Dom Amore: Sun’s Jasmine Thomas receives high honor from Mohegan Tribe, the first Gladys Tantaquidgeon Award for social justice

Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel rushed back to Uncasville one unforgettable day in 1994 to tell her Aunt Gladys, who was well into her 90s, the good news. The long fight to win federal recognition for the Mohegan Tribe was over.

“The day I went over to her house, I was so excited to tell her,” Melissa remembered, “and I told her, ‘Gladys, we succeeded. We’ve won federal recognition.’ And she said, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful.’ ... Then she turned and said, ‘so what are you going to do next?’”

Gladys Tantaquidgeon, anthropologist, medicine woman, social worker, author, who died at age 106 in 2005, never relented from the work for justice and equality for Native Americans, and all people. On Sunday, the tribe established a social justice award in her honor that will be given each year to a Sun player, and named Jasmine Thomas the first recipient.

“It’s very fitting,” Sun coach Curt Miller said, “because of who she is and what she stands for. She is a fantastic human that is so dedicated to causes, so dedicated to uplifting others. So she embodies this award and is the perfect first recipient.”

This is not a sports award, not something Thomas earned from points, assists or rebounds, though it comes in a year in which she has averaged 10.7, 4.1 and 2.5, leading the Sun (26-6) into the WNBA playoffs on a 14-game winning streak to finish the regular season, playing with a joy and esprit de corps that has Miller absolutely giddy.

The award’s criteria: “Brings positive energy and good spirits to her team; demonstrates an optimistic world view; is a champion of social justice; approaches life with character and integrity; and inspires and motivates good works in others.

“We were looking for the person on the team that best embodies those qualities,” said Beth Regan, member of the council of elders, “approaches life with character, demonstrates an optimistic world view. To me, it was clear, especially the optimism and the leadership in a quiet, gentle, humble way. That’s why Jas exemplifies Gladys in a modern interpretation, in a modern viewpoint. It was an easy pick.”

Connecticut Sun staff and tribal leadership chose Thomas for her work, which has been tireless, on behalf of social justice, the team’s Change Can’t Wait campaign, the Kay Yow Foundation for breast cancer research and awareness, distributing shoes to the needy, and improving education and health care.

“She’s a multidimensional leader,” Regan said, “not only with her team, but her community. When you think of Jas and her campaigns, grass roots campaigns, the sneaker campaign, collecting sneakers so she can distribute them to children in need. Grass roots. She has inspired others.”

Thomas, 31, was surprised with the award, presented with a medallion and a handcrafted, traditional wampum, a blue necklace made with shells, and a check for $1,000 for the charity of her choice after the final regular season game, the Suns’ 84-64 victory over Atlanta.

Tribal elders, sitting in a circle on the court, honored her with a ceremonial song.

“They have really embraced us as part of their family,” Thomas said afterward. “Basketball people forget, that’s who we play for. We play for the tribe, and this year more than ever they have let us into some of their traditions, and we appreciate them so much. So I’m grateful that they’re a part of my family now.”

Gladys Tantaquidgeon studied anthropology at Penn in 1919 and came to hold honorary degrees from Yale and Harvard. With her father and brother she helped found the Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum, the oldest of its kind, in 1931 and worked there full time until she was 98. In the 1930s, she worked in President Franklin Roosevelt’s Bureau of Indian affairs, helping to improve education, health care and other benefits to reservations out west. Back home, where New England and Northeastern tribes had become all but invisible, she worked to revive tribal customs and began the push for federal recognition in 1978, preserving records and tribal correspondence that proved critical in boxes under her bed. She is referenced on the Sun’s blue “Rebel” uniforms, which they wore Sunday.

“Gladys was such a quiet social justice warrior that we never really gave her the credit that she deserved,” said Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel, the tribe’s current medicine woman. “I remember her telling a story about removing a woman from the back of the bus in Virginia and telling her to come sit with her, because the bus driver had put her in the back of the bus for being a woman of color. Gladys was the smallest human being you ever saw. She was so petite, but she did bold things. Gladys really, really believed in excellence. She loved nothing more than to see women succeed.”

Thomas, too, while much taller than Gladys, is undersized in her sport at 5 feet 9 and does bold things. “If they met, there would be an instant connection,” Miller said. “An instant respect because they both have the same attributes.”

Gladys’ niece pondered it a moment. What if they could meet? What would the conversation be like?

“The first thing that comes to mind,” Zobel said, “is Gladys looking at her and saying, ‘My. ... My, my. You have quite a list of achievements for such a young woman. What are you going to do next?’”

Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com.