32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Devin Buffalo: Inspiring Indigenous Youth

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

Jeff and Elliotte are joined by former professional goaltender and the owner of Waniska Athletics, Devin Buffalo. Devin tells the guys about his path to Dartmouth College, playing junior hockey in Flin Flon, why it’s important to him to inspire the Indigenous youth of today, who he looked up to growing up, how visualization helped […]

WanskaMentality.com W-A-N-I-S-K-A Mentality.com 31 Thoughts the Podcast is brought to you by the GMC Sierra AT4. Today a special edition of the podcast, our conversation with Devin Buffalo. We sat

down with Devin last week to talk about his life. Devin was born in Wetasco in Alberta, is a member of the Samson Cree Nation. He's a goalie, played at Dartmouth and in the ECHL, and now through his company, Wanska Athletics, assists other native youth in pursuing their dreams of playing hockey. He's a motivational speaker and someone we think you'll really enjoy hearing from here on the podcast. But the stories, his stories, are at times hard to hear. But it's important that we do.

You know, Eddie Robinson is an indigenous speaker. I really enjoy and appreciate listening to him. And one of the points that he always stresses when people ask how can they help, he says, before you can help, listen. Listen to the stories, as horrible and shameful as they may be it's important that understanding and empathy is reached before true reconciliation can be achieved i believe that elliot jeff i'm not going to take a lot of time here i think this podcast is about devon buffalo his stories and his words and his way of telling them. But I did want to say that as a 50-year-old Canadian,

I think it's really a shame that I didn't know what I needed to know about the history of the Indian residential schools in this country. May 28th, the remains of 215 children found buried near the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. June 4th announced the discovery of 104 potential graves near the Brandon Indian Residential School in Manitoba. June 25th, as many as 751 unmarked graves in Saskatchewan. 151 unmarked graves in Saskatchewan and June 30th 182 unmarked grave sites discovered near the St. Eugene's Mission Residential School in British Columbia. We need to know this. It must be part of the grade school curriculum for all of us in this country. We need to know our history and we need to

understand it, whether we are Indigenous or not. Elliot, I agree 100%. Also, you know, learn the history of Indigenous players and their contributions to the game. We know a lot about people like George Armstrong and Jordan Tutu, the Nolans, Carey Price, Zach Whitecloud, Michael Furlan, Travis Hamannik, Craig Berube. But take some time and learn more about people like Fred Sassakamos. Learn more about Buddy Maracle, the first Indigenous player in the history of the game,

1931 New York Rangers. Learn more about Joe Benoit and Johnny Harms and Jim Jameson. And in the meantime, enjoy our conversation with Devin Buffalo. Elliot, today our guest is Devin Buffalo. Devin is a member of the Samson Cree Nation, born in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. He's a goaltender, he's a motivational speaker, and he's someone whose work with First Nations youth has drawn praise from all corners. Devin Buffalo joins us now. Devin, thanks so much for doing this. How are you today? I'm doing great. I'm really excited to do this interview, so thank you for having me. Let's see how you feel in about 25 minutes. I think 25 might be too long. Let's see how you feel after a cozy five. We have a lot we want to get into here with you.

And we're going to try to get in as much as we can because you have a spectacular story and you're a really distinguished person, not just goaltender. But I want to start by talking about goaltending because the choice to become a goaltender, I think, is different for everybody. Some, they see a goaltender make a big save on television or at a game and they say, I want to do that. For others, it's, well, I had three older brothers and they all played and they needed a kid to stand in net and act as a target. What was it for you, Devin? Why did you become a goaltender? Well, it was partly the second one. I had five older brothers, but the opposite four of them were goalies we had one d-man in our family wow

so yeah my uh i hated goalie when you're young and you don't have the pads and you go in the net with the goalie stick and i hated doing that hated i wanted to explore goals and after a bit my dad came home with some pads and he's like here try these out and we had a native provincials it's called the big al Tournament for Native Communities. And I was pre-novice. And, you know, he strapped the pads on me. I said, I'll try it out and went out there. And I hated it.

Like, I hated the expectation. I remember letting in goals in practice, everyone getting mad at me. And we were pre-novice. These kids were ripping me apart saying I sucked. So it wasn't a good experience. And I went right back into a player and our goalie moved or something so we had no goalie for a lot of games I was like all right like I have the stuff I guess I'll go net and I never looked back hang on hang on four

brothers who played goalie yeah in one season so I think some might have played a few seasons only and retired early but right once we had all five of of us I guess were goalies yeah how did your parents handle that I know a lot of parents of goalies and they're nervous wrecks so to have so many oh they're the worst how were they the oldest three are like 10 years older eight years older and seven so there's a big gap there right so I think my dad was the one that was mostly in the rink at a young age and then when I became a goalie, my mom was really nervous. So I think she really, I'm the youngest. So I guess I was a baby and she freaks out when I'm in that.

