - players - fanbase the NHL is the least diverse of the Big Four Sports Leagues.
The NHL™ says it wants to increase their NHL BIPOC fanbase by at least 25%+ … but the artificial and contrived way they are trying to do that now is not working. If the NHL Commissioner cannot honor the first NHL Native American player, how do they think that will play in winning over a larger BIPOC fanbase and a larger / younger fanbase tuned into Social Justice?
Hockey fans love heroes no matter their race. In other words, ROI (Indigenous) equals more BIPOC butts in NHL™ seats, more online interest, more interest on television, more advertising revenue, more sponsor revenue, more gaming revenue, more media interest, etc. and all that translates into higher financial ROIs for the NHL and the 32 NHL Teams.
Plus, there would be innumerable benefits to the NHL™ PR areas and Social Justice areas which younger audiences, advertisers and players are identifying with more and more. This has been said by someone in the hockey PR sphere. “The national media loves a negative story. America loves a villain, in most cases more than they love a hero.” In terms of Social Justice, Taffy Abel has been a victim and a hero … that’s a positive story. That combination adds considerably more excitement and love for him.
Here’s what Deloitte Consulting says about Sports Organizations such as the NHL™: “In fact, sports organizations should seriously consider the potentially adverse effects on their bottom lines of not addressing issues related to inequality and injustice. Now could be the time for organizations to make social justice a key tenet of their culture and brands.” We think how the NHL is treating Taffy Abel is inequality and injustice personified.
The NHL needs to up their game on JEDI- Justice - Equality - Diversity - Inclusion for current BIPOC players as well as past BIPOC players such as Taffy Abel. Start by Honoring the Past if you want to Embrace the Future.
If a Steven Spielberg type were looking to do a Social Justice inspiring movie (Killers and the Michigan Mountain) about hockey along the hero plot in Chariots of Fire, (about 2 heroes in the 1924 Summer Olympics) he could find no better true hero story than that of Taffy Abel who had to Pass as a White Man to play and Win in the game he loved.
Perhaps a NHL™ or Marketing / PR executive will listen to some music, have a Foxhead beer, watch this video and think outside the rink about the Taffy Abel story for a moment.
If Lazlo Holmes, a fictional character, became hockey’s Black Friend … think about a real hero player, Taffy Abel, becoming hockey’s celebrated BIPOC Friend to draw in more fans.
We are advocating for truth and transparency about the Taffy Abel story. We are in it for Native American Social Justice. In addition, we want Americans to remember all the Indigenous children who suffered and died in Residential Boarding Schools.
Here are the true Investigative Facts about these schools. We want people like the NHL™ Commissioner to learn the real and heroic story what Taffy Abel had to do to keep from being unjustly sent to such a school and how he found love and meaning in hockey.
We want Americans to know that Indians - Redmen - Savage Injuns or whatever other pejorative name had been used against them to victimize them …. were and are good and noble Native people just like Taffy Abel … and that a person should not be judged by their race or the color of their skin but rather by their kindness and talents.
Despite claims of “Hockey is for Everyone™”, it’s unfortunate that some NHL National Hockey League executives have adopted a policy of silence to stymie our legitimate “Why Question” about Trailblazer Recognition for Taffy Abel as “The First” NHL Native American / Indigenous / BIPOC Hockey Player.
Those savvy about the NHL believe that “Hockey is for Some” is a more appropriate slogan.
We do not believe NHL™ silence in this matter: “Supports Native American / Indigenous Social Justice. Nor does it foster more inclusive communities”. Those in NHL Hockey Media have a similar analysis.
Many may believe that the NHL™ has not been consistent nor fair when recognizing Trailblazing Hockey BIPOC Players. Recently, the NHL was instrumental in getting honored “The First” NHL African American Hockey Player with a Congressional Gold Medal.
However, for “The First” NHL Native American Trailblazer Hockey Player, Taffy Abel, we only get silence and a mere small asterisk on an obscure USA Hockey website saying he was Ojibwe / Chippewa.
Taffy Abel was a noble Native American Warrior and a champion caliber hockey player who brought heart, energy and passion to the rink. In addition to being “The First” NHL Native American and “The First” BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Hockey Player, he also played in over 333 NHL games, helped win 2 Stanley Cups, was inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame, enjoyed being a youth hockey mentor and was a Silver Medal Olympian in 1924. In the Olympics as in life, he had a Gold Standard of Winning.
These are far greater hockey accomplishments than those of Willie O’Ree who played in only 45 NHL games and did not win any Stanley Cups.
The first games in the NHL™ were played in Canada on December 19, 1917. About 9 years later, Taffy signed his employment contract with the NHL - New York Rangers on August 14, 1926. He went to the Rangers Training Camp in Canada and returned to New York City on November 15, 1926. “The First” NHL Native American Hockey Player, Taffy Abel, made his NHL debut in the USA with the New York Rangers on November 16, 1926. He broke the NHL Color Barrier that evening.
