When the Connecticut Sun played their final WNBA game last month, fans at Mohegan Sun Arena came together in an act of collective celebration and grief.
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fans → play → celebration
The beloved franchise was leaving after 24 seasons, sold to a new ownership group in Houston, in a process so controversial that the state of Connecticut is considering legal action.
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state → leave → action
The Sun entered the league in 2003 and brought professional women’s basketball to Connecticut, which is considered the “Basketball Capital of the World” – at least, according to signs along the state’s highways.
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which → enter → highways
The Sun were the first independently owned WNBA team, and the first Native American-owned pro sports franchise.
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Sun → own → ?
The story of the Mohegan Tribe, which bought the Sun in 2003, often gets lost in conversations about the team.
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which → buy → team
But it shouldn’t, Native fans told the Guardian.
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fans → tell → Guardian
You can’t understand the birth or the death of the team without understanding Native history and the ways cultural and historical harm still reverberates today.
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harm → understand → history
“We are sovereign nations and sovereignty is so important to us, and that’s something that’s been continually challenged and disputed and really disregarded throughout history,” says Natalie Welch, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee tribe and the program director of MBA in sport and entertainment management at Seattle University.
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Welch → ’ → University
“This whole situation, sadly, seems like another disregarding of sovereignty, and is really belittling to the Mohegan Tribe.”
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situation → seem → Tribe
The Mohegan Tribe, whose ancestral lands are along the Thames River in southeastern Connecticut, fought hard to gain its sovereign status.
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lands → fight → status
Its land was taken by white settlers during colonization.
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land → take → colonization
The tribe applied for federal recognition in 1978, which was finally granted in 1994.
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which → apply → 1994
The following year, the Connecticut governor signed a bill authorizing the state to return 240 acres of the tribe’s original ancestral lands to the federal government, to be held in trust for the Mohegan Tribe.
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governor → sign → Tribe
Over the years, the tribe has bought more of its land back, acquiring hundreds of acres.
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tribe → buy → acres
It currently has more than 2,400 registered members.
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It → have → members
The Mohegan Sun Casino and the arena inside it are located on the tribe’s reservation in Uncasville, named for a pre-colonial tribal leader, Sachem (Chief) Uncas.
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Casino → locate → leader
Shortly after the tribe received its sovereign status and land, it decided to pursue gaming as a way to “return the tribe to economic self-sufficiency”, according to the tribe.
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it → receive → tribe
The casino opened in 1996, and many tribal members work there.
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members → open → 1996
“Before the casino was built, that land was also not ours,” says Haley Kerwin, a Mohegan tribal member and Sun fan whose father works at the casino.
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father → build → casino
“It was ours, and then it was taken away, it was something that we had to fight to get back.
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we → take → that
The reason that we were able to open the casino there, the reason that my dad was able to get a job and start a family, is because of the work that the members of our tribe have done to not let us be erased.”
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us → open → tribe
The Mohegan Tribe chose to invest in the WNBA at a time when it was not financially popular to do so.
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it → choose → time
When the league began in 1997, the NBA collectively owned the teams, and each WNBA team was run by its NBA counterpart in its city.
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team → begin → city
After a rapid expansion process that saw the league double in size over its first four seasons from 1997 to 2000, it restructured in 2002.
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it → see → 2002
The NBA teams had to decide for themselves whether they wanted to operate their W counterparts.
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they → have → counterparts
Four WNBA teams folded in the wake of that change – the Portland Fire and the Miami Sol ceased to exist (the Fire would return as an expansion franchise this year), while the Utah Starzz moved to San Antonio and the Orlando Miracle were bought by the Mohegan Tribe for $5m and became the Connecticut Sun.
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Miracle → fold → m
but I think what’s so special is that the WNBA has always been a majority-Black women, and so for the Mohegans to come in as a business and invest in something that people didn’t think would exist 30 years later, much less be thriving, I just think it’s a really great display of investment in community,” says Shea Vassar, a Sun fan and a registered member of Cherokee Nation.
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Vassar → think → Nation
Val Ackerman, the WNBA’s president at the time, says the significance of bringing the first Native-owned pro sports team to the league wasn’t really part of the consideration around the awarding of the franchise.
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significance → say → franchise
An hour north was UConn, where coach Geno Auriemma was building a dynasty; when the Sun entered the WNBA, the Huskies had just won their third national title in four years.
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Huskies → build → years
the Mohegan Tribe won out because they had a built-in arena with just over 9,000 seats – the perfect size for the fanbase.
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they → win → fanbase
“We saw [having the first Native-owned team] as a positive, but that wasn’t why we did it,” Ackerman says.
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Ackerman → see → it
It was this very unique setup in a part of the country where we knew women’s basketball had a great following, and we knew they were great operators because they also have a lot of other events they bring into the building there.
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they → know → building
From day one, the tribe played a huge role in the public image and branding of the team.
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tribe → play → team
In a world where sports franchises have adopted Native imagery for team names or mascots that many consider racist, having an identity that was Native-informed was significant.
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that → adopt → identity
Kerwin, who grew up going to Sun games with her family, interned for the team’s content department for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
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who → grow → seasons
She was proud to help shape the public narrative and bring a Mohegan perspective to the team’s social presence.
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She → help → presence
In 2021, when the WNBA debuted its “Rebel Edition” uniforms, the Sun’s set highlighted and honored Mohegan culture.
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set → debut → culture
The 2024 and 2026 versions continued that trend.
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versions → continue → trend
On the front, instead of having the word “Sun” on the jersey, it said “KEESUSK”, which means “sun” in the Mohegan language.
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which → have → language
Symbols on the waistband corresponded to the four dome directions in Mohegan Tribal culture – east, south, west, north.
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Symbols → correspond → culture
…and 40 more, not listed.
The Aporia