Goalie moms really do hold a special place in hockey. Those are the people that I feel for most at any youth or minor hockey game. As we've talked about before, a forward makes a mistake. Sometimes nothing happens. A defenseman makes a mistake. Nothing happens. A goalie makes a mistake. There's a big celebration. A red light goes off and mom feels awful and your heart breaks. Like I've always maintained, Evan, like there is a special place in hockey and we should always celebrate it for the goalie mom. Tell me about your goalie mom. Oh, she's amazing. She was a school principal when I was growing up. And then she went back to school,

went for her psychology. So now she's a school guidance counselor out in Samson, Samson Cree Nation. So you know, having that support in my life was really important. I talked about that because my parents were very supportive. And I was blessed, I guess, to have the support of parents. And my mom always allowed me to, you know, live life, I guess, to have the support of parents. And my mom always allowed me to, you know, live life, I guess, and not let me, you know, fail at times and succeed at times. I remember I was really into skateboarding. Like I was a diehard skateboarder, balancing my hockey and skateboarding. I played spring hockey or summer hockey. So my dad always said, don't get hurt, don't get hurt doing that. So I could never do

the crazy tricks that I wanted to. I wanted to get sponsored and everything. And that opportunity did come up when I was like 13. Finally, I made the decision. All right, what's it going to be hockey or skateboarding? And I chose hockey, I quit skateboarding. So I think I made the right choice there. But just the funny thing is like my mom, my dad, like were allowing me to, you know, kind of if it was me, if it made me happy to be a skateboarder, they would have let me. I was bullied a lot in school. And we can talk about this later, but just quick. I worked really hard in school and in junior high, I was bullied and I actually want to move back to my hometown and go to high school.

And I told my mom, I don't want to be a smart kid anymore. I just, you know, I want to just go under the radar. You know, I don't want to be a nineties or honor roll student. I just want to, you know, classic sixties, seventies. And, and she was going to allow me and she allowed, you know, she didn't say like, nope, you got to be a, you know, an honor roll student or, you know, but my first test I failed, I hated it. That was not fun.

So I wanted to be successful in the classroom. All right. There's a lot to unpack here from that answer, Devin. And the first thing I thought of was, you know, you mentioned your mother was a principal. You went to Dartmouth. So I understand now where this kind of all goes. You have parents that care a lot about education. And even though they tell you, you can be either a goalie or a skateboarder, whichever

you prefer, there's one thing that you're not going to have a choice about. That is your education. So, you know, I do want to talk about the bullying you faced and how you overcame it. Cause I think that's very important for a lot of people to hear. But, you know, first of all, I want to ask you about your path to Dartmouth. You didn't take a normal path that we often see. How did you get from point A to point B? You know, I could spend hours talking about this and I do presentations. So I do spend an hour talking about that, but I'll shorten it up pretty well. I was a short goalie. I was tiny and I probably didn't hit my growth spurt until I was 19, maybe five, eight. So it was tough to make teams, making the AAA team. My AAA team would have been laduk oil kings just outside of edmonton but i got cut from that team multiple times and played

my minor hockey in wetaski when we had an a but we called it double a double a team so i was never the player you know you always have in these small towns one or two players you're like these guys are going to make the nhl or these guys are going to play good hockey and you know i don't think anyone really expected myself to go far in hockey and i didn't expect myself to go far in hockey and my brother houston buffalo he signed up didn't know he signed he registered for a junior a camp in prince george spruce kings i think they were called he shows up out of panoka minor hockey panoka double a midgets he actually signed up for the like like walk on WHL camp, the Cougars.

So he goes to the Cougars camp, you know, off right off the reserve and goes to this Cougars cab. And he, he shocks everyone. And he actually ends up being like the last cut. And I remember watching him as an eight year old and just being so proud, seeing this big bus and just,

and he almost made it and it was so but like to us he made it he made the whl and and around alberta that's everything the whl like that's what everyone wants to play and the pressure to play there is really high in the bantam draft you know when i was 15 i was you know so skinny and tiny that i would look at myself i'm like how the heck are people getting drafted to the whl you know from here like how do you know, so skinny and tiny that I would look at myself. I'm like, how the heck are people getting drafted to the WHL? You know, from here, how do you know what kind of hockey player you're going to be at 15? But anyways, so the WHL wasn't knocking on my door. I think I was just trying to make the junior A team. First, I was trying to make midget AAA, which I did my third year midget in Leduc. Did really well. Ended up taking the starting job getting some junior a interest from BC Alberta

and Saskatchewan I and that's the kind of how I looked at it right I wanted to go to BC Port Alberni but the coach said I would have to you know we already have two goalies you're gonna have to beat out a goalie which you know at that age you you don't want a for sure thing but you kind of want some confidence because once you pick a team you pick a team right the other teams pick their goalies so then I went to Alberta St. Albert and they same thing worked really hard to be the backup but Saskatchewan Flint Fawn Bombers Mike Reagan he uh I go to his camp because one of my teammates went to the camp and he told me straight out like we're taking two rookie goalies you battle it out and that was the best opportunity I thought I signed with the Flint Fawn Bombers I loved it

