"One story is tattooed to her left shoulder. The other she carries in her heart. Where an athlete's heritage ends and life story begins is not always easy to dissect. Sometimes, as with Tahnee Robinson, they are so intertwined that trying to pull them apart is futile.
So let's start with the tattoo. All the women in the Sun rookie guard's family — mother, aunts, cousins — wear the four-pointed Pawnee star proudly.
"The star, the constellation, within their culture it's of great significance," said Tahnee's mom, Sara. "My mother's Pawnee name was Yellow Star. That's why we chose it. The flower inside the star is a rose. The rose is significant to my dad's side, the Eastern Shoshone It's in their beadwork, their symbol."
Skidi Pawnee and Eastern Shoshone on mom's side, Northern Cheyenne and Sioux on dad's side, Robinson is looking to work for the Mohegan Tribe on her professional side. She is believed to be the first full-blooded Native American to be drafted by the WNBA, and no simple sports fact has ever better introduced the complexities of reservation life, of hopes and dreams, some broken, others fulfilled."
Get the Story:Jeff Jacobs: Sun Rookie Tahnee Robinson Wants To Be Role Model For Native Americans (The Hartford Courant 5/19) Related Stories:
Column: Tahnee Robinson heads to WNBA, signs with Nike (4/14)
Northern Cheyenne woman a finalist for national Sullivan Award (03/08)
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