Fort Shaw Indian School Girls Basketball Team facts for kids

The Fort Shaw Indian School Girls Basketball Team was a group of seven Native American students. They came from different tribes and went to the Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School in Fort Shaw, Montana, United States. In 1904, they became World Champions at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (also known as the St. Louis World Fair). They won by beating basketball teams from all over the United States and the world.

The Fort Shaw Indian School Girls Basketball Team in uniform at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Indian Boarding Schools

Indian Boarding Schools were set up in the 1800s and 1900s. Their main goal was to make Native American children and teens live like people from European-American culture.

Richard Henry Pratt started the first Indian Boarding School, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. He based its rules on his military background. Pratt believed in changing Native American students to fit into American society. These schools often stopped students from visiting their families or using their own languages and customs. When students arrived, they had to give up their traditional clothes and were given new Christian names. The Fort Shaw Indian School was similar to Pratt's Carlisle school.

Sports at Boarding Schools

Sports were a big part of boarding schools. They were seen as a way to help students become part of the new culture. Football was popular at the Carlisle Industrial School, and they were known for their sports teams.

Many people thought that sports helped students stay healthy. Diseases were a big worry at these schools. Doctors at the time believed that being active, especially outdoors, helped fight sickness. Sports were also thought to build good character, teaching hard work, discipline, and fair play. Pratt also believed that Native American sports teams could show the white community that Native Americans were not "savages" and could play well in their games.

A map of Fort Shaw when it was a military outpost.

Fort Shaw Indian School

Fort Shaw is in north central Montana. It was first built by the United States Army between Fort Benton and Helena to protect settlers. The army left it in 1891.

In 1892, about 5,000 acres of the fort became the Fort Shaw Government Industrial Indian Boarding School. This happened after another government school burned down. The school opened on December 27, 1892, with 52 students. By 1900, it had over 300 students, aged five to eighteen, and thirty employees. Students usually had academic classes in the morning. In the afternoons, they took vocational courses like cooking and sewing. The Blackfoot tribe had the most students at Fort Shaw.

The school lost its government money on April 17, 1910. This was because more people in Congress wanted to close schools not on reservations. The land was given back to the U.S. government.

Fort Shaw Girls Basketball Team

Fort Shaw is shown in red on this map.

The Fort Shaw school had boys' basketball, football, and track teams. They played against local high schools and colleges. At first, girls at Fort Shaw only had a "physical culture class." But in 1897, a student named Josephine Langley brought basketball to the girls. Langley had learned the sport at the Carlisle Boarding School. The superintendent, Frederick Campbell, supported her. He wanted basketball to be an indoor sport for students in winter.

The dance hall at the old Fort Shaw military base became a basketball court. In 1902, a girls' team was started with seven girls. They played together for the next three years. People were just as excited about the girls' team as the boys' team. In many Native American cultures, girls were encouraged to play sports with the same energy as boys. Basketball was also the only sport girls were allowed to play.

When the team started, none of the girls had played basketball before. However, they had played other Indian field games like shinney and double ball. The girls at Fort Shaw played by the boys' rules. This meant full-court games with 20-minute halves and no breaks. Games usually had low scores. This was partly because of the long game time, stopping the clock to get the ball, and tip-offs after every basket. The players' heavy uniforms and a slightly bigger ball than today's also made scoring harder.

Coaches and Assistants

Frederick C. Campbell became the school's second superintendent in 1898. He was also the coach when the team started in 1902. He left the school in 1908. As superintendent, he made the school's sports program bigger. He believed it helped students feel better about themselves. He also brought competitive basketball to Fort Shaw and nearby schools so the team would have other teams to play.

Sadie Malley became the assistant coach in the team's second season. She had been teaching at the school since 1899. She coached the team before they became competitive and Campbell took over. She insisted that the team play by the "boys' rules" (full-court).

Lizzie Wirth, who was player Nettie Wirth's sister, joined the team in their second season. She was a chaperone and helped the girls with exercises and drills. These helped them prepare for performances they did at the 1904 fair.

Fern Evans was the music teacher at Fort Shaw. She organized the music program the team performed at the fair. This helped them earn money for their travel and games.

Lillie B. Crawford helped the team practice recitation performances. These also helped fund their games and trips.

Players

Original 7 Players

• Genie Butch, left guard: She had an Assiniboine mother and a white father. She grew up on the Fort Peck reservation. At fifteen, she started as a substitute. She later became one of the best-known players. Her coach said she played very well in the World Champion game.
• Belle Johnson, left forward and left guard, team Captain: She was born in Belt, Montana. Her mother was Piegan and her father was white. Johnson came to Fort Shaw from Holy Family Mission. She became captain in the second season after Josephine Langley left.
• Nettie Wirth, forward and center: Her mother was Assiniboine and her father was a German immigrant. She went to a government school at Fort Peck before it burned down. That event led to the Fort Shaw school being built. She was six when she arrived at Fort Shaw and played on the team ten years later. She was good at jumping, which helped her win center court tip-offs.

Members of the Fort Shaw Indian School Girls Basketball Team. Front row: G. Butch, B. Johnson, E. Sansaver. Back row: N. Wirth, Mr. McCutcheon, K. Snell, M. Burton.