love the people love the rink love the there, you know, Mike Reagan does a really great job. And it's like the Brooks Bandits, you know, the scholarship factory is Flin Flon's getting that name, which is amazing. And at the time, the SJ was considered like a WHO kind of people who didn't make the WHO would go there. And but now it's becoming a really great place to go get a scholarship. And that's what I wanted to do. And i know you'll probably want to unpack this elliot i was in high school and i asked someone that worked in the school or they asked me where i wanted to go to school and and there was a racist incident in midgets actually and i know i'm going i'm overstepping a bit but this is kind of the whole uh tell me if i need to stop and we can unpack some things but by all means in midget

we were in playoffs and this guy was you know in warm-ups he was at the red line and he was bent over you know trying to talk to me like you know in warm-ups people go stretch close if they know their friends and buddies and so i go and i'm like this guy wants to say hi i don't really know him so i take off you know lift up my helmet and say what's up like how's it going and he's like said mumble something that he couldn't really hear so i listened closer and he says you're another effing Indian. And that's what he said. And at the time, I didn't know what that meant, another Indian. Like that's what I speak of now. When we're Indigenous players, there's going to be a time when you do face a racism. You don't know when it's going to happen, but you will face it. And if we don't provide any tools, if we don't talk about it, no one talked about racism

really in my life leading up to that moment. And be honest like it didn't mean anything to me because I was like what does that even mean I'm an Indian yeah yeah I am an Indian but what does that mean and so I was thinking back at it I didn't even feel mad but I did you know I didn't know what to feel I guess that's the point and there was another my friend was on the team and I told him and you know he goes out there and two hands his ankles that starts a big line brawl and the guy he got removed from our team our coach removed him but I don't think there was a moment he said what happened and in that time no one really spoke out against racism so anyways from then on I've kind of made it my mission I guess to flip the script and flip that negative stereotype of what is an Indian what you're just another Indian so I was wanting to really figure out what that meant you know and the stereotypes we face playing hockey I always

had to deal with them and overwork and you know make sure they knew I was a really respectful and you know go the extra mile for sure and so there was two things I wanted to accomplish obviously to make the NHL and then uh also knew education was going to be a big role because I knew I wasn't the best hockey player so I would have to balance that with education. And no one was really doing that at the time, kind of in my community. We had really great world models who were great at hockey, but they were just great hockey players, like off the ice, you know, got into some trouble, like not great students. So that's where I really wanted to make a difference.

Like I'm going to be, you know, a great student. But Harvard University, that's where I wanted to go just to prove to everyone what an Indian could do, right? Those are my two goals. And when I talked to this person in the school, they said, you can't go there. Like you can't go to an Ivy League school. And I didn't even know what an Ivy League school was at the time. I just knew Harvard. I had my dreams kind of cut short by someone who was working in the school that really should have been supportive of me in my dreams. But they pretty much put my dreams in a box said hey let's focus on getting you to school here let's do that first and you're not going to go to Harvard so I listened to them but then I wanted to play junior and go play flim-flam bombers and I had a few different teams looking at me including like Colorado College

North Dakota so those were pretty big schools that my coach was like yeah and then timing of it all it just made sense like the first team that like actually show really interest was Dartmouth and my coach called me in the office and says how do you have you heard of Dartmouth and I say no I haven't googled it first line I read said I've leaked school boom I was sold and that's the school I wanted to go to so there's a story about how they came to watch me and I'll get to that later if you guys want to hear that because that's a pretty good story too yeah hey let's go yeah so we go on this road trip and I asked my coach like when are they going to come watch us and he says this weekend and that weekend we were starting our road trip in La Ronge Saskatchewan and I wasn't a big fan of La Ronge because a their rink was so

I don't know if you guys should definitely go visit La Ronge it's the rink is very the glass goes up and across and that's the roof so like it's like a box and they always had a huge team and i know bob beattie was a coach and he would always get his players from quebec and they would just beat a beat on us and we would always lose like eight one eight nothing and i won the game i got pulled twice and they were our closest team from flint fauna l'orange That's our closest in like, you know, geographical locations. So it was just, we always battled it out, always got beat on. And the worst part is every goal that they score, they throw fish on the ice like these.

They're spineless fish. So I forget what the word is, but you know, they're huge. And they just throw probably 10 or 15 of these on the ice, every single goal. And that takes a long time to you know clean up and it's all out every goal so by eight goals they're still throwing that many fish i was i was like where are you guys getting all these fish like where are they coming from but so given that Dartmouth was going to come watch me in this rink i was like oh my god like this is the word why can't they watch we're literally going on a road trip. We're going to Saskatoon. Why doesn't he watch us somewhere down there?

