Waneek Horn-Miller

Waneek Horn-Miller

Waneek Horn-Miller is a Mohawk of Kahnawake. She was a member of the Canadian women’s water polo team that won a gold medal at the 1999 Pan Am Games. Waneek was stabbed near the heart by a soldier’s bayonet as she carried her sister, and lost her life.

About Waneek Horn-Miller in brief

Summary Waneek Horn-MillerWaneek Horn-Miller is a Mohawk of Kahnawake. She was a member of the Canadian women’s water polo team that won a gold medal at the 1999 Pan Am Games. She is a brand ambassador for Manitobah Mukluks and director of their Storyboot School. In 2015 she was named one of Canada’s most influential women in sport by the Canadian Association for Advancement of Women and Sport. She fights against racism since she had received unfair treatment as an indigenous athlete. She has been an influential speaker for the younger generation of Mohawks, she tries to motivate and be the role model for the kids to be hard-working and determined to achieve all their goals, just as she did as an Indigenous athlete.

During her 2000 Olympic campaign, she appeared nude, except for a water ball and a feather, on the cover of Time magazine. On the 78th and last day of the Oka Crisis, as the occupiers were walking out there was a physical altercation between Mohawk militants and soldiers. Waneek was stabbed near the heart by a soldier’s bayonet as she carried her sister, and lost her life. She will be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in the athlete category in 2019.