By Tom Orsborn, Staff Writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2026-04-06 04:35:12
2025年10月13日，印第安纳州印第安纳波利斯：在周一于印第安纳波利斯 Gainbridge Fieldhouse 对阵印第安纳步行者的赛前投篮训练中，马刺电视现场解说员雅各布·托比 (Jacob Tobey) 与马刺前锋林迪·沃特斯三世 (Lindy Waters III) 一起查看原住民珠宝。（照片由 Reginald Thomas II/圣安东尼奥马刺队提供）
作为一名在马萨诸塞州长大的年轻人，马刺电视现场解说员雅各布·托比 (Jacob Tobey) 曾对自己祖先的根源几乎没有兴趣——尽管他们在该州扎根的深度甚至远超“五月花号”的后裔。
“我曾因为自己是原住民而感到有些尴尬，”托比说道，“我只是不知道这意味着什么。”
但在本世纪初，他在了解到凤凰城的全美原住民篮球邀请赛 (Native American Basketball Invitational，简称 NABI) 后，态度发生了剧变。这是全美规模最大的纯原住民高中篮球赛事。
“我看到他们在网上直播比赛，我当时想，‘天哪，这看起来太酷了。我也是原住民，我应该联系他们，’”托比回忆道。当时他还是丹佛的一名周末体育主播，通过解说大学篮球和 NBA 发展联盟 (G League) 的比赛来磨炼自己。
2023年，托比开始解说 NABI 的比赛，这段经历改变了他的人生。
“这让我大开眼界，”他说道，“我身边都是原住民，我感到有些被冷落，因为他们在谈论一些我不一定了解或经历过的事情。这些孩子中有很多是在保留地长大的，而我不是。他们有原住民名字，会说一些（原住民）语言。而我一无所有。”
“在那一刻，我突然醒悟了，我想，我需要做得更好。”
一年后，托比回到了他的家乡马萨诸塞州桑威奇，参加了他的部落——马什皮万帕诺亚格部落 (Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe) 在7月4日周末举行的帕瓦仪式 (powwow)。根据其原住民主权国家网站的说法，该部落在如今的马萨诸塞州已经居住了超过1.2万年，比1620年“五月花号”停泊在现在的鳕鱼角还要早几个世纪。
在一次感人至深的日出仪式上，托比的父母和其他家人也一同出席。在安葬着部落祖先遗骸的墓地里，一位巫医赋予了托比他的原住民名字——“强壮的橡树 (Strong Oak)”。
“那非常有力量，”他说道，“它开启了我的思想、灵魂和心灵。我流泪了，我父亲也在哭。这是我生命中最感性的经历之一。几乎像是一种灵魂出窍般的体验。我从未感到与过去如此紧密相连。”
从那时起，29岁的托比开始竭尽所能地学习关于他原住民遗产的一切。
“我对自己以前没有像现在这样投入感到有些羞愧，”他说道，“但我很自豪在过去的五年里，我努力履行了自己的责任。”
这种承诺的很大一部分将在周一晚上得到展示，届时马刺队将在主场迎战费城，举办“原住民传统之夜”活动。托比被认为是联盟中唯一的原住民播音员，正是他促成了这一推广活动。
马刺队在2020年成为首支举办“土著之夜”的 NBA 球队，这要归功于前马刺后卫、以澳大利亚土著身份为傲的帕蒂·米尔斯 (Patty Mills) 的努力。托比在去年夏天球队签下后卫林迪·沃特斯三世 (Lindy Waters III) 后联系了球队，提议专门庆祝美国原住民文化。
沃特斯是凯奥瓦部落的公民，同时拥有切罗基血统，他是联盟中三位原住民后裔球员之一。另外两位是达拉斯的凯里·欧文 (Kyrie Irving) 和 76 人队的马乔恩·博尚 (MarJon Beauchamp)。
“我去年就想提出来，但那是我（在马刺）的第一年，我忙于很多事情，”托比说道，“后来我们签下了林迪，我觉得这就是天作之合。”
“原住民传统之夜”是与德克萨斯州西班牙殖民传教机构美国印第安人组织 (AIT-SCM)、沃特斯的基金会以及耐克 N7 合作举办的。据马刺队介绍，活动将以土地确认仪式开始，承认原住民是“这片土地最初的守护者”。
当晚的活动还包括同样身为音乐家的托比演唱国歌、原住民艺术家的表演，以及马刺队向 AIT-SCM 颁发 5000 美元的资助金。
“这个夜晚只是我生命中更大主题的一部分，即努力更好地保持文化的生命力、尊重文化并传播相关知识，”托比说道。
沃特斯表示，他为托比在促成这一夜晚中所扮演的角色感到自豪。
“我们的族人能团结在一起，互相照应，这意义重大，尤其是在代表性不那么高的地方，”沃特斯说道，“所以要向雅各布致敬，也要向马刺队致敬，感谢他们给我们这个机会，让我们能大声地表达对我的遗产和文化的看法。我非常感激。”
沃特斯出生于科罗拉多州，在俄克拉荷马州诺曼市郊的一个农场长大。他表示，希望像“原住民传统之夜”这样的活动能帮助人们对原住民文化产生更多兴趣，并带来更多的教育机会。
“在成长过程中，我了解自己遗产的唯一途径是通过我自己的族人，”他说道，“我们需要更多地讨论它，把我们族人的历史更多地放入学校。每个人都应该了解关于每个人的真相。”
2025年1月15日，圣安东尼奥马刺队电视现场解说员雅各布·托比在霜冻银行中心。托比被认为是联盟中唯一具有原住民血统的电视播音员。（照片由 Tony Garcia/圣安东尼奥马刺队提供）
托比表示，一个很好的开始方式是阅读一本书或参观博物馆。
“这并不需要花费太多。这就是我意识到的，”他说道。
马刺体育娱乐公司的首席影响力与包容性官帕特里夏·梅希亚 (Patricia Mejia) 在托比来到圣安东尼奥后不久，就通过介绍他与 AIT-SCM 建立联系，帮助他开启了这段旅程。她希望托比能追随米尔斯的脚步，与当地的原住民社区建立牢固的关系。