But the whole bus ride, I envisioned myself like not really winning the game, just being confident in myself, happy with my performance, shake the coach's hand and look him in the eyes and just know I did a great job. And we lost 4-1, which in front of a Dartmouth coach, four goals isn't the best. But I was able to shake his hand because I knew that wasn't eight. So that was a win for me and I continue on the road trip and Saskatoon that's where we kind of had our break where we get to go shopping you know have a day off because we're up in Flimflon for a lot of the year and he calls me the assistant coach John Rose and he calls me and he says we wanted

to come to Dartmouth take you know a couple weeks to decide tell your family uh after two weeks if you don't make a decision we'll have to move on because we need a goalie and I say okay I'll uh give you a call back and he's like okay and then I call my parents I tell them I'm going to an Ivy League school and they were happy and I was happy and then I hung up from them and I called the coaches back and I'm like they were like who is this I'm like Devin you just called me like well we gave you two weeks to decide i'm like well all i need is five minutes so i told them i was going to darmath and the amazing thing is they're like call the head coach just let them know and i think that's cool it's like the trust there right in ncaa it's like the assistant coaches

do the recruiting like the head coach didn't have to see me right and i i thought i would have to sell myself i'm talking and he's like no no you're devon you're coming to Dartmouth. Like, I'll meet you when you get here. I can't wait. Like, that's the kind of the trust that they had in me, which was amazing. Yeah, you mentioned the Flin Flon Bombers there a second ago. And I know that's a big part. Like, obviously, that's a big part of your story, playing for the Flin Flon Bombers and the SJ, like a legendary team.

And I have to ask you about Reggie Leach. You know, one of the best goal scorers the game has ever seen. Just a remarkable human being who's not just a great hockey player, but a great person who's, you know, as you well know, has, you know, turned his life around, you know, has been sober for, you know, 30 years. How much were you aware of Reggie Leach when you became a flint flan bomber I was aware like my dad you know watching him and uh still I haven't met him and I really want to meet him I knew the history right like that's uh you know the history that you know they won a memorial cup which is cool before they were in the ice trade Bobby Clark and Reggie Leach you hear all these names and and then they go play for the you know Philadelphia Flyers like from fl Flon. So I do all the history. I didn't know too much about Reggie, but over the time I knew like how much the town loves Reggie, you know, Bobby, all the legends that it's in their hearts. Like it'll never change the pride in that team.

When I left, like, you know, packed the car at the end of the season and leave, people were stopping my car, trying to like say bye and see you next season like it's such a small town and that's what I wanted out of my junior hockey career and that's why I went there was to have that pride in a team and that just the Whitney form is absolutely crazy and I just love playing so Devin we're coming to a reckoning with indigenous history in our country as you said before you're a motivational speaker now. You mentioned Reggie Leach in your conversation there with Jeff. I'm wondering who were your heroes growing up and what is your goal with the youth of the country in terms of this is what I

had growing up that helped me. This is what I didn't have, or this is what I had to face. I needed to overcome. And these are the lessons I'm going to share with you well we'll talk about goalie style first like I loved Carey Price I didn't want to put words in your mouth but I figured it was Carey Price yeah Carey Price's style and then just making it effortless and that was before like I was at a time now that's every goalie's trying to be like Carey Price right and that's kind of what I based my style on I think my style was I was a smaller goalie so I couldn't really play like Price calm and confident just take the the angle I had to come out really far like people used to say I challenged too much because I would be way out of pass the crease and trying to make the save doing the splits over time I was like I need

to work on some things and that's who I tried to emulate was uh Carey Price and so those were kind of the goalies I looked up to I know in my community even Wagner he played for uh Denver University from 96 to 99 he was drafted by St. Louis Blues then you have Alfie Michaud played with Korea when they won the national championship with Maine in 96 again so those are two goalies native goalies that went the NCAA route I didn't know too much at the time when i was going up but two names i definitely two people i definitely looked for mentorship as i was navigating college maybe my older brother houston like just people that i really saw in the rink i think were my heroes too and then um you ask what i'm trying to do like wanska athletics well that's my passion is wanska means wake up and rise

so that's something i always thought i had was a good awareness when i was younger my dad always talked about visualization when i was like 10 he's a master in mind management so i didn't really know what that meant as a kid but um you know doing uh mind management stuff and hypnosis and like stuff that you know at times when i was a kid i didn't really want to tell anyone about because i was like that's kind of weird but having his skills he's a like a natural leader too he did serve on leadership in samson for a while so i think i get leadership skills from him for sure and he taught me visualization so when i was 10 i was visualizing things which most 10 year olds aren't you know when i was, I was visualizing things, which most 10 year olds aren't. You know, when I was 13, I was visualizing how my life was going to be.