• "Big Minnie" Minnie Burton, left guard and left forward: She came from the reservation school at Fort Hall, Idaho. Her mother, who was West Shoshone, died when Minnie was nine. She was raised by her Lemhi Shoshone father and step-mother. She was chosen for the team soon after arriving in 1902.
• Emma Rose Sansaver, right forward: She was born in Havre, Montana. Her father was Métis and her mother was Chippewa-Cree. She came from St. Paul's mission school on the Fort Belknap reservation in 1897. She joined the team at eighteen and was the shortest girl on the team.
• Josephine Langley, center and right guard, team captain: Her mother was Piegan and her father was Métis. She was born in Birch Creek, Montana in 1880. She started at the school the year it opened. At twenty-two, she was the oldest girl on the team. She left the team after the first season to get married and work full-time at the school. Genie Butch took her spot on the court, and Belle Johnson became captain.
• Delia Gebeau, left guard: Her mother was Spokane and her father was Métis. Gebeau was 16 when she joined the team as a substitute with Genie Butch.

Players Who Joined in the Second Season

• Genevieve "Gen" Healy, guard: Her mother was Gros Ventre. Healy came from a mission school on the Fort Belknap reservation in 1899 after her mother died. She joined the team at 15.
• Catherine "Katie" Snell, guard: Her father was a German immigrant and her mother was Assiniboine. Snell came from the Fort Belknap agency. She joined the team at 17.
• Sarah Mitchell, forward: She was born in Wolf Point, Montana. Her mother was Assiniboine-Chippewa and her father was Shoshone.
• Flora Lucero, forward: She was born near Choteau, Montana. Her mother was Chippewa-Cree and her father was a Spanish immigrant.

The Road to World Champions

The Fort Shaw Indian School girls' basketball team in January 1904. They were the Montana state champions.

1902–03 Season

The team won 9 games and lost 2 this season. This was a year when the team and the sport became more well-known.

Notable Games

• vs. Sun River: This was the team's first game and first win.
• vs. Butte High: Their first long-distance game, which they won 15-9.
• vs. Helena High: Their first loss, 15-6. They played again later and won 28-10.
• vs. Butte Parochial: Their second and last loss of the season, 15-6. They played again later and won 37-6.
• vs. Montana State University in Missoula: They won 19-9 against the college team.
• vs. Montana Agricultural College in Bozeman: Fort Shaw beat this team twice, 36-9 and 20-0.

1903–04 Season

For their second season, the team could not defend their title as unofficial state champions. It might have been hard to schedule games, or other teams might not have wanted to play them. Instead, Superintendent Campbell set up exhibition games around the state. At these games, the players performed mandolin concerts, read poems, and did exercises to earn money for food and lodging. They eventually traveled outside Montana to North Dakota and Minnesota before going to St. Louis for the fair. Campbell had been asked to send students to the fair. He suggested the basketball team but let the players decide if they wanted to go.

1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition

A map of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, ran from April 30 to December 1, 1904. The fairgrounds were huge and offered lots of fun things. There were performances, circuses, battle re-enactments, a Ferris wheel, and exhibits about different cultures.

Anthropology Days

"Navaho woman (with child)." on display as part of the Anthropology Days exhibits.

The 1904 World's Fair is known for its "Anthropology Days" displays. These exhibits showed different groups of people from around the world. The idea was to show how humans had "evolved" from "savage" to "civilized." Native American people were shown to demonstrate how they could "progress." These displays also helped powerful countries explain why they controlled people in other lands.

Model Indian School

The Model Indian School was at the fair on "Indian Hill." It had 150 students during the fair. Next to it was the fair's own reservation, where traditional homes were set up and old crafts were made. This was to compare the students to those on the reservation. The Model Indian School was placed between the "traditional" exhibits and the modern sports area. This showed a visual idea of "evolution."

The Fort Shaw girls' presence and good behavior at the fair helped show visitors that Native Americans were not "savages." One historian, Nancy Parezo, noted that the Fort Shaw Girls' championship win proved that European-Americans were not always better at sports. This was something the people studying the fair would not have wanted to admit.

Becoming World Champions

The basketball competition ended with a best-of-three series. The Fort Shaw team played against the Missouri All-Stars, who were former students from Central High in St. Louis. The Fort Shaw team had been playing exhibition games twice a week all summer at the Model Indian School, so everyone was excited.

Fort Shaw won the first game 24-2. The St. Louis team did not show up for the second game and lost by default. However, they asked to keep playing, and Fort Shaw agreed. At the end of the second game, the score was 17 to 6. This win made the Fort Shaw girls the basketball champions of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. On August 25, the girls won the silver and gold cup for women's basketball. Even though they were only supposed to play in the women's bracket, they won the general competition. This fact was left out of Spalding's Athletic Almanac.

After the Fair

After their big victory, the team returned home to Montana feeling proud. The team kept playing basketball. A newspaper headline from June 27, 1904, said they were "Willing to Play Against Any Girls' Team in Existence."

Right after their championship success, a kind person named Charles H. Madison promised seven of the school's graduates full scholarships to Vassar College. However, his offer changed. Instead, he decided to take the team on a "vaudeville" tour to earn money for his charity work. The team quickly became unhappy and returned home in December.

The team played for one more year after the World's Fair. During that year, they won the Championship of the Pacific Northwest. Then, the team was stopped because the school closed down.

Contemporary Media Attention

• 2009 PBS Documentary: Playing for the World
• 2017 Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast pt. 1
• 2017 Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast pt. 2