(Images From Standing Rock by Richard Tsong-Taatarii; Magazine Design by Matt Cain)

Lyle Thompson arrived at Standing Rock Reservation the second-last week of November, when protests over the North Dakota Access Pipeline’s potential effect on Native American lands hit a crescendo.

The first night there, he joined campers around a spiritual fire where members of different tribes were discussing the events and sharing ideas. Thompson stood up and addressed the crowd in the Onondaga language.

“My name is Dayhausinonday,” he said, introducing himself and sharing how he wanted to play a Medicine Game on the site of the protests, hoping to bring some joy and lift peoples’ spirits through lacrosse.

“You felt it in the environment; you felt it in the air,” says Bill O’Brien, a longtime friend and co-founder of Thompson Brothers Lacrosse, who joined Thompson on the trip from the Onondaga Nation to North Dakota. “People wanted to hear him speak. They wanted to know what he had to say.”

A month earlier, Thompson posted an image on Instagram of him wearing a “Caucasians” sweatshirt, styled in the way of the Cleveland Indians logo, mocking the team’s Chief Wahoo mascot and the bastardization of the word “Indians.”

“What does this represent, why does Chief Wahoo look the way he does? Why do we still accept being called Indians? The name is wrong, the mascot is wrong. Call me crazy, but I feel for my people because of the continued exploitation and dehumanization of my people,” Thompson wrote in a post that received more than 4,251 likes and hundreds of comments — both supportive and critical.

Lyle Thompson has grown comfortable with his platform as an influential figure in the lacrosse community and as an emerging voice in the Native American community, using his impact to speak out on issues affecting Native Americans.

“I look at myself, and I have an opportunity to inspire, to help a lot of people. There’s not a lot of Native Americans who are in that boat,” he says. “I didn’t have a bunch of people to look up to. I didn’t have a lot of positive role models in the media.”

But it wasn’t long ago the introverted kid from Onondaga Nation was still finding that voice and shied away from the media, despite being thrust into a national spotlight for his spectacular, flashy play and a story steeped in tradition and family that caught the mainstream attention during his college career at Albany.

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Traveling with Thompson were his three daughters, his wife Amanda, O’Brien and Scott Marr, his coach at Albany. With Marr and O’Brien at the wheel, the group traveled nearly 30 hours each way to join the movement at Standing Rock.

Despite his quiet nature, Marr knew Thompson was destined for greater things than lacrosse from the start. They first met on the Onondaga Nation, with Lyle Thompson in the back seat of a car behind reflective mirror sunglasses and wearing two braids, quietly mumbling “Hello” to Marr through the car window as the two were introduced. Marr would spend time at his house while recruiting his older brother Miles to Albany.

The Thompson family had its share of attention before Lyle’s time at Albany. The documentary “The Medicine Game,” showcased the journey of Hiana and Jeremy Thompson, Lyle’s older brothers. O’ Brien said when filmmaker Lukas Korver would ask Lyle a question, “He would just smile and walk away.”

A 2010 Inside Lacrosse Magazine cover story profiled the Thompson family, with iconic photos of a shirtless and barefoot Lyle playing lacrosse with his brothers in his backyard with wooden sticks. (Photo below by Greg Wall)

He entered his freshman season at Albany as IL’s No. 1 recruit, and he would hang around the coaches’ office with Marr and stick near Miles and his cousin Ty. Lyle's wife was pregnant with their first child, and at first the player and coach bonded over fatherhood.

“That was one way that we started to bond early,” Marr says. “He was quiet, but when he spoke, he spoke softly but with meaning. He always thought about his words before he spoke. He was always very cautious with what he said.”

As a freshman midfielder in 2012, the Great Danes went 5-11, so he wasn’t too thrust into the spotlight outside of lacrosse media. But a key moment for growth came in an early April overtime win at Hartford. Out of a timeout, Marr called for Thompson to initiate the offensive possession. He did, and in a sign of things to come, moved it to his brother Miles who hit Ty Thompson for the game-winning goal.

It was a small token of trust between coach and player that meant much more.

“I think Coach Marr has a lot of trust in me. It was the first game we went to OT, and I didn’t expect him to put it in my stick — maybe Joe Resetarits’ [stick],” Lyle remembers. “But he put the ball in my stick, end of the game. It showed me the trust he had in me. He was trying to build confidence in myself, and that did that.

“Our relationship started long before that, but that was a huge part of how he helped me,” Thompson says.

His sophomore season would kickoff Thompson-mania, spurred in part by a New York Times article on the Thompson Trio. The media exposure continued as Thompson became a two-time Tewaaraton winner (once co-winner with his brother Miles), set the NCAA scoring record and was featured on two more Inside Lacrosse Magazine covers — once under the banner “The Face of College Lacrosse.”