And it sounds funny, but everything I've accomplished, I visualized. So making that AAA team, I visualized wearing that AAA coat at school, making the junior A team, I visualized that. And then getting a scholarship, I visualized going to an Ivy League school, the big fancy gates. And I, when I talk to the kids, that's what I show is this method. We go through this method. Either, you know, you put yourself into the future.

What do you see? And you actually write it down. What do you feel? What do you hear? What do you smell? So you go through all the senses. Ivy League school, I saw those fancy gates. I heard accents, different languages being spoken around me.

What do I feel? The grass when I'm doing homework on the green there. And then smell like those old books in the library and every i kid you not every every one of those aspects that came true and that's something visualization is key elite athletes are doing it all the time but you know they used to be hocus pocus right no one really paid attention to it my first start was at michigan yost arena we lost seven nothing and uh this is my second year my sophomore year the coaches were like we should have brought a third goalie at you know they're like Devin

Buffalo you know Buffalo's here and I'm getting breakfast right behind them and I'm like oh no they're gonna start me we just lost seven nothing and uh they were upset that the other goalies missed breakfast and you know you know you can't miss things on the on the schedule there's no they're pissed off that we got to start someone who can we start and then when the coach well buffalo's here so they started me and i was so nervous i was that we were playing call connor's team so they had a stacked team oh my goodness oh yeah and then uh i don't know where we were ranked but i was a third goalie I went there for a nice hotel bed, a nice couple meals. And that's what I visualized. I visualized the color of their jerseys.

They were going to wear white jerseys. You know, the crowd, NHL scouts in the crowd. How I was going to feel after I made that first save. Where are they going to shoot from? Where might they score from? But as soon as I went on the ice, that was the first time ever my legs were shaking, like absolutely shaking. I felt felt sick I was so scared just to the production of Yost Arena like it was packed their student section was going throwing newspapers at me during the national

anthem like that was definitely an experience I've never faced before but as soon as it made that first save everything you know I went back to being a goalie looked in the everything came true of what I visualized so that's anyways just a little something that I use daily and that's something I tell the students too because I used to use it in classrooms right visualizing what's going to be on the test so anyways that's just something that I think I add to the presentations that I learned from my dad and that's the other thing is building those mentors growing up the mentors that were in my life I didn't really have direct connection with them I didn't really I heard about them I could see them

and that's like no one really used Facebook in those days either so it was kind of hard to communicate or hard to have direct contact with mentors so that's something I really wanted to build and I call it once athletics like I say the rise of indigenous athletes, like I'm kind of political, I'm kind of, you know, but that's the way I am. Because in hockey, you know, people say take out politics in hockey. And that must be nice if you can, because in my life, you can't. So I'm proud of where I come from. I'm proud, you know, on my mask. I always have native images on it on the back, Napegasowino. And that's a story too, Napegasowino, what that means in my life. And that's what I painted on my helmet first in Flimflon and then at Dartmouth. What does it mean? It means to be a warrior. My brothers were in a

car accident, two of them. And I remember I was in high school, got this call. My mom looked horrified. Went to the hospital and one brother was just getting ready to get airlifted to the to the u of a which is when you're getting airlifted u of a it's not really a good sign and he was in a coma the doctor said like you know talk to him before he goes and i didn't know what to say i was young and my dad went up to him and whispered like a creed word four times in his ear and i could like i kid you not i don't know if it was the glue in his eyes but i could see like tears running down his his eyes and they they both recovered 100 and besides like some scars and whatnot but they both recovered and i asked my dad went to further down the line asked what did you say that time and he said nepegaso

nepegaso and which means be a warrior. He was telling him it wasn't his turn. You have a family. You have things to live for. Be a warrior right now. And I really just thought that was powerful and that's something I really wanted to take in my life and I wanted to be a warrior too. And that's the mentality I thought I had to have. You can't be a goalie at that level and it's just another game.

I know some goalies say that, but you really have to be focused and ready because there's so much on the line, I guess. You know what I had to have you can't be a goalie at that level and just it's just another game like I know some goalies say that but you really have to be focused and ready because there's so much on the line I got you know what I mean like all these people came there to watch like you can't just go out there and lay an egg and get lit up every game right or else you're not gonna last so right at the national anthem I would read it out loud Npegasuino Npegasuino Npegasuino and then I would look at my parents initials and know you know that's the support i had and and have and nepegasawino actually means like i'm gonna be the warrior so it's stating like i'm not saying it to you but i'm saying it like about myself and so that's where that comes from so anyways i'm proud of my name i wanted all the times people walked into arena you know i was

native buffalo on my name i wore that proudly that's what i kind of want to help facilitate like you know a lot of our indigenous youth right now are struggling finding their way and and not having the supports and a lot of them it's easier just to not be native right it would be easier and they they in their minds they think maybe i can do that but you can't right you you're native and some shy away from that and i i really want to encourage them be proud of that it's a superpower it's like it's it's awesome and we got to be who we are and we're lucky to be native and it's a gift so the rise of indigenous athletes is that is wanska like help these kids realize what it takes to you can't just be a good hockey player you have to have character you You have to have hard-working practices.