“（米尔斯）非常用心地与这里的原住民社区建立联系并了解他们，”梅希亚说道，“这不仅仅是策划（原住民之夜）。这是在建立一种长期关系……现在（托比和 AIT-SCM）拥有非常深厚且美好的关系。”
两位 AIT-SCM 的负责人表示，托比在逐渐觉醒后完全拥抱他的原住民遗产，这并不罕见。
该组织的运营总监萨布丽娜·圣米格尔 (Sabrina San Miguel) 表示，直到她的曾祖母在临终前透露，她才知道自己的阿帕奇血统。
“由于强迫同化以及原住民遭受创伤和暴力的历史，这往往是很多人的故事，”圣米格尔说道，“人们在生命后期发现自己有某种土著或原住民血统，并向 AIT 寻求帮助，寻找他们的原住民根源和部落归属（如果有的话）。”
“每个人的故事都如此不同，如此多样。有些人从小就在原住民文化中长大。还有一些人正处于重新寻根之旅的途中。这就是为什么像‘原住民传统之夜’这样的活动如此重要的原因。”
AIT-SCM 的项目经理拉蒙·巴斯克斯 (Ramon Vasquez) 表示，他从小“热爱我的文化，对仪式感到兴奋，想告诉我的朋友们”，但后来因为小学时期痛苦的“异类化”事件而改变了看法，这些事件削弱了他的“真实感或现实感”。
“我会兴冲冲地去学校谈论我前一个周末参加的仪式，而管理人员和老师会告诉我，‘嘿，你别再跟这些学生撒谎了。你干扰了课堂，’”巴斯克斯说道。他还经历过其他羞辱性的经历，他说这些经历削弱了他“想要继续在自己的文化中快乐生活的动力”。
结果，他在青少年时期的大部分时间里“决定远离”自己的原住民身份，转而认同自己是波多黎各人或墨西哥人。
“这些经历在全国各地、许多文化中都有发生，”巴斯克斯说道，“所以这些类型的（如‘原住民传统之夜’）活动确实提升了我们社区成员的代表性，尤其是年轻人，帮助他们获得归属感，让他们对自己感到满意。”
托比现在不再为自己遗产的任何方面感到尴尬，他自豪地在直播中与马刺评论员肖恩·埃利奥特 (Sean Elliott) 谈论这些，并经常戴着他的原住民波洛领带前往霜冻银行中心。
“如果你在六年前告诉我，我会带头做这些事情，我可能不会相信你，因为这根本没出现在我的脑海中，”他说道，“我对自己以前的行为感到一点羞愧，但也展示了我的成长。”
“现在，这将永远成为我生活的一部分。”
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
点击查看原文：How Spurs' Jacob Tobey came to embrace his Native American heritage
How Spurs’ Jacob Tobey came to embrace his Native American heritage
October 13, 2025, Indianapolis, IN: Spurs television play-by-play announcer Jacob Tobey looks at native jewelry with Spurs forward Lindy Waters III during shootaround before the game against the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Monday, October 13, 2025. (Photo by Reginald Thomas II/San Antonio Spurs)
As a young man growing up in Massachusetts, Spurs television play-by-play announcer Jacob Tobey had little interest in exploring his ancestral roots — even though they ran far deeper in the state than even those of the Mayflower descendants.
“I was sort of embarrassed to be a Native American,” Tobey said. “I just didn’t know what it meant.”
But a dramatic change in his attitude started earlier this decade after he learned about the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) in Phoenix, the nation’s largest all-Native American high school tournament.
"I saw they were broadcasting it online, and I was like, ‘Man, that looks so cool. I’m Native American. I should reach out to them,’ " said Tobey, who at the time was a weekend sports anchor in Denver paying his dues with side gigs calling college basketball and NBA G League games.
In 2023, Tobey began announcing NABI games, an experience that changed his life.