“That was a slow process for him,” Marr says. “It took him a while to grasp what to say, how to say it. He tried to compliment his teammates a lot. I thought he always did a good job of making it about team, team play.

“He realized he could start to use the media too, as time went on. Using it as a platform, the platform he built in college,” Marr says. “He started to realize that he was starting to build a platform for himself, for the sport and for Native Americans.”

Upon graduation, he was the No. 1 pick in both the Major League Lacrosse draft, going to the Florida Launch, and the National Lacrosse League draft, to the Georgia Swarm. He signed with Nike as a sponsored athlete and in November was the face of the Nike N7 Spirit of Protection Collection, which was released for Native American Heritage month (N7 is Nike’s commitment to Native American and aboriginal youth in North America to participate in sports). He also runs Thompson Brothers Lacrosse along with his brothers.

“At times, I was forced to talk in front of big groups of people, in front of a camera. With all that, I kinda just got comfortable,” Lyle Thompson says. “To me now, it’s using it, making sure it doesn’t go to waste.”

“It’s really inspiring for me,” O’Brien says. “To know Lyle when he was six or seven years old, being the kid who wouldn’t talk. He was quiet, kept to himself. If you wanted to find Lyle, you’d go to any of the lacrosse spots. He’d be imagining himself playing the big time game, scoring the game-winning goal, but he would never really vocalize or talk about anything.”

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The group, led by Lyle, traveled throughout the different camps at Standing Rock. Tribes from all over North America had their own campsites on the land, thousands of people in total.

Lyle Thompson, carrying a wooden lacrosse stick, was recognized “almost immediately,” O’Brien says. Some Native Americans there had never heard of lacrosse, others played variations and some from the Haudenosaunee camp had played with them in the past on Akwesasne or Onondaga.

Thompson spent much of his time talking with elders, trying to gain wisdom and perspective on the situation. Thompson has said he had never spoken out about the mascot issue until recently because he did not feel he was properly educated on it, and he refuses to use his platform to discuss things he doesn’t feel ready to discuss in a meaningful way. One of their meetings was with the Lakota tribe and with descendants of pivotal Native American leader Chief Red Cloud, who offered them shelter in their tent.

“He shows respect and talks to them,” O’Brien says. “He was taking 20, 30, 40 minutes talking to elders out there, so that he could have a better grasp on things.”

Says Thompson: “Just from talking to the elders, the biggest thing I learned from them was just how positive they are. It really is bringing our people together. … What you’re up against, you’re up against money, you’re up against the big oil. We’ve been on this side of the stick plenty of times, the Native Americans. Especially speaking to the Lakota — a lot of treaties have been broken on their end of things. The biggest thing I learned is their way of thinking. There’s a way to be positive. There’s always a positive side of things.”

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, after spreading the word across camp, they played their first Medicine Game at Standing Rock. With only 16 sticks, they split up and started a game to 3, using a sign that said “Reserved for the Creators Game” as a makeshift goal.

While we were looking for a field to play in we ran into this. #looknofurther #standingrock #Medicinegame #NoDALP A photo posted by Lyle Thompson (@lyle4thompson) on Nov 22, 2016 at 3:44pm PST

That quickly turned into a game to 5, then to a rematch between the same teams before people from a crowd that had gathered subbed in players. They taught some fundamentals and ran a few line drills for people to get used to the sticks.

“It brought something different to the campground there. They’re not used to it, so it brought smiles to their faces. To bring a game that’s a part of all Natives and share the game with them was special,” Thompson says.

“It was wild. It was so surreal to be playing a Medicine Game. The game wasn’t huge but the message was there, the meaning was there,” Marr says.

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Upon arrival back home, Thompson is thrust back into pro lacrosse, with NLL training camp under way.

Marr shared his experience in a letter on InsideLacrosse.com, urging the lacrosse community to honor the sport’s Native American roots and take a public stand against the North Dakota Access Pipeline. His story gained much support on social media, as well as some divisive comments online. Marr said only a few of his peers in the coaching world had reached out to him in support.

The protesters gained a victory in early December, as the Army Corp of Engineers announced it will look for an alternate route, but Tribal leaders are not certain the debate is over.

For Thompson, it was no surprise that Marr was willing to take a public stand. His former coach and close friend was the one who allowed him to gain confidence in his own voice.

“I’ve known Coach Marr for seven, eight years now. I know who he is. It’s not a surprise to me. He’s standing up for what he believes in. … I see more and more similarities we have and how our relationships have really impacted each other. He’s someone who really makes me see life in a different way, and I believe I’ve done the same for him,” Thompson says.

Thompson says he will continue to speak up when he feels inspired to do so, but only when he feels educated and compelled to.

“I’m going to do what I can do. I’m going to try my best to support things I truly believe in, that are for a good cause. Especially with something that affects Native Americans,” he says. “I’m not going to go out and plan a bunch of things; I’m just going to stand up for what I believe in.”