You've got to be respectful to coaches and teammates. And you ask anyone on any team I've played on, and they all know I'm a good teammate and someone good to have on a team. And I never won a championship. They say if you don't win a championship or whatever, you're not a champion. But I always felt like I was a championship goalie,

but I just never won a championship in playoffs. I won playoff mvp in every team i played for but the wansk athletics that's what i want to instill is the education part because if we can be a great athlete and a great student you know opportunities are just gonna be out there and and the ivy league dream you know my dad was doing a speech he does that community wellness he does speeches he was in samson musketeers and he was wearing a darmoth hat and a little boy a little kid comes up and he's like darmoth and he's like devon buffalo plays there and my dad's like yeah that's my son and they're like no way like just now people know what darmoth is like no one knew i didn't know what it is no one in my community knew no one in you know around here knew but now everyone knows Dartmouth College and i think that's so cool and i think that just opens

up dreams and the goalie camps i'm doing her wake up in rise but these school talks were wake up in dream and i think that's a cool kind of play on words wait you know we got to wake up mentally and we have we i think, we had our right to dream taken away from us and through colonization, even our own people don't support our dreams. So that's when, you know, colonization works is when we're very critical of our families and friends. And so we got to wake up and dream. And if anyone dreams of playing in the NHL, let's get them there.

I wanted to ask you about Carey Price in the playoffs right now. And it's, it's not just the way he's playing which is in the elite elite level but for example when they're in winnipeg he stops to support residential school survivors on his way while walking to one of the games that's price stopping to meet with residential school survivor jerry shingoose before game two between the jets and habs friday night in winnipeg i told him i was with residential school survivor Jerry Shingoose before game two between the Jets and Habs Friday night in Winnipeg. I told him I was a residential school survivor and then he shared that his grandmother went to residential school in Williams Lake, D.C. I felt connected there. Shingoose was sitting here outside of St. Mary's Cathedral, just a block away from Bell MTS Place when Carrie Price approached her,

but she wasn't here to meet the players. She was actually here to meet Archbishop Richard Gagnon of the Archdiocese of Winnipeg. We did advise them that in Canada, under federal law, when people's bodies are found, in this case children, somebody should be held criminally responsible for it. When seeking justice in a... He does an interview with Kyle Bukoskis after they knock out Vegas to reach the Stanley Cup final,

and he makes sure to congratulate his mother, Linda, on her re-election. No fans at all. To be able to wave up to your family at the conclusion, what did that mean to you? I'm just excited for them. You know, it's just an amazing experience. I don't even think they really realize what's going on yet. They were all really young, but you know, my wife and my father are here and, you know, obviously my mom's watching at home. She was just re-elected as chief and and I'm very proud of her as well. Dahooja, I'll got you.

How much do you think that helps for young people? I was watching that, and I was like, wow. Then he speaks his language at the end. That gave me chills. That gave me shivers. It made me emotional. The suicide rate is so high in Indigenous communities all over Canada. I've had a lot of family members a lot commit suicide so you know it hits home i did an

interview with ethan bear well not with him but like on the same story back with the cbc or something back in uh when i was playing in the east coast hockey league they were talking about indigenous players playing professional and that's and that was when ethan was like in the ahl almost on the cusp right and and I said you know once Ethan Bear plays on that blue line at Rogers Place it changes everything and it has like these kids who might you know have a tough home life or you know struggling or struggling in school that's where they get their hope from like that that little glimpse of when they walk by and maybe they're not having a good day.

Maybe they're thinking not so good at the time. And then they look on TV and there's someone that looks like them on TV. It changes everything. It changes their life. It changes how they look at themselves. And that's amazing. That's like, and then you see like Brady Keeper, Zach Whiteclough was going against Price. That is amazing.

And Price speaking his language, taking the time to thank his mother, like that is so powerful. I want to ask you about, you mentioned the rise of Indigenous athletes a second ago there, Devin. And personally, I think that the hockey world has done a poor job of recognizing Indigenous contributions,

even just say for the NHL. We do all know the story of Fred Sassakamos, but it's a lot deeper than that. Henry Buddy Miracle was the first indigenous player in the NHL, 1930-31. Most, if not all, hockey fans are completely unaware of that. And that's a legendary team too.'s you know with the breadline lester patrick is the coach and he wore number 14 i always thought it was great that theo flurry wore the same number with the rangers uh when he played there but there was also jimmy jameson and johnny harms and joe benoit and clarence abel and all these are names that are lost in history and there are only a few trying to keep these names alive when you talk about the rise of the indigenous athlete in hockey and going to the nhl how much