“It was eye opening,” he said. "I was around Native American people and I sort of felt left out because they were talking about things I didn’t necessarily know or have experienced. A lot of these kids grew up on the reservation and I did not grow up on the reservation. They had native names, could speak some (Native) language. I had nothing.
“At that point, it just snapped and I was like, I need to do a better job.”
A year later, Tobey returned to his hometown of Sandwich, Massachusetts, to attend the powwow over the July 4 weekend of his Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, which, according to its Native Sovereign Nations website, has inhabited present-day Massachusetts for more than 12,000 years, centuries before the Mayflower anchored in what is now Cape Cod in 1620.
In an emotional sunrise ceremony that included his parents and other family members at a cemetery containing remains of tribal ancestors, a medicine man gave Tobey his native name of Strong Oak.
“It was very powerful,” he said. “It opened my mind and soul and heart. I was tearing up. My dad was crying. It was one of the most emotional experiences of my life. It was like an out-of-body experience almost. I never felt more connected to the past.”
Since then, Tobey, 29, has learned all he can about his Native heritage.
“I’m kind of ashamed I wasn’t as into it as I should have been,” he said. “But I’m very proud that in the last five years I’ve tried to uphold my end.”
A big part of that commitment will be on display Monday night when the Spurs host Philadelphia on Native American Heritage Night, a promotion Tobey, who is believed to be the league’s only Native American broadcaster, helped bring about.
Knowing that the Spurs in 2020 became the first NBA franchise to have an Indigenous Night thanks to the efforts of former guard and proud Indigenous Australian Patty Mills, Tobey approached the team after the signing of guard Lindy Waters III last summer about specifically celebrating Native American culture.
Waters, a citizen of the Kiowa Tribe who is also Cherokee, is one of three players of Native American descent in the league. The others are Dallas’ Kyrie Irving and the 76ers’ MarJon Beauchamp.
“I wanted to bring it up last year, but it was my first year (with the Spurs) and I was very busy with a lot of stuff,” Tobey said. “Then we signed Lindy so I was like, it’s a match made in heaven.”
