'Full Court Press' honors tenacity of tribal team

"FULL COURT QUEST: The Girls From Fort Shaw Indian School Basketball Champions of the World," by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith, University of Oklahoma Press, 496 pages, $29.95

When I think of pioneering basketball players, I think of the women who were the first to earn scholarships after the adoption of Title lX.

So, I was stunned to learn that not only were women playing basketball from the game's inception in 1891, but that a group of women who participated in one of our country's most embarrassing programs — Indian boarding schools — played the game so well they were recognized by World's Fair officials as champions in 1904.

The most enticing aspect of "Full Court Quest" is the confluence of historical events that made the achievements of these 10 American Indian women possible.

First, there was the development of Indian boarding schools, not something that most Native Americans view as a positive experience or influence.

Then there was the creation of the game of basketball by James Naismith, who was trying to find an activity for the youth at the YMCA during the winter.

And there was the decision to hold the World's Fair, commemorating the Louisiana Purchase, in St. Louis and to feature a model Indian boarding school. It was there the women displayed their talents, both athletic and artistic, to the world stage that usually wouldn't have been available to them.

All of this allowed a group of individually unremarkable women, from different tribes and different states, to come together and excel at a game that thrilled spectators from rural Montana to the big cities of the East.

Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith stumbled on to the story of the team from Fort Shaw, Mont., while looking for photographs for another book. Though they lived in the area, they'd never heard of the school or its famous basketball team. They spent 10 years researching the story of these women and their amazing achievement.

Although their individual stories are difficult to follow at times, the overall story of the team and what these women accomplished was compelling and emotionally uplifting for this sportswriter acquainted with Title lX.

I grew up thinking women had always played by "girls rules," which was a half-court game of six on six. It was considered less physically demanding and was the way my mother's generation learned to play hoops.

Peavy and Smith describe how and why girls rules were developed and how it eventually stymied the game's development with players and fans.