by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
The Mamba Mentality of the late Kobe Bryant is well known in the media and the impact is global. In its simplest form it is trying to get better at what you’re doing. And not only today but each day, you are trying to get better. But not only better but being the best.
There may be a CattRez Mentality happening in the Seneca Nation. The CattRez Mentality is focused on extensive leadership but not followership. As in the Mamba Mentality, the CattRez Mentality makes the ordinary extraordinary. This is an example of not only empowered youth and adult development. It is empowered community development.
The pursuit of greatness is not only for the leader. The continuing and process-driven results are the countless kids and adults that are impacted in an empowerment mode to pursue greatness.
The leader of the CattRez Mentality is Dakota Snyder.
Dakota Snyder is from the Seneca Nation and is a member of the Turtle Clan. His home is in Irving, NY in the Seneca Nation Territory.
Dakota coached youth football for over 10 years and coached an all-native football team for eight years. The youth football team won two youth super bowls. He has also been the player/coach in basketball tournaments for 12 years.
“As an athlete I was going to the best prep school, St. Francis, in Western NY for football,” said Dakota. “18 kids went to play college football every year ranging from D1 to Juco. I was one of three freshmen on varsity. It was very promising. I transferred out junior year due to academics and was tired of being ineligible for field lacrosse due to religious classes.”
“I went to a big public school and had success until I tore three knee ligaments (ACL, MCL and PCL) senior year so college recruiting stopped,” said Dakota. “I was set on Brockport University but they told me to call them after my injury.”
“I rehabbed my knee and dove into basketball big time,” said Dakota. “How much tribal core values turned me from player to coach was understanding that as native people we are survivors. We as a community are built to last. So when I’m coaching football and basketball I let it be known we have been through tough times. We as a whole were set up for failure but we made it out of the swamps and reservations that ‘they placed us on’. So I know you got more in the tank to finish these sprints or play full court defense because if not, there’s another native on this bench that will.”
“Once I saw my basketball or football teams respond to my approach at a young age of coaching, I quickly adopted some techniques that became a part of my repertoire,” said Dakota.
“A true leader makes everyone around him better, he makes sure everyone is accountable and accounted for,” said Dakota. “I’m coaching leaders not followers, this is beyond the turf or hardwood. Step up and command your life, command your daily life and demand the best of your performance on and off the field. The philosophy with football is 10 with 10 guys relying on you. If you’re the 11th then you’re on the field playing offense or defense. But your responsibility is to not cost your 10 teammates a penalty or get beat by the man across from you. I like to get t-shirts or breakdown huddles saying ‘10 on me’ because 10 guys rely on you to not screw up. You owe it to them to be your best.”
In our indigenous traditions we remember and acknowledge the one’s who came before us. Barry E. Snyder, Jr. was the patriarch of the Snyder family. He was born in Buffalo and was a 1979 graduate of Silver Creek High School and he was the football star. He had seven sons who all played football, basketball, and lacrosse and a daughter who was a cheerleader. Barry died young at age 52 six years ago. He also left his wife Deanna and 16 grandchildren.
“My father was a great quarterback and he grew up in an era before high school football had playoffs,” said Dakota. “My dad led his high school team to a 12-0 senior season and lots of his teammates tell how dominant he was as a defensive end more so than a quarterback. I was a ‘D-end’ as well and he taught me so much with an eye on the ball and firing of the snap.”
“My dad would say ‘It’s not how fast you are … it’s how quick you are,’ said Dakota.
“My Uncle Scott had a big role in my love for the game of basketball, “ said Dakota. “He gave me an opportunity to play for his league and tournament team ‘Seneca Chiefs’. I learned about native tournaments by playing for him. We would travel to all the local reservations when I was 16-19 years old including Salamanca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Cattaraugus, and Six Nations. It was very popular back in the day. I loved going to places and winning and seeing the scenery. I’m like ‘we are away from home and showing up with the team’.”
“The name Seneca Chiefs carried some fear into the opposition,” said Dakota. “Witnessing that fear made me look forward to the next game and tournament. The best guys from our ‘Rez’ are winning.”
