Standing Rock Sioux Tribe welcomes NBA player as official member

FORT YATES, N.D. – NBA star Kyrie Irving has worked to embrace his heritage in recent years.

He was back on the Standing Rock Reservation Thursday.

Staff with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe confirmed that Irving is now an official member of the tribe.

Photos sent by the staff of his visit to the reservation Thursday show him smiling with council members and Chairman Mike Faith while being honored with a star quilt.

According to a witness Irving had his enrollment application approved by the tribal council and administration at the Standing Rock Lakota/Dakota Tribal Headquarters.

Irving’s mother Elizabeth, who died when he was four years old, was of Sioux heritage.

Irving first visited Standing Rock in 2018.