He became the 189th player in the NHL™ and “The First BIPOC” / Non-White Hockey Player in the NHL. The 188 NHL players before him were White Euro-Canadians playing for rich White NHL Team Owners.
In 2021, we had to fight the NHL’s amateur USA Hockey organization like heck to recognize Taffy Abel as a Native American in the 1924 Olympics. They would only put a mere small asterisk “* " beside his name. We feel this Noble and Trailblazing Native American deserves more than a mere small asterisk from USA Hockey and the NHL.
As an Ojibwe / Chippewa Indian with warrior determination, Taffy overcame monumental odds and roadblocks to play and Win in the game he loved - NHL™ hockey. He would not let things like racism, poverty, etc. deter him from Winning in hockey - in life - in afterlife.
For hundreds of years preceding modern European contact, his Sault (Soo) Band ancestors were part of the large Lake Superior Band of Chippewa Indians. The Ojibwe (known as Chippewa in the United States) were known to have migrated over many centuries from the Atlantic Coast. Sault Ste. Marie is the oldest city in Michigan, and among the oldest cities in the United States.
Over 2,000 years ago, Native Americans began to gather in the Soo for the wealth of fish and fur found along the rushing waters of the wide, turbulent river that linked the Great Lakes of Superior and Huron.
Learn more about Native Americans via this informative FAQ here. If you are looking for a great book on Indigenous people, consider this new 2022 history book: Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America. A prize-winning scholar and author rewrites 400 years of American history from the Indigenous perspectives, overturning the dominant origin story of the United States told by White men.
In 2022, Native American households only have 8 cents of wealth for every dollar that the average white American household has. In 1926, when Taffy Abel joined the NHL, it was even less. He saw the sport of Professional NHL Ice Hockey as a way to support his widowed mother and improve his status in life.
Native Americans have been disproportionately harmed by race-based policies, beginning with policies that supported whites taking Native American land. Broken treaties and other government actions that forced Native Americans off their tribal land were devastating for Native culture and wealth.
Broken treaties led to higher unemployment rates, Indian boarding schools led to high school dropout rates, and to low homeownership rates. Homeownership and building wealth impacts generations.
Throughout U.S. history, policies that were very successful at building wealth for white Americans did not benefit Native Americans in the same way. For example, the 1862 Homestead Act granted more than 270 million acres of land to White Settler citizens and displaced Native Americans from their land. This program overwhelmingly benefitted White Americans.
And now, by the White run NHL not honoring Native American Taffy Abel, that plays into the hands of White Nationalists and encourages them even more as they morally justify doing the wrong thing against the minority group of Native Americans.
Here we are in 2024. The NHL™ states very clearly: “Hockey is for Everyone™ uses the game of hockey - and the League's global influence - to “drive positive social change and foster more inclusive communities”. We support any teammate, coach or fan who brings heart, energy and passion to the rink. We believe all hockey programs - from professionals to youth organizations - should provide a safe, positive and ‘inclusive environment’ for players and families regardless of race, color, religion, national origin.”
That’s exactly what we want to do: “Drive Positive Social Change”.
However, the words of NHL™ Leadership without action seem to many as ringing hollow. Such inaction and silence on the Taffy Abel matter do not seem to be driving positive social change nor fostering respect for Native American and First Nations communities. The old adage is appropriate here: to get respect (and new BIPOC fans) you should give respect … and start with Taffy Abel.
White Colonial Powers through the years waged war to remove Indians from ‘their indigenous lands’ and now we hope we don’t see continuing efforts from some Wealthy White Corporate Hockey Powers to remove / culturally erase Indians such as Taffy Abel from Hockey History. The NHL does not mean National History League. We hope we don’t see efforts to reframe or sanitize Hockey History with silence and benign inaction.
From 1917 to the 1950s, many believe there was systemic racism in the White dominated National Hockey League that attempted to keep out African American players as well as Native American players because of their race and non-white skin color. That’s even if they were the best hockey player in the Olympics or in the world. Today, by a wide margin, the NHL™ is the least diverse of the Big Four Sports Leagues.
In that earlier 1917 to 1966 50 year time period, prior to adding expansion teams starting in 1967, there WAS NOT an ‘inclusive environment’ for nonwhite hockey players in the NHL. An examination of this YouTube Video, NHL-100 Years, may be helpful. How many nonwhite player’s faces do you see between 1917 and 1967? Perhaps two: 1. Native American Taffy Abel in 1928 with the Stanley Cup™ and 2. African American Willie O’Ree in 1958 who played 2 games that year before being shipped back to the hockey minors.
