Reznet

A warriors tale

By Dalton Walker

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The building no longer exists but mention the St. Paul Civic Center to any Red Laker and a sense of pride awakes. Vivid memories of Gerald Kingbird dancing around defenders with a basketball still lives amongst the people of the Red Lake Nation, even after 10 years.

That changed two years ago when tragedy struck the people of Red Lake. The Red Lake Nation is still healing from a school shooting that left 10 people dead. Time will heal the mighty Red Lake Nation.

All it takes is one word – Wabasso – to veer and transform those horrible March memories into an era full of glory and celebration.

Kingbird, a high school sophomore at the time, scored 37 points in a state tournament game against Wabasso, small farm community in southern Minnesota. More than 10,000 fans poured in the civic center, the vast majority being Native, for one of the most exciting basketball games in state history.

March Madness at its finest hour: the Red Lake Warriors versus the Wabasso Rabbits. Two teams with no direct link but after 36 minutes and 230 points, the two are linked forever.

I sat courtside, on the bench, with my game book, taking down stats. I was the team manager. I had a suit and tie on with white Nikes. As a teenager, it was one of my finest moments.

Tip-off was set at 9 p.m. It was the final state tournament game of a frigid Friday night. Four teams remained in Class A, the smallest of the four basketball classes. The game was broadcasted on TV throughout the state. Minnesota was getting ready for bed just as tribal members pounded their buckskin hand drums and sang the Red Lake Nation Flag song near our bench.

As I listened, my heart was full of joy. I kept glancing at the thousands of Natives standing across from our bench. I spotted friends and relatives. I couldn’t stop smiling. It looked like the whole reservation came.

The game started out like most of our games – with a frantic pace. Back and forth they went. The Rabbits had a couple losses but was led by a veteran squad. Red Lake stepped on the court with one loss. Two sophomores – Kingbird and Delwyn Holthusen – were the heart and soul of the first all-Native team to play in the Minnesota state high school basketball tournament.

The Red Lake Indian reservation is home to more than 5,000 tribal members. The reservation is covered by woods, prairie and water. It’s larger than the state of Rhode Island. St. Paul is more than a four hour drive south. At the time, the high school had less than 200 students in grades 9th through 12th. Blink your eyes and you would drive right past Wabasso.

The Red Lake Nation never made it this deep in the playoffs. Reservation basketball is often described as, “the one shining ray of hope for people who live in despair and hopelessness.”

Nobody expected much from this group of young men. The team lost a 2,000 point scorer to graduation the year before. The Warriors won a couple close early season games including one against heated rival, Bemidji, a town near the reservation. Bemidji, a Class AAAA school, to this day, still refuses to play Red Lake.

Waabooz, the Ojibwe word for rabbit, kept flashing through my mind. Jack Desjarleit, the head coach, kept barking out orders. Bench players sat patiently waiting for their named to be called.

Wabasso held a slim lead through most of the game and opened it up in the second half. The Rabbits played like the better team. The Warriors kept fighting. They came too far to give up now. Both teams kept running. Both teams kept scoring. Swish. Steal. Lay-up. Turnover. Timeout.

Jack strolled back and fourth down the bench. “What you think D?” Jack asked me with his custom smirk. Deep inside I knew we still had a chance. All of a sudden it felt like someone flicked on the light switch. The crowd grew louder with every made basket.

Kingbird, the quiet, silky smooth point guard, took complete control of the game. He drained three pointers after three pointers. The 6-foot-1, baby faced sophomore, a varsity starter since 8th grade, scored 19 of Red Lake’s 43 fourth quarter points.

“OVERTIME,” the game announcer yelled just as the fourth quarter buzzer sounded. I couldn’t believe what I just seen. Gerald’s shots were contested yet he still made them. The crowd noise was deafening. It was almost midnight. The four extra period minutes are a blur except the final seconds.

Wabasso was up by one with its best free throw shooter at the line for two shots. He sank the first, missed the second. The ball fell into a crowd of players. A Rabbit came up with it and laid the ball in for two – game over.

The Warriors lost with style – 113-117. The game total of 230 points is still the highest in the tournament's 95-year history. Other records are still held by both teams.

There were no losers that night. Nobody really said anything in the locker room. Everyone’s voice was scratchy and sore from yelling. Tears fell, smiles were shared and for that one moment, time stopped as Native peoples across the state held their heads high.

Dalton Walker, Red Lake Anishinabe, is a reporter at the Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, S.D. Walker is a graduate of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and the American Indian Journalism Institute. A longtime reznet staff writer and a Chips Quinn Scholar, Walker had reporting internships at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and The New York Times.

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