Cole Redhorse Taylor remembers the evening of Nov. 24 well. It was Native American Heritage Day, and Minnesota Wild goalie Marc-André Fleury said he would wear the goalie helmet designed by Taylor, a Mdewakanton Dakota artist, for the game that evening.
This was an especially touchy topic because the NHL technically bans players from wearing “specialty jerseys or masks” for themed evenings and said it would fine Fleury. But Fleury said he was going to do it anyway — he wanted to honor his wife, Véronique, who is Indigenous and from Canada.
“[The NHL is] being racist without actually saying that they’re being racist,” Taylor said. “The reason for that is that they are saying it’s political to acknowledge Native people. It’s literally just acknowledging the original people of this area because we have been shorthanded on everything.”
Although Fleury wore the helmet only during warmups — another goalie played that evening, and the Minnesota Wild lost 3-2 to the Colorado Avalanche — the helmet, and Fleury’s defiance of NHL’s rules, went down in history.
To acknowledge and commemorate this, the Minnesota Historical Society purchased it at auction for $35,100. Proceeds will support the Minnesota Wild Foundation and American Indian Family Charity.
Taylor was chosen to create the helmet design and immediately knew that he wanted to include Dakota floral designs, which are in his tribe’s traditional artwork and aesthetics as well. The helmet was painted by Shell Shock Designs.
“What was really important for me was that it says ‘Mni Sota Makoce,’ which is the traditional name of this land,” he said. “It translates to ‘the land of the cloudy or misty waters.’”
Marc-André's last name, Fleury, means “flower.”
