Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School Basketball Champions of the World [Hardcover]

Linda Peavy (Author), Ursula Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2008

Most fans of women’s basketball would be startled to learn that girls’ teams were making their mark more than a century ago—and that none was more prominent than a team from an isolated Indian boarding school in Montana. Playing like “lambent flames” across the polished floors of dance halls, armories, and gymnasiums, the girls from Fort Shaw stormed the state to emerge as Montana’s first basketball champions. Taking their game to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, these young women introduced an international audience to the fledgling game and returned home with a trophy declaring them champions.

World champions. And yet their triumphs were forgotten—until Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith chanced upon a team photo and embarked on a ten-year journey of discovery. Their in-depth research and extensive collaboration with the teammates’ descendents and tribal kin have resulted in a narrative as entertaining as it is authentic.

Full-Court Quest offers a rare glimpse into American Indian life and into the world of women’s basketball before “girls’ rules” temporarily shackled the sport. For anyone captivated by Sea Biscuit, A League of Their Own, and other accounts of unlikely champions, this book rates as nothing but net.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—At the turn of the 20th century, an important aspect of the federal policy toward many American Indian tribes was assimilation through education. Boarding schools were established off reservation, as well as on, and government officials actively and aggressively recruited children to attend them. Among the students in the school established at Fort Shaw in Montana were a group of young women who would become famous in Montana, and a popular attraction at the 1904 World's Fair. Their story is told in this well-researched and well-documented book. Leaving their families and arriving at different ages for different reasons, they came together to play the new game of basketball and were quite successful. Peavy and Smith's book is a remarkably rosy picture of an Indian boarding school. While the authors mention that students ran away, that they were separated from their families for long periods of time, and that they were required to speak only English and leave behind traditional dress and culture, these factors seem not to have affected these talented athletes. It is not until the last few pages that the authors specifically, and briefly, address the cost of the success of the girls' team, and the federal Indian educational policy. Still, the book tells a story long forgotten about these "world champions."—Mary Ann Harlan, Arcata High School, CA
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Review

"Once the authors introduced me to the players on the basketball team named world champions at the 1904 World's Fair, I found myself immersed in the players' lives as they transitioned from life on reservations and farms with their families to their coming of age at a boarding school, separated from their own cultures. Their biographers and descendents deserve our praise. Recommended for women's, multicultural, and regional history collections." --Susan Andrus, Story Circle Book Reviews.org

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press (November 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806139730
• ISBN-13: 978-0806139739
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #751,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming of Age off the Reservation, October 21, 2008

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Story Circle Book Reviews - See all my reviews

This review is from: Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School Basketball Champions of the World (Hardcover)

A find of several arrowheads on our land in western NY sparked my interest in reading Full Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School: Basketball Champions of the World by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith. Once the authors introduced me to the players on the basketball team named world champions at the 1904 World's Fair, I found myself immersed in the players' lives as they transitioned from life on reservations and farms with their families to their coming of age at a boarding school, separated from their own cultures.

Because different tribes had been settled in one location at the Fort Shaw Indian School, there existed the potential for conflict, but instead these girls supported one another while negotiating the illnesses that plagued them from time to time, as well as surviving the deaths of parents, siblings, and friends. Starting with a soccer ball and a basket nailed to the wall, they progressed through and over many obstacles to become the "champions of the St. Louis world's fair." Not only did they play two twenty-minute, full-court basketball halves, several times a week and sometimes twice in a day, they also performed pantomime, played musical instruments, and recited poetry as part of their "demonstration" of how Indian girls could become "civilized." They raced up and down the court and through the Northwest exhibiting their talents, recruiting new students, accepting challenges from whites who could barely score against them, showing grace and modesty each time they won.

Even though they were exploited to gain money for their school budgets, these diligent young women put all their efforts into perfecting their performances and heroically presenting a positive view of Native Americans at a time when the whites who lived on their native lands ridiculed, criticized, and denigrated them.

Through newspaper and magazine articles, BIA reports, letters, and oral history from their descendents, the Fort Shaw Girls' Basketball team emerges from the pages as a group of unique individuals, each with her own distinct personality. Numerous photos of the girls and extensive notes add to the details of their lives.

The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, originally intended to celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, became the showcase for Native American crafts and lifestyles that were quickly disappearing. The Fort Shaw girls represented the future with their recitations, dance, and exhibition basketball games just as the exhibits represented the past. Their biographers and descendents deserve our praise. Recommended for women's, multicultural, and regional history collections.

by Susan Andrus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read, January 23, 2009

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Redline (Wa.) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School Basketball Champions of the World (Hardcover)

I have also read "Shoot Minnie Shoot", it was OK but very disappointing that the author chose to take "artistic license" with the story. The facts are so much better then fiction.




I have been waiting for years for this book and I am not disappointed.

My grandmother played on this team. I learned things about her I never knew.

If all someone is looking for is a