Records and research show there were only 10 Native American / Indigenous NHL™ players in a 50 year period between 1917 and 1966. On a positive note, we do know the NHL™ is trying somewhat to, ‘but very slowly’, by adopting a somewhat more inclusive environment toward present day Native American / First Nation players as well as African American players. But as they do this for present day players, they fail in a miserable way toward past players such as Taffy Able.
In the 55-year period from 1967 to 2022 there have been 87 Native American / Indigenous NHL™ players added to the rosters during that timeframe. But that should be taken in the context that the NHL added 26 expansion teams in that timeframe. So, that’s not real progress for Native Americans. We want to inspire the NHL to succeed even more in this area by having the NHL recognize the accomplishments of Taffy Abel and promote such to Native American / Indigenous youth in the USA and Canada.
All Lives Matter - Including Indian Lives.
In a February 2022 interview for a Washington Post story on Taffy Abel, Dave Stubbs, a longtime White Canadien hockey columnist and hybrid Amateur Historian / PR front man for the NHL™ explained some things in the context of racism and lack of inclusion for minorities. “The players didn’t want to stand out,” Stubbs said. “They wanted to be a part of the team, and you didn’t want to have an asterisk next to your name for being different (meaning nonwhite). So, there would have been no advantage for Taffy to stand from a rooftop and say he was native.” Because of his appearance, Abel was able to blend in. “He wasn’t like Willie O’Ree or Jackie Robinson, who would have been judged by the color of their skin,” Stubbs said, referring to the first Black players in the NHL and Major League Baseball, respectively.
Some beg to differ with the NHL™ and Stubbs on his and the NHL’s perspective: Stubbs should have honestly said: “NHL owners back then did not want players that were nonwhite and that stood out.” In other words, put the onus on the NHL League Executives and NHL Owners for their racism back in the 1917 to 1966 time period versus the nonwhite hockey players.
Some 105 years later from 1917 to 2022, the reasons Native American Taffy Abel remains unrecognized by NHL™ Leaders and NHL™ Governors and the NHL Inclusion Councils do require explanations … but also some positive actions to move forward in an equitable manner. This is a complex and sensitive issue, for all parties, but we believe it should be a solvable one and start by acknowledging and honoring Taffy Abel.
The NHL’s lack of Native American recognition issue for Taffy Abel involves a historical mix of diversity and inclusion issues for Native Americans in hockey along with racial justice and racial equality issues for Native Americans. In the long run, the onus here is on the NHL™ Commissioner and the NHL™ Board of Governors to do the right thing. Doing nothing or silence in recognizing Taffy Abel will be seen as doing the wrong thing.
Versus it’s ‘just racism’ why Taffy has not been recognized, it’s as probably as much about the NHL™ Organization nor having a fair procedural social justice process in place which is free of biases. In that regard, the NHL Inclusion Councils could consider bringing in outside experts such as Richard Lapchick from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) for consultations on the Taffy Abel matter. The SCI, Sports Conflict Institute could also be called upon.
A plausible reason that the NHL™ has not properly recognized Taffy Abel also could stem from the NHL’s “lack of awareness” on (1) Taffy Abel’s Native American Heritage; (2) on what Taffy Abel accomplished in hockey; (3) along with a lack of accurate knowledge about the historic injustices faced by Native Americans / First Nation players in the NHL from 1917 up until the 1950s and 1960s. However, this reason of “lack of awareness” does not hold water since the NHL VP in charge of this knows exactly who Taffy Abel is.
Other than playing hockey in the NHL™, Native Americans hockey players like Taffy Abel had only one other choice to make a buck in winter sports. In 1928 this was the Cree and Ojibwe wild west traveling hockey show that paid Native Americans very little to play in exhibition hockey matches and please the white audience. “Sportswriters saw the tour for what some of the players must have believed it to be—a subversive self-parody, a drama of racial mockery and power inversion. In dressing up and acting as “imaginary Indians,” these real Natives were having a laugh at their paying customers’ expense.”
We believe that if the NHL™ and NHL™ Teams can promote Native American Land Recognition, they should also more importantly promote Native American Player Recognition for Trailblazers such as Taffy Abel. In addition, the NHL should consider, with outside native experts, providing guidance to NHL Teams on Land Recognition / Land Acknowledgements.
“Historical and anthropological facts demonstrate that many contemporary land acknowledgments unintentionally communicate false ideas about the history of dispossession and the current realities of American Indians and First Nations people. And those false ideas can have detrimental consequences for Indigenous peoples and nations.”
Native Player Recognition, with a racial equality perspective in mind, will fairly Recognize and Honor NHL™ Native American Trailblazers in the same manner as they have rightly been doing for NHL African American Trailblazers. There is no better time for the NHL to start than now for Taffy Abel.
