OFFICIAL HOME OF THE
SPIRIT LAKE YOUTH SPORTS
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Choosing Water First
Our ancestors called this place Mni Wakan Sacred Water. They named themselves after it. Mni Wakan Oyate. The People of the Spirit Water. Choosing water first is not a health trend. It is a homecoming.
Through a 2.5-year grant partnership with the Notah Begay III (NB3) Foundation, Spirit Lake Youth Sports is launching the Water First! community initiative. This campaign is rooted in education and community engagement designed to make healthy hydration a natural, celebrated part of daily life on Spirit Lake Nation.
What Water First! brings to our community:
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Free water stations at our new Fieldhouse and Powwow grounds
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Water First! tables at Powwows and community events
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Community runs, including our upcoming event on July 25th
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A community mural celebrating water and Spirit Lake culture
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A dedicated part-time community coordinator leading outreach year-round Funded in partnership with the NB3 Foundation.
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About the NB3 Foundation
The Notah Begay III Foundation is a national Native American-led nonprofit dedicated to combating the epidemic of Native American childhood obesity. Founded by professional golfer Notah Begay III, the NB3 Foundation invests in community-driven health initiatives across Indian Country — including the Water First! program, which supports tribes and Native-led organizations in making water the default beverage choice for youth and families.
We are proud to be an NB3 Foundation partner community.
More Than Summer Baseball
If you know Spirit Lake Youth Sports, you may know us from our summer baseball leagues or our Sunka Wakan (Sacred Dog) youth horse program. But there is a lot more happening and we want to introduce you to it.
SLYS was founded in 2021 by community members who saw a critical gap: our youth on the Spirit Lake Nation lacked safe, organized, and culturally relevant recreational opportunities. We are a tribally chartered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, with a board made up entirely of enrolled members of the Spirit Lake Oyate. Every project we take on is accountable to this community.
Over the past four years, we have raised and managed more than $160,000 in direct grant funding, launched three active programs, and are completing construction on a new 4,000-square-foot community center — The Fieldhouse — opening this summer.
Our New Home The Fieldhouse
The Fieldhouse is the first community-operated support facility of its kind on Spirit Lake Nation, and it will serve as the headquarters for everything SLYS does. Located adjacent to our baseball fields, it is designed to be a year-round hub for programming, education, and community life.
Beyond sports, The Fieldhouse will offer employment and job training workshops, digital literacy resources, youth internship and leadership development, and entrepreneurship education giving our youth and families access to opportunities that simply have not existed on the reservation before.
The Fieldhouse is SLYS's foundation. Everything we are building connects back to it.
A Bigger Vision for Spirit Lake Nation
The Fieldhouse is the starting point. In partnership with the Spirit Lake Tribe, SLYS is working toward a 28-acre Wellness Corridor — an interconnected community campus that ties together our facilities, our culture, and our land.
This is SLYS's long-term vision, developed with the community and in collaboration with the Tribe:
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28-Acre Walking Park & Trails A network of walking paths connecting the Fieldhouse, schools, Rodeo Grounds, and Powwow grounds, anchored by a cultural meeting circle
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Outdoor Cultural Amphitheater A gathering space for performances, ceremonies, and community events
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Rodeo Arena A dedicated training arena to expand and deepen the Sunka Wakan horse program year-round
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Little League Field Renovation Upgrading our baseball facilities to provide a modern, safe environment for our youth athletes
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Powwow Grounds & RV Park Improvements Enhancing the infrastructure that supports our most important annual community gathering
These projects are in various stages of planning and fundraising. None of them happen overnight but all of them are in motion.
Be Part of What We Are Building
We are launching a community survey later this year to hear directly from families across all four districts Fort Totten, St. Michael, Crow Hill, and Woodlake about what matters most to them. Your voice shapes our priorities.
Sign up below to receive updates on Water First!, upcoming events, and the work SLYS is doing across Spirit Lake Nation.
Spirit Lake Youth Sports • Spirit Lake Nation