in the back of your mind at the same time are you saying let's get more indigenous athletes into the nhl and at the same time let's go the extra mile here and uncover the buddy miracles and the jimmy jamesons and the joe ben was and make sure their stories are told too i always talk about you know i love hockey hockey has given me so much in my life all these opportunities we're moving hopefully in the right direction but i know the things i've been through and it's different from my non-indigenous friends and what they go through and the purest form of hockey is if you go to you know I go to Muscogee's go to Samson we have a rink there and and usually throughout like lunchtime there's just open ice right there

open ice after school and I remember going to those skates with all my cousins and we would just play shinny and maybe that's why native hockey players have such good hands is because we're just playing open ice not really organized just dangling like that's where we learned to toe drag and that's where you go and you just see these kids young kids and they don't even know that they're native you know like they're just hockey players and that they just play in this game because everyone around them is native like that they just know this the love for the game and that's the purest form and then once they go off the reserve into the white communities they're too young to even know that racism is occurring to them not until an age where they understand and

then it hits them like a ton of bricks so that's kind of what we need as a hockey community to try fix and how i view it is that some coaches out there and some communities and parents, they have all these antiquated thoughts and beliefs about native hockey players. You know, the lazy, they're disrespectful to authority, they can't listen, they're really late for everything. Like, there's all these stereotypes and they still have those thoughts, right? I think that's important that if we're going to be the rise of indigenous athletes and teach these youth, you know, respect and hard work and teach all these things. If we're willing to do that on the other side, now we're doing that.

We're going to camps being the, you know, great hockey players and great people. But we're still getting the same treatment and the same racist beliefs put upon us. And there's no change on the other side is what I'm saying so I think through WANSCA I want to help Indigenous youth but I also want to go on the other side too and go to non-Indigenous schools non-Indigenous camps and part of the camps that I'm running like I invite non-Indigenous goalies because it like it's awesome to build that connection that relationship I always think once they know you then their their thoughts kind of dissipate, right? That's kind of the idea around it. And I'm working with different organizations against racism. There's a sporting justice collective in the States, a bunch of academics that professors

all across States that are studying racism in sports. So I'm part of that and, you know, different anti-racist policy paper. I don't know if you've read it, but that is a key paper. It was done by Queen's university, I think. So this anti-racist policy paper in hockey, I forgot it's a hockey thing. So before I knew there had to be changed, but I didn't know specific things. Like, you know, people ask me, what do we need to change? And I know there has to be changed, but like, those are the tough questions. What kind of changes? Right. Anti-racism and hockey policy paper, you know, it lays out so many different things that are very important that everyone should be reading.

Like hockey association should make it mandatory for their members to read. Building these players up, getting them there is one step. But like you said, the second step and making them contributors to the community.

You get your couple arena tickets and I was like, wouldn't it be awesome? Like I know I'm not in the NHL, but to give these tickets to a native community so they can always come to these games because in the minors like those are like people go to those games that's their that's the show for them right so that's something that i think is so powerful like creating you know these players that make the nhl and then they give back in a huge way there's so much like opportunity for them to

give back in a huge way and they do they do i for them to give back in a huge way. And they do. They do. I'm not saying they don't. But, you know, Wonsk Athletics, like I want to create like a fund or something to do things that these kids normally don't get to do and to give them the tools through mentorship. And that's the thing. I want to build a bunch of mentors. And that's part of the gig, I guess, is to give back through school speaking and showing up in the community and doing all that. So, yeah.

Before we wrap up the interview, I just wanted to mention Bridget LeQuette because I think it's important that young girls have their role models pointed out and mentioned. She's done incredible things as a hockey player for the Canadian national team. But I wanted to ask you as well, Devin, about Ethan Bear. And sadly, after the Oilers were knocked out of the playoffs by Winnipeg, there were just some awful, awful comments made about him on social media. And for the young people that you mentor and you're trying to teach, what do you tell them about that and how to handle that yeah Bridget Lequette you know she's doing excellent things amazing things for the you know

for the indigenous community like the female community and what happened to Ethan Bear you know it's so unfortunate right like it's like a blessing and a curse to play for the Oilers I think like no I don't think there's ever been like a full treaty player that's played with the Oilers right so when he made the Oilers, everyone was supportive of him. And around here, the Oilers are our team. That's my favorite team. That's my family's favorite team. Like that's who we idolize.

And for me, like for him to make that, it's just amazing, incredible to wear that jersey. And even when I played with Wichita, the Oilers emblem was on my shoulders or the Oilers logo. And I was just so proud. I took a picture. I'm like, hey, I made an Oilers jersey. Ethan Baird, that was amazing. When he did that speech, they should give him a platform. You're not just a hockey player. In our communities, you're more than that. And they need to be spotlighted like that. They need to speak up against these things more often. So just to see that, that's a great step in the right direction, giving them a chance to put a video out there and i know how many kids probably watch that video and felt so much pride and sense of nationhood and it was just amazing and like i

said like you know brady keeper florida panthers or zach white cloud vegas knights no one like from here that's not their favorite teams right like uh So there's not as much criticism on them. You know, everyone's happy and proud. Yeah, they made the NHL. That's amazing. But if they turn over the puck, no one says anything, right? From here in the Native communities, it's all about the positiveness. So it's all about the positive plays.