This we are certain of, Native American / First Nation youth getting into hockey today need native hockey heroes of their own heritage (past and present) and native role models to learn about such things as native perseverance and the native Winning spirit … Taffy Abel is such a hero and a role model we hope the NHL will recognize and openly embrace. According to experts, a series of young adult books and videos, targeted at Native American / First Nation youth, and possibly a movie and training camps are a couple areas the NHL might consider once they have formulated a strategy with measurable goals.
Since ancient times in North America, Indigenous / Native American / First Nation people have loved and exceled at playing games … including hockey. Older forms of the hockey game in North America were invented and played by Indigenous people. This includes baggataway and duwarken.
Some say we have the Saux, Foxes, and Assiniboine people to thank for ice hockey. They were among the Native American tribes who played a game called “shinny.” In shinny, a buckskin ball was hit down the field using a curved stick. In the winter months, the game was played over ice. White settlers took note and over time, shinny was developed into the modern sport we call hockey. In addition to hockey, Taffy loved playing native games such as the moccasin game. … but even more so … he loved Winning games.
The central purpose of this website is to be a voice for change and build awareness among NHL™ Executives and NHL™ Governors about Taffy Abel, a noble Native American, and his lifetime of hockey accomplishments and hockey firsts.
Sometimes to move forward in seeking greater inclusion for Native Americans / First Nation people in the NHL, it’s necessary to fairly look backward in a critical but constructive manner. Sometimes that may be painful for a large multi billion dollar organization such as the 105 year old NHL. But just like a world class athlete in training to be a winner … no pain often equates into no gain and losing.
We understand the wording with what NHL™ Commissioner has said: “We look forward to working with all voices of change to fight for equality and broaden access to the game we all love.”
In addition, we understand the wording with what Bill Daly, Assistant NHL™ Commissioner, has said: “I’ll start with (NHL senior executive vice president) Kim Davis and her impact on the game. It goes beyond the NHL.”
“I think the game has a different mindset in terms of being more welcoming and inclusive than we had before. Even though we’d probably like to think we’re doing all the right things, you know, at the end of the game, on a day-to-day basis we could always do more, and we’re finding that extra gear now.” “I think there are a lot of programs that we’ve put in place, that Kim’s group has put in place that are opening up areas to more people than in the past.” “We have to continue to push that priority and push that agenda, and I think we’re ready to do it. Our owners and clubs have certainly shown their willingness to do so.”
We hope the NHL’s silent treatment on Taffy Abel recognition will end. We hope NHL™ Leaders and Governors will include Native American Taffy Abel in their thoughts concerning “can always do more” and “pushing the agenda”.
We hope NHL™ Leaders and Governors will understand the reasons and necessity for Taffy choosing to “pass” as a White to survive. Back in the early 1900s there were mainly 3 choices for Native Americans to survive and thrive in those Discriminatory and Cultural Genocide times: 1. “flee”; 2. “hide”; 3. “pass”. Those were also the three basic choices that European Jews had in WWII where millions of Jewish persons perished under Hitler’s Genocidal regime. Racial Passing.
Although born a Native American, Taffy Abel had to spend his “public hockey life” passing as a White. With light-colored Indigenous skin and brown eyes, it wasn’t hard for him to disguise his Indian Chippewa heritage. So, when he became the first Native American to play in the Winter Olympics, on the U.S. hockey team in 1924, he didn’t tell anyone he was a Chippewa. Nor did he tell Conn Smythe in 1926 who recruited him for the NHL™ New York Rangers.
As a result of his outstanding Olympic performance, Taffy was recruited into the NHL™ and went on in 1926 to become “The First” Native American / Indigenous player in the NHL when he debuted with the New York Rangers on November 16, 1926. In essence, he broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
Taffy also played hockey for the Native American themed Chicago Blackhawks between 1929 and 1935.
Despite opposition from the NCAI and other parties, as of 2024, the Blackhawks have stated their intent to keep the name and themed imagery, along with their belief that they "honor and celebrate the legacy of Native American Black Hawk" and that the name and logo "symbolizes this important and historic person."
As is the NCAI and Indian Country agrees, we are in favor of the Wirtz family dropping the Blackhawks name and logo. Despite requests to the Blackhawks, the Wirtz family and the NHL neither has honored the first Native American in Hockey, Taffy Abel.
We would like to see the NHL™ Blackhawks owner to significantly honor and celebrate the legacy of Taffy Abel as “The First” Native American player in the NHL (November 16, 1926) and “The First” Native American player for the Chicago Blackhawks (November 14, 1929) and who helped the Blackhawks Win a Stanley Cup™ (1934).