Native American Heritage Night is in collaboration with American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Mission (AIT-SCM), Waters’ foundation and Nike N7. It will begin with a land-acknowledgement ceremony recognizing Indigenous peoples as “original stewards of this land,” per the Spurs.
The evening also includes Tobey, who is also a musician, singing the national anthem, performances by Native artists and the Spurs awarding a $5,000 grant to AIT-SCM.
“This night just plays a part in the bigger theme of my life of trying to be better at keeping the culture alive and respecting it and spreading knowledge of it,” Tobey said.
Waters said he is proud of Tobey for his role in making the night happen.
“It means a lot that our people stick together and look out for each other, especially in places where there’s not a lot of representation,” Waters said. “So shout out to Jacob and shout out to the Spurs for giving us this opportunity to be loud and outspoken about my heritage and my culture. I’ve very grateful.”
Waters, a Colorado native raised on a farm outside of Norman, Oklahoma, said he hopes events like Native American Heritage Night will help create more interest in Native culture and lead to even greater educational opportunities.
“Growing up, the only way for me to learn about my heritage was through my own people,” he said. “We need to talk more about it and put it more in schools, the history of our people. Everybody should know the truth about everybody.”
San Antonio Spurs TV play-by-play announcer Jacob Tobey at the Frost Bank Center on January 15, 2025. Tobey is believed to be the league’s only TV broadcaster of Native American heritage. (Photo by Tony Garcia/San Antonio Spurs)
Tobey said a great way to start is by reading a book or visiting a museum.
“It doesn’t take much. That’s what I realized,” he said.
Patricia Mejia, Spurs Sports & Entertainment’s chief impact and inclusion officer, helped Tobey along his journey by connecting him with AIT-SCM soon after he came to San Antonio in the hope he would follow in Mills’ footsteps by building a strong relationship with the local Indigenous community.
“(Mills) was really intentional about connecting and getting to know the native community here,” Mejia said. “It was more than just planning (Indigenous Night). It was building a long-term relationship. … Now (Tobey and AIT-SCM) have a really great, deep relationship.”
That Tobey fully embraced his Native American heritage after a gradual awakening isn’t unusual, two AIT-SCM leaders said.
Sabrina San Miguel, the organization’s director of development, said she didn’t learn of her Apache lineage until her great-grandmother disclosed it on her deathbed.
“Because of the forced assimilation and a history of trauma and violence with Indigenous people, oftentimes this is a lot of people’s stories,” San Miguel said. "People find out later in life they have some sort of Indigenous or Native heritage and seek out AIT asking for help to find their native roots and their tribal affiliation if there is one.
“Everyone’s story is so different and so diverse. There are some people who have just grown up in their Native culture. There are others who are in the middle of a reconnecting journey. That’s why something like Native American Heritage Night is so important.”
Ramon Vasquez, AIT-SCM’s program manager, said he grew up “loving my culture, excited about ceremony, wanting to tell my friends about it” only to have his outlook change because of painful elementary school “othering” incidents that diminished his “truth or reality.”
"I would come to school excited to talk about the ceremony I was a part of the weekend before and administrators and teachers would tell me, ‘Hey, you need to stop telling lies to these students. You’re disrupting class,’ " said Vasquez, who also experienced other shaming episodes he said diminished his “drive to want to continue to live happily within my culture.”
As a result, he “decided to step away” from his Native American identity and identify as Puerto Rican or Mexican for much of his teenage years.
“These are experiences that happen across the country, across many cultures,” Vasquez said. “So these types of (events like Native American Heritage Night) really elevate representation for our community members, especially the youth, and help them feel like they have that sense of belonging, help them feel good about themselves.”
Tobey is no longer embarrassed about any aspect of his heritage, proudly talking about it on the air with Spurs analyst Sean Elliott and often wearing his Native American bolo tie to the Frost Bank Center.
“If you had told me six years ago I would be helping to lead the charge with all this, I probably wouldn’t believe you because it just didn’t cross my mind,” he said. "I’m ashamed of myself a little bit, but it also shows growth as well.
“And now it’s going to be part of my life forever.”
By Tom Orsborn, Staff Writer, via San Antonio Express-News