From the Navajo Nation to the NFL: Shiyazh Pete Makes History
- Santa Fe Sun Handmade
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Every once in a while, a sports story becomes about something much bigger than sports.
Right now, that story belongs to Shiyazh Pete.
And even his name adds something special to the story.
Shiyázhí is a Navajo/Diné term of affection commonly translated as “my little one” or “my little child.” There is something wonderfully ironic about a man whose name carries that meaning standing an unmistakable 6'9" and lining up against NFL-sized defensive linemen.
But across Native Country, it isn't simply Pete's size that has people talking.
It's what he represents.
In 2026, Pete became the first member of the Navajo Nation to sign with an NFL team, joining the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent.
And suddenly, one young offensive lineman wasn't walking onto the field alone.
It felt as though an entire Nation was walking with him.
From Walk-On to the NFL
Pete's road to professional football was anything but guaranteed.
He began his college football career as a walk-on at New Mexico State, eventually earning a scholarship before continuing his career at the University of Kentucky, where he started all 12 games of his 2025 season.
Then came the NFL Draft. His name wasn't called. For plenty of players, that could have been the end of the road. For Pete, it became another beginning.
The Dallas Cowboys signed him as an undrafted free agent, giving him the opportunity to compete for one of the hardest things in professional sports to earn: a place on an NFL roster. And that's exactly what he's doing now.
There are no guarantees. Every practice matters. Every snap matters. Every opportunity matters. Perhaps that's part of why his story has captured so much attention. Pete wasn't handed a place in history. He's fighting for his chance to stay there.
When a Nation Shows Up
If there was any question about what Pete's journey means to the Navajo Nation, it was answered when the Cowboys traveled to Glendale, Arizona, to play the Cardinals in the preseason.
Thousands of Navajo supporters showed up.
Navajo Nation flags could be seen throughout the stadium. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren was among those in attendance. Families traveled to watch a young man from their Nation do something no enrolled member of the Navajo Nation had done before him.
Pete entered the game in the fourth quarter.
He played six snaps on a Cowboys drive that ended in a touchdown.
Six snaps.
On paper, that's a tiny piece of a football game.
But history isn't always measured by the number of minutes on a clock.
When Pete returned to the Cowboys sideline, he received a standing ovation.
Those six snaps meant something.
Native Players Were There From the Beginning
Pete's achievement is Navajo history, but it is also the newest chapter in a much older Native American football story.
And you cannot tell that story without Jim Thorpe.
Thorpe, a citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, was one of the most extraordinary athletes America has ever produced. He won Olympic gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Games, played Major League Baseball and became one of professional football's earliest stars. But his place in football history goes even deeper.
In 1920, when the American Professional Football Association — the organization that would become the National Football League — was formed, Jim Thorpe was chosen as its first president. Think about that for a moment.
A Native American wasn't simply present at the beginning of what became the NFL.
He helped lead it.
Thorpe would later become a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he wasn't alone. Native players including Joe Guyon and Pete Calac were among the athletes who helped shape professional football in its formative years.
So Shiyazh Pete isn't the first Native American to reach professional football — and his story doesn't need that distinction to be remarkable.
More than a century after Jim Thorpe helped stand at the beginning of the NFL, Pete is opening a door that had remained closed for his own Nation.
He is the first member of the Navajo Nation to sign with an NFL team.
The Power of Being First
Pete doesn't have to become an NFL superstar for this moment to matter.
He doesn't have to become a household name and as an undrafted rookie fighting for a roster spot, nothing about his future in professional football is guaranteed.
But he has already done something that had never been done before: become the first member of the Navajo Nation to sign with an NFL team and step onto an NFL preseason field.
Somewhere on the Navajo Nation, there may be a kid watching Shiyazh Pete step onto that field and seeing something they've never seen before — someone from their Nation standing on that stage.
Maybe that kid plays football.
Maybe their dream has nothing to do with sports at all.
But that is the power of a first.
A first changes the question from:
“Can someone like me do that?” to: “Why not me?”
From Bright Path to a New Trail
There is one more connection between these two Native athletes separated by more than a century.
Jim Thorpe's Native name, Wa-Tho-Huk, is commonly translated as “Bright Path.”
It is difficult to imagine a more fitting name for someone who helped blaze a trail through the earliest days of professional football.
More than 100 years later, another Native athlete is walking a path of his own.
Shiyazh Pete still has work ahead of him. An NFL roster spot is never promised, particularly for an undrafted rookie.
Maybe that's exactly why so many people are watching.
This isn't the story of someone who was guaranteed greatness.
It's the story of a walk-on.
An undrafted free agent.
A young Navajo man who kept going.
And now Shiyazh Pete is standing on one of the biggest stages in American sports, fighting for his opportunity — with thousands already showing that an entire Nation is behind him.
Whatever happens next, that part is already history.