Since the NHL™ founding in 1917 up to early 2024 there have been only about 100 known Indigenous NHL hockey players …. with Taffy Abel being the “First One” on November 16, 1926. As such, Taffy Abel is truly the Indigenous Trailblazer & Pioneer in the NHL and is recognized for his accomplishments by the US National Archives, Smithsonian, Olympic IOC, Etc.
It took from 1926 to 1966 for the NHL to have their first ten Indigenous hockey players. Taffy Abel (333 games) is at Rank 1 in 1926 and Fred Sasakamoose (11 games) is at Rank 7 in 1953.
It is certainly appropriate for the US National Archives, Olympic IOC and Hockey Historians to recognize Taffy Abel. However now, it is extremely important to the Native American Community that NHL™ Leaders, the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Seattle Kraken and other NHL Teams take meaningful and constructive steps to honor and celebrate Taffy Abel as “The First” Native American and BIPOC player in the NHL.
He is the NHL Player who broke the Color Barrier in 1926 … almost 100 years ago in the Jim Eagle discrimination era against Native Americans.
The NHL™ has a NHL Senior VP of diversity and anti-racism.
Kim Davis knows about Taffy Abel and should be able to help in this area. But to date, we have only her silence and no reaching out to us … same goes for Gary Bettman. Why? It’s important not to ignore the Native American legacy of Taffy Abel nor ignore his many accomplishments.
MLB Baseball honored African American Jackie Robinson, but Bettman, Wirtz and the NHL turn their back on Taffy Abel.
Early on, we hoped all this could be done in an expeditious and dignified manner and not a lesser manner by saying Taffy Abel was merely “one of the first known Native American NHL players” or all this is “ancient history” or “it’s complicated” or “we lack records”.
A winner of the Boston Marathon is referred to as “The First” not the lesser term “one of the first”. But now we believe this will take time because of the NHL’s bad faith.
Being some 60 years late in the NHL’s “Movement-Not-A-Moment” glacial speed mantra, the NHL™ has recently and rightfully honored the living Willie O’Ree as the first African American NHL Player with his 1958 Boston Bruins debut. A NHL Senior VP and the NHL Commissioner played key roles in getting Willie O’Ree rightfully recognized as the NHL’s first Black player.
However earlier, there was racist discrimination concerning African American Herb Carnegie that kept him out of the NHL because of his skin color. But as a consolation, Herb Carnegie gets a 2022 posthumous induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
When it comes to fairly honoring Taffy Abel as The First Native American NHL™ Player as the person who broke the NHL Color Barrier, the near 100-year delay and current NHL silence in this matter speaks volumes.
It’s a Cultural genocidal saga we call “Killers and the Michigan Mountain”
Through trusted and respected hockey emissaries, we have invited the NHL™ to have discussions with us. They refuse. Why?
Taffy Abel helped Win 2 prestigious NHL™ Championship Stanley Cups™ and is in the US Hockey Hall of Fame. He played over 333 games in the NHL.
When asked what business he was in, Taffy always answered: “I’m in the business of Winning.”
Taffy’s Father, John Abel, passed away in 1920 leaving Taffy at age 20 the breadwinner for the family. In 1939, after the death of his Mom, Charlotte Abel, Taffy formed and coached the Soo Indians amateur hockey team to honor his Chippewa mother. He mentored and coached local youth in hockey and sportsmanship all his life. He was a Hockey Ambassador long before the NHL started their Ambassador program.
In 1939 after the death of his mother and after leaving the NHL™ in 1935, he also quietly and openly acknowledged for the first time in public his own Native American Chippewa heritage.
Taffy’s lifelong closest white friend, Sam, knew Taffy was a Native American since they first met about 1905. Back in the early days of the NHL™ (1917 to about 1950), the White NHL Team Owners were not knowingly hiring Native Americans or African Americans.
Starting in 1940, the Soo Indians were coached by Taffy and achieved fame by Winning 3 consecutive NMHL league championships. Taffy was indeed in the Winning business.
Taffy Abel’s Native American “Killers and the Michigan Mountain” story from 1900 to 1964 has remained untold until now.
Taffy’s story is not just about hockey, it’s also about the thrill of life with battles he both won and lost. It’s about his friendship with true friends in the hockey tribe he could trust, white guys named Sam and Lester. It celebrates the finest of all victories - the triumph and goodness of our human spirit.
With him being the patriotic American Flag Bearer, the Taffy Abel story celebrates our American values including an important one that says: “all men are created equal.” Those are the opening words of the Declaration of Independence—and easily its most remembered part.
The closing words of the Declaration of Independence are far less remembered, but they are there. “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the “merciless Indian savages.”
This grievance about Indian savages in the Declaration helped lay the foundation for White American nationalism that would demonize the continent’s indigenous people, especially when they resisted White American aggressions, with the taking of Native lands, the taking of Native children, and ongoing aggressions which seek to dishonor Native Americans or Culturally Erase the contributions of Noble and Patriotic Native Americans such as Taffy Abel in sports organizations like the NHL™.
