1904 Indian Girls Championship Basketball Team
Latest News, Articles & Media Honoring the 1904 Indian Girls Championship Basketball Team in Fort Benton
An event was held in Fort Benton to dedicate a mural just completed on the side the Green’s Opera House where the Team played a game on June 9, 1903. The Opera House in 1903 was on the second floor of the Masonic Temple–today’s Benton Pharmacy. In addition to the mural, a new interpretive sign will be placed on the historic steamboat levee across the street from the Opera House.
Remembering the Fort Shaw Indian School Girls: The Birth of Girls’ Basketball in Montana
By Ken Robison
The sport of girls’ basketball in Montana was born June 30, 1897, when the girls of Fort Shaw Indian Industrial School played their first public basketball game, an intramural exhibition during the school’s annual Commencement Exercises. By 1902, under the leadership of Superintendent and Coach Fred C. Campbell, the Fort Shaw Girls, representing many tribal nations, began competing throughout Montana, routinely defeating large and small high schools and the two state colleges.
By the spring of 1903, the new sport of basketball was sweeping through the state of Montana, and Fort Shaw Girls’ Team was emerging as an invincible force. During March 1903, the Fort Shaw girls played the Agricultural College in Bozeman, defeating the older college girls 18-0 and scoring the first shut-out in Montana basketball history. The Great Falls Leader sports editor gushed about their lightning-quick passing and superb teamwork, saying: “The Fort Shaw team is walking through the state like a wall of fire through a cane break.” That year, the Fort Shaw Girls were crowned champions of Montana—playing the same “full-court” rules as the boys.
Photo: Fort Shaw Indian School Girls Basketball Team at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Standing left to right: Rose LaRose, Flora Lucero, Katie Snell, Minnie Burton, Genevieve Healy, Sarah Mitchell; seated, left to right: Emma Sansaver, Genie Butch, Belle Johnson, Nettie Worth. Public Domain.
News Media
2004 Dedication for the Monument-100th Anniversary of the Championship Basketball Team
Hi. My grandmother Sarah Mitchell Courchene and her husband Philip Courchene both worked at Ft Shaw after they graduated. They married there. I don’t remember where the Ft Saw Band photo came from, but my grandparents are in the middle – my Grandma Sarah is to the left of the woman in the white dress. My grandfather Philip Courchene is behind her.. Sarah Mitchell was on the 1904 Ft Shaw basketball team that went to the World’s Fair and won. I have also included her obit, it’s hard to read, I’m sorry, it’s a copy of a copy. But it mentions she was at and worked at Ft Shaw and so did my grandfather. Thank you for listening. Therese Holden Sain. We also heard that my mother Rosemary Courchene was born at Ft Shaw in Sun River in 1909. Shortly after they all moved to Wolf Point MT.
Therese
Gallery
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Recent Photos
Recent (Sept. 2018) photos taken at the monument. Click on individual photos for full view.
1904 World Champion
Fort Shaw Indian School
Girls
Champion Basketball Team
Descendants in Attendance
October 1, 2018
Sun River Valley Historical Society
Today we were honored by these descendants who were in attendance to make presentation to our Society of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame & Western Heritage Center plaque honoring the 2013 induction of the 1904 World Champion Fort Shaw Indian School Girls Basketball Team.
The Sun River Valley Historical Society is a 501-c-3 non-profit organization and all gifts are tax deductible. Thank you for your support.
SUN RIVER VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
P. O. Box 155
Sun River, MT 59483
sunrivervalleyhistsociety@gmail.com