And, you know, just being there is great. So that's how we have to really be objective and think about Ethan Bear like we got to lift him up and be proud of him we can't criticize and just the racism he's dealing with I think when that happened he has so much support they had that rally outside of Rogers and that was unreal and he should and he drove through it and everyone was just so happy and he had a big smile on his face all those you know public appearances and we should be rallying around that every game okay we have two kids there and they just they're starting hockey and so I'm helping out the youngest one you know get his skates on and we're in minor hockey I'm not gonna say where but as soon as he steps on the ice he's just he doesn't even know

how to skate and all the coaches out there don't even notice him and you know my girlfriend's banging on the glass like we should just get him off this is you know this is embarrassing like uh you know this is not good and i'm like it can't be that obvious like the racism can't be that obvious you know and sure enough right in front of my eyes like none of them wanted to help him and i'm you know finally i banged on the glass i was like hey help out our son there and sure enough they start helping and then i realized one of the coaches were my friend so as soon as he noticed me you know everything changed right but there was a couple coaches that still wouldn't or else this other time we signed up during covid we signed up for skills development and you know there was two kind of areas right

rec and skill and uh and competitive and all the rec spots were taken so i was like well it's just skills development like it's not team-based so just sign them up for the top one right and i go into the dressing room and i just have everyone's eyes on me and i'm tying his skates and one kid at a time all questioned me questioned me as a parent like are you supposed to be here and they like say uh you know you're at the so-and-so team right and I'm like yeah this is what we signed up for so I was getting cautioned by these kids and these kids that's what they're learning right to be very critical of you know what they see and and who belongs and who doesn't so that just gave me a lot of insight this year and that's I'm just really wanting to to do anything I can to really

help that process and and that has to do with relationship building and getting into the minor hockey, you know, streams and talking to the parents and really letting them know, like, you have to welcome everyone and you can't be so critical of who belongs and who doesn't because hockey is for everyone. You're a great person, Devin, and you're making this hockey space a lot better. Thank you so much for joining us today. Continued success, all the best with, uh, with Wanska Athletics. Uh, you're clearly in the right direction, uh,

and you're going to do some great things, uh, with a lot of your athletes. And we thank you for sharing some of your time today with me and Elliot. Thanks so much for this. I appreciate that. Uh, one, one thing, uh, I, I am doing goalie camp. So I have one in Edmonton, one in Calgary. Well, Enoch Crenation, Satina Crenation coming up. We have Roddy Ross, who was drafted by Philly. Jermon Cardinal, who plays for the U of A Golden Bears and myself. So that's something I really am pushing for is to get these goalie camps and really motivate these goalies because it's easier to be players for them, right?

To get more playing time. It's hard to navigate as a goalie. So I want to really make them proud to be goalie and to and to stand tall and there's other players i work with like wasey rabbit darren reed and carlin ornstrom are a few names that i wanted to mention they're doing awesome work in the player development and i'm trying to fill that other role of the goalie development so thank you so much for having me this was awesome it was really amazing to share my story and to have the opportunity to tell you guys my story that's amazing i'm so happy yes pleasure is ours and uh by the way roddy ross really good goaltender with the vagina that's uh he's a really nice goalie um devin thank

you so much again for this we really appreciate it hi hi thank you have a great day thanks so much devin we really appreciate it we really want to thank Devin Buffalo for stopping by the podcast this week. You can visit him online, wanskamentality.com. That is W-A-N-I-S-K-A mentality.com. Information there about his speaking tours, his camps, and also a way to touch base with Devin. Taking us out is an indigenous led rock punk folk band out of london ontario that's fronted by vocalist and songwriter adam sturgeon now interesting fact about adam he was a first round pick in the 2000 ohl draft rick nash eric stall

etc also adam's dad peter stur, was drafted by the Boston Bruins, played six games with the Colorado Rockies, becoming the first person from the Yukon to play in the NHL. But back to Adam. His band, Status Non Status, just released their new EP, 1, 2, 3, 4, 500 Years. The band has been carving out a name for themselves for over a decade in the Canadian music scene, but this is their first record under their new band name. With Find a Home, here's Status

Non-Status on 31 Thoughts, the podcast. As we drive And the legal passes us by On the long road I'm alone, I'm in love Well, it's almost over now I don't wanna go home Cause I find myself Further from the answers Closer to the truth To you, to you, to you

Hey! Hey! See you next time.