Taffy’s story continues and aspires to open dialogues with those who may not believe in the goodness of our human spirit or that “all men are created equal” and instead conjure up unjust reasons not to recognize and honor Taffy Abel as “The First” Native American in the NHL™ in 1926, the first player to break the NHL Color Barrier, despite a preponderance of historical evidence and records proving such.
Do we ignore these aggressions and silence, or do we seek to fight and win it in a just way?
The answer is to neither ignore it nor to fight it in a hostile way.
But rather to educate and celebrate meaningful social justice overtures to honor Native Americans in the NHL™ such as Taffy Abel. This website is meant to educate and show what is happening with the legacy of Taffy Abel.
If Cultural Erasure can happen with Taffy Abel … then it can happen for any Native American.
We as family members, as well as the Chippewa Tribe, and social justice advocates worldwide for Indigenous People seek acknowledgement and real actions by the NHL versus a group of superficial performative actions or even worse - continued silence.
Taffy’s “Racial Passing” as a white man and a white hockey player lasted until 1939 because of rampant discrimination in the “Jim Eagle” Discrimination Era, both in the US and Canada. Not that much different than the “Jim Crow” Discrimination Era for African Americans.
Being “Indian” and having a different skin color, meant having very limited to no opportunities in the White dominated NHL Hockey World and the world in general. This is eerily similar to the racist discrimination that the Black hockey player, Herb Carnegie faced in trying to get into the NHL™ just because he had a nonwhite skin color.
In his early years as a child, there was Taffy’s parents’ fears, and his real fears, that he and his younger sister would be taken away and sent to an infamous Indian Residential School in Central Michigan which practiced the official government policies of “Kill the Indian - Save the Man”.
There is an excellent video on Indian Residential Schools. It’s about how White Run Residential Schools carried out "Cultural Genocide" against Native American / Indigenous children. The Indigenous children were often referred to as savages and forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their traditions. Many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands of children never made it home. Taffy Abel escaped going to such a school.
The Kenneth Moore story about the 1st Indigenous Canadian Winter Olympian (1932 Gold Medal Hockey) is very informative in helping understand the Taffy Abel story. See timeline here.
Native Americans through the years first faced an era of Genocide (Annihilation), then forced Assimilation and Indian Removal, and now it has morphed into the ‘Jim Eagle Era’ of Cultural Genocide / Cultural Amnesia (Silence or Erasure) toward Native Americans such as Taffy Abel.
Sometimes it appears some want to erase the “I” for Indigenous in the BIPOC term.
Over the years, Annihilation - Assimilation - Amnesia have made up a Hockey Hat Trick of Racism and Oppression toward Noble Native Americans. Has such racial intolerance in other Professional Sports leagues happened? The answer is yes … but the National Hockey League sticks out like a sore thumb with their treatment of Taffy Abel.
February 4, 2022 Video of US Congressman Jack Bergman (Michigan Dist. 1) honoring Taffy Abel on the floor of the US House of Representatives on his 100th year Anniversary as being the first Native American in the Winter Olympics and the first Native American USA Flag Bearer in the Winter Olympics.
The 4000 seat “Taffy Abel Hockey Arena” at LSSU University in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan honors Taffy Abel. Over 80 NHL players have come out of LSSU. It’s an excellent place for the NHL to headquarter their Native American Youth Hockey operation. The LSSU Community - Native American Community - Michigan Community - Others love and admire Taffy Abel as a great hockey player and a noble Native American.
Taffy Abel as a Native American in the 1924 Winter Olympics, is comparable to Native American Jim Thorpe in the 1912 Summer Olympics. We are the first to admit that Thorpe was a great athlete … but Taffy Abel was not that far behind.
Taffy Abel is honored at the US National Archives, Smithsonian American Indian Museum, US Congress, Washington Post, IOC Olympics, The Hockey News, Sault Tribe, NPR, SIHR, ESPN, etc.
For The First Native American in the Winter Olympics (January 25, 1924), Taffy Abel, and who was also The First Native American & The First BIPOC in the NHL™ (November 16, 1926 with the New York Rangers) and Winner of 2 Stanley Cups™ and who is in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, there has been an egregious Cultural Erasure campaign of silence put forward by the NHL toward Noble Native Americans and legendary hockey players such as Taffy Abel.
Our first voice says: Why? Our second voice says: Please do the right thing and change.
If the NHL™ honors The First African American player in the NHL (1958), why not also honor The First Native American player in the NHL (1926)?