“My uncle had a good philosophy to ‘get your shots up, you pass and turn it over,’” said Dakota. “He had a run and gun philosophy but I realized he always had a solid big to rebound so I always made sure to build around a traditional big man to rebound inside.”
“Greatness is upon you … act like it”, said Dakota. “On a professional level I am a third generation businessman. My grandfather pioneered our industry of smoke shop and gas stations on our reservation. Not my choice and it kind of fell on my lap. Responsibility to my family made me strive to be the best version of myself to provide healthy business. Growth and prosperity for the future kids of our family played a day and weekly through my head. I would constantly think about the next generation of kids in our family to be able to work and learn values of the working environment through Catt-Rez Enterprises, Inc. I was to be their boss to be there to set ‘em straight.”
“Things may be given in life but it’s a lot harder to maintain and succeed your successors,” said Dakota. “Along the way you can fail and stumble. As long as you learn and go through those adversities you find yourself and understand where you learned to pick yourself up along the way.”
“My advice to kids at our banquets is to go after your dreams,” said Dakota. “I tell them in front of their parents. You just busted your butt’s off for me for three and four months. Now continue to bust your butt for the other eight or nine months into the next sport and our classroom. Be the best version of you. Find yourself because you will never be a good copycat but you will be the best version of you I promise you that. Don’t be afraid to fail, because without failure I would never know how to be a good coach because I failed a group of men before my first year as a coach. We went 0-8 and I made it a passion of mine to never ever let myself be outcoached or be unprepared again. At 22 years old I was so upset with myself about a winless season that I took it personally and said I had a responsibility to these boys and this community to be better and I came from this football team. I better figure it out or quit. I’m not a quitter. I realized it’s not about making friends, it’s about the greater goal of learning to win and appreciating the work that goes into winning.”
“Coaching an all native football youth team made me a better man,” said Dakota. “It prepared me to be a better father, co-worker, friend and man.”
“I now coach in a bigger environment at Gowanda with the youth varsity 12-14,” said Dakota.
“Coaches and I talk on a weekly basis and I’ve honestly been working on schemes during the pandemic,” said Dakota. “Blitz packages. Making thoughts become a reality. Coming up with drills and a daily practice schedule. ‘Football is four months away’ my dad would say every first of the month.”
“My basketball team ‘Catt-Rez’ is named after my family business,” said Dakota. “We have been traveling locally and nationwide to as far west as Seattle and Miami.
Basketball has given me an opportunity to meet so many Native American men and women throughout Indian country. I have made legit best friends from all over and many contacts through my travels. I talk to your son Byron Ninham almost every day.”
“I am honored to contribute to niitaawis odibaajimowin (in Ojibwemowin: my cousin’s story),” said Byron Ninham. “Dakota Synder holds many titles, a proud member of the Seneca Nation, business man, mentor, coach, a brother and the most important of all, father. Our friendship started in 2015, and with a text he asked me to play in a basketball tournament in Cattaraugus, a Seneca community in western New York. I had played in the tournament previously and played against Dakota’s team, Catt Rez. Knowing the high level of talent he competes with, I was humbled to be asked to put on the jersey. That specific tournament didn’t end the way we had hoped but the game and life can take you to some amazing places and to meet amazing people. Dakota is one of those genuine, one of a kind people. An amazing IQ for athletics, business and communications, Dakota is a gem for western New York.”
“Dakota is a bright star in business for his community, and with Catt Rez Enterprises being a family-owned business,” said Byron. “He game plans for Catt Rez with the same fire of a championship basketball game or coaching his team during a league football game in the fall. It really is a sight to see and he makes you believe, because he doesn’t sugar coat what is the ‘real’, the ‘real’ always comes out.”
“Dakota is an unsung hero for youth athletics and athletics in general for the community, volunteering his time outside of the general demands of fatherhood and business. He commits to developing young people because if he can make a difference in a young person’s life. It is all worth it because he’s passing his knowledge and passion on to others. I am proud to say our conversations will sometimes start with athletics but it turns more into the game of life and how we try to positively affect the people we work for and with. Being a father of two young children, he knows that the time away is a factor for his family but I always see him putting his children in the forefront of his thoughts and love, he does it dutifully and impressively,” added Byron.
“Dakota is one of the closest people I have been able to maintain in life and I consider him a brother,” said Byron.
“I also was able to witness great basketball players,” said Dakota. “Seeing the juggernaut teams like Iron 5, Plainzmen, Lord of the Plains, Big Town, and Desert Horse. Seeing legends out there like Jr. Camel, Lucas Martinez, Michael Linklater, Jess Heart, Wayne Runnels, Damen Bellholter, Joe Burton, and Jerome Davis. I’ve combined teams with a good friend from Florida, Jay Liotta, and he runs Lord of the Plains. We went to Spokane, WA and won the Spring Fever Tournament hosted by Jerry Ford. He retired the tournament after 25 years. We won cash and nice Pendleton jackets.”
“I’ve known Dakota for nearly eight years,” said Michael Linklater, basketball player and friend. “In all of the time that I’ve known him he’s been a tremendous leader. Dakota exemplifies great leadership by always having community in heart. Years ago he asked me to play for his basketball team in a tournament. His team carried the pride of his nation. Dakota would always tell me about his ideas he had for the youth in his community and how he wanted to help them see a positive way of life. Dakota always has a smile on his face and is constantly looking to be better. His dedication to his professional life is unparalleled. I am happy to call him my friend.”
“Dakota is a stand up guy he treats everyone with respect,” said Jerome Rome Davis. “He’s always had a competitive team and he has always took care of his players on and off the court. He and I are like brothers, and our relationship is very strong. If he called me and needed me I’d be there in a second. We will always be brothers.”
“Probably my favorite tournament that changed the format and is now called Battle of Nations. You can only enter as a team of players all from the same tribal band. So I take a whole squad from NY to Spokane full of Seneca’s. There are 28-32 teams there and it’s just a beautiful grand entry. We have placed 5th and I’m very proud of bringing young Seneca men I mentored and coached in youth football and now on the basketball court. Life experiences and it’s all through basketball. My mindset is to keep my core of Seneca’s playing at a high level. So I enter into big cash tournaments that are open to all races. Rochester, NY hosts ‘the 25k’ and 1st place is $25.000. I took an all native team there three times and one year we beat the defending champs in overtime and we were led by Lucas Martinez, Jerome Davis, Craig Foster, and Lorenzo Bell,” added Dakota,
“Getting that respect made my team known not just in native country but being asked to go to Ft. Lauderdale to play in a 10k tournament and playing against NBA players. Having pro level players is a must and it’s great to have them native players who play D1, overseas, etc… Justin McCloud was key for us in Florida. Having a shooter to stretch the floor. We beat a Miami Pro-Am League team, and their league is one of the best programs in the country similar to the Drew League. I think they are both sponsored by NIKE.”
“My inspiration is to get young Seneca men more involved in playing year-round,” said Dakota. “It’s such a lacrosse filled area with lots of pro’s. But they are very good basketball players. We are known for our big’s. Charlie and Scott Scanlon were big forwards that travelled the country playing basketball and I looked up to them. Snooky Brooks is 6’10 and 50 years old plus and he has two sons the same height that play ball and travel the country. Those guys are well known for being from NY and great in the paint. We have a solid known player who would win a lot of tournaments locally and on the NASA/NAYO circuit. Brad John was a potential MLB baseball player and a fast 5’10 PG that could easily torch a team. He’s all around my favorite Seneca player. He currently runs the CCC (Cattaraugus Community Center) a 25 million dollar facility on territory that has two basketball courts, and ice hockey/lacrosse turf. He has helped and supported me hosting basketball tournaments.”
“I currently host the ‘CattRez Classic’ and we had 16 teams last year,” said Dakota. “Every team gets a set of uniforms. It’s open to all races. Bringing in top tier talent from Cleveland, Florida, Boston, and Atlanta for a summer tournament is so much fun. I usually sponsor a group of young guys that don’t get picked up just so they can see what it’s like to be on the floor with that much talent. To hopefully inspire these kids to get in the gym and see if a basketball can take them as far as their lacrosse sticks did.”
“In the past 10 years lacrosse in NY has been a huge success for college and that’s something I’d love to see basketball be one day,” said Dakota Snyder.
Photo Credit: Dakota Snyder