We have faith that some courageous NHL Governors will have a Branch Rickey moment and start to investigate and take up the matter of getting Taffy Abel recognized and honored as a NHL Native American Hockey Trailblazer and the Player who broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
We continue to believe the NHL failing to recognize and honor Taffy Abel and his Native American heritage in breaking the NHL Color Barrier is not the right thing to do. It would fail the NHL and NHL Team Owners, professed goals of “inclusion” and “diversity”.
Heck, even President Ronald Reagan in the 1930s knew what a great man and hockey player Taffy Abel was.
In 2018, the NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, said this about an African American NHL™ Trailblazer, Willie O’Ree.
“I’m a history buff, there is an incredible amount that I learned, there’s more to be learned.” “I think we have a story to tell as well. And most people aren’t aware of that story. And to have an opportunity to tell it as part of the overall museum…having a place among the other sports would not only be appropriate but would be good for people to know.”
We think the Native American NHL™ Trailblazer story of Taffy Abel and the “Killers and the Michigan Mountain” saga would also be good for people to know.
On the first anniversary of George Floyds death, the NHL Commissioner uttered these words. In 1924 we have not yet seen any positive actions for Indigenous people such as Taffy Abel:
“Throughout the hockey world, we desire deeper relationships with Black, Asian, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino and all other communities of color -- as players, employees, fans, business partners and community leaders.”
So, since the NHL won’t tell Taffy Abel’s story, let us tell his heroic “Killers and the Michigan Mountain” Native American story to hockey fans as well as non-hockey fans.
USA Flag Bearers in the 2022 Winter Olympics: 2022 Video USA Flag Bearer in the 1924 Winter Olympics: 1924 Taffy Video
1. December 3, 1947. New York. Age 47 Lester Patrick Day. Members of the New York Rangers hockey team gather to honor Lester Patrick, who was their first manager, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. From left to right: Bun Cook, Ching Johnson, Bill Cook, Lester Patrick, Taffy Abel and Frank Boucher. Taffy’s best friend Lester passed away in 1960 and Taffy was at his funeral in British Columbia to honor and respect him.
TAFFY’S 2nd family and Tribe was Hockey. One of his best friends and coach was Lester Patrick, his Hockey Tribal Chief.
2. Taffy Abel 1915 Photo Age 15 Sault Ste Matie MI USA 2nd from left with his close white friend Sam who is 3rd from left. Taken in Sam’s backyard ice rink. The Sault was a hockey-happy city, and Taffy Abel played informally with friends and attended games while growing up. As a teen he swept the ice in the local rink between games, which earned him and his friends ice time. Taffy’s first organized team was called the "Sweepers," which competed regionally and earned at least one amateur championship. Taffy Abel did not play his first organized amateur Hockey game until he was about 18 years old. He played for the local Sault Wildcats / Michigan Soo Wildcats of the United States Amateur Hockey Association / USAHA.
2a. Taffy Abel 1922 Photo Age 22 St. Paul Athletic Club 3rd from left
3. 1923 Age 23 (Taffy Abel 6-1 / 225lbs) Far Left. Amateur St. Paul Athletic Club Hockey Team. Recruited from St. Paul in late 1923 to play in 1924 Winter Olympics.
4. Taffy Abel - Age 24 won an Olympic Silver Medal in Hockey in the 1924 Winter Olympics. His Medal was stolen from his house in 1964 within days of his passing. Taffy’s family is seeking leads for its recovery. If you know where it is, call the FBI. Taffy was interviewed Feb 1924 in Pittsburgh and said the USA could have won the Gold Medal if the US had recruited the best players! April 1923 Wildcats
5 Taffy Abel, Age 24 Team Captain and 1924 Olympic Hockey Silver Medalist. France (Taffy Abel is 3rd from right)
6 Taffy Abel, Age 24 1924 Olympic USA Flag Bearer. France (Taffy Abel is holding the American flag) High Res Olympic Photo at: https://n.pr/3xSAqDS Article on Olympic Hockey Game: https://bit.ly/3LKJn7S
7 Taffy Abel Age 26 1926 (bottom 2nd from right) played amateur hockey with the US Champion Minneapolis Hockey Club. From there he joined the pro NHL.
TAFFY ABEL WAS THE “FIRST” NHL PLAYER OFFICIALLY SIGNED BY THE NEW YORK RANGERS
8 Taffy Abel - Age 26 August 12, 1926 - 3rd from left in front of Northwestern Hotel in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan - Taffy was on his way to New York City to sign on August 14, 1926 with the New York Rangers and then he went to the NYR training camp in Toronto October 20. His best friend, Sam, is at far left. Howard Marley is 2nd from left. Taffy made history on November 16, 1926 with the NYR when he became the first Native American / Indigenous pro hockey player in the NHL. Lester Patrick, was the NYR Coach. Taffy and Lester were best friends. New York Rangers granted a NHL franchise May 15, 1926.
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9 Taffy Abel, Age 26 1926 New York. NHL New York Rangers. (Taffy is 2nd from top right. Ivan “Ching” Johnson, fellow NYR defenseman is 4th from right. Those 2 were tough and honorable MEN.)
10 Taffy Abel, Age 29 1929 NHL Chicago Blackhawks (Taffy is at far left)
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11 Taffy Abel, Age 28 1928 New York Rangers Stanley Cup Champions (Taffy in top center right behind Cup). Lester Patrick is in front row to the right of the Cup.
Taffy’s 2nd Stanley Cup win was with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1934
13 Taffy Abel honored, in 2022 U.S. Congressman Jack Bergman Honors Taffy Abel on behalf of all Americans. The first Native American in the Winter Olympics (1924). The first Native American in the NHL (1926).
17 Native American Taffy Abel honored via a letter by President Briden during the November 2022, Native American Heritage Month. Native American Taffy Abel between 1905 to 1939 had to face a ‘painful truth about discrimination against Native Americans’ and pass as a White man to: 1. Escape from being sent to an Indian Boarding School between 1905 to 1918; 2. Be able to represent the USA in the 1924 Winter Olympics; 3. Be able to play in the NHL between 1926 to 1935. Taffy Abel broke the NHL Color Barrier in 1926.
President Biden said: “Today and every day, we must recognize the invaluable contributions of Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples, who continue to shape our great Nation. We must also remember the painful truth of our shared history—a pattern of federal policies that systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native peoples and eradicate Native cultures.”
12 Taffy Abel Age 39 (top far left), 1939 Founder and Coach of the amateur Soo Indians Hockey Team.
In the NMHL between 1940 -1942, the Soo Indians won 3 consecutive league championships.
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14 Native Americans using white Wolf skins as camouflage to survive and hunt buffalo. Because of rampant discrimination, in the WHITE NHL sports world, Taffy Abel had to pass as a White Man to get into the sport of hockey in 1926 to support himself, his widowed mother and young sister after his father died in 1920. He also had to “pass” as a White in 1905 to not be taken away to the infamous Indian Boarding Schools (Kill the Indian - Save the man) In many ways, this painting helps illustrate what Taffy had to do to Win in the NHL. He had to pass as a White Man and keep that secret because nonwhite hockey players were not accepted in the early NHL.
15 Taffy Abel’s close friend and New York Ranger teammate was Ching Johnson (2nd from left with hat). Here Ching is in 1974 for the induction of Blackhawk Virgil Johnson (1909 to 1993 3rd from left) in the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 1974. Taffy got into the US HHOF in 1973 and certainly is deserving in being in the more prestigious Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Taffy passed away in 1964. Ching passed away in 1979. Virgil Johnson Jr. is at far right. Ching was not related to this Johnson family.
Rare Video: Watch Taffy Abel in the first Winter Olympics in 1924 Chamonix, France.
Clarence “Taffy” Abel was the first Native American (Chippewa) in the first ever Winter Olympics (Chamonix, France 1924) where he won a Silver Medal in Hockey. He also served as USA Hockey Team Captain and the first Native American USA Flag Bearer. See Taffy Abel at: 2:01 USA Flag Bearer in Parade 3:51 Olympic Oath Ceremony 10:21 Hockey 11:09 Championship Hockey Game
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1924 WINTER OLYMPICS
Taffy was the first Native American (Chippewa) in the first ever Winter Olympics (Chamonix, France 1924) where he won a Silver Medal in Hockey. His Olympic Medal, 2 Stanley Cup Gold Watches, Photos, Scrapbooks, etc. were stolen in 1964 shortly after his death. Help us recover! He also served as the patriotic USA Flag Bearer.
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1926 - 1935 NHL CAREER
Clarence "Taffy" Abel was the first American--and the first American Indian (Chippewa Tribe) to win a Stanley Cup in the National Hockey League (NHL New York Rangers 1928). He helped win a 2nd Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1934. On January 13, 1935 Taffy became a NHL permanent holdout … the longest in NHL history.
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1900 - 1964 NATIVE AMERICAN OJIBWE / CHIPPEWA HERITAGE
For reasons of rampant discrimination against Native Americans, Taffy’s Native American Chippewa heritage wasn't known widely outside the Sault and his Family until he was posthumously inducted into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989. Taffy and his parents were particularly fearful that he and his younger sister would be taken away and put in a US government run Indian Boarding School that followed the principles of “Kill the Indian - Save the Man.” The majority of Native Americans were not given US Citizenship until June 1924 … shortly after Taffy Abel was in the 1924 Winter Olympics carrying the American Flag. It took until 1964, for all fifty states to allow Native Americans their rights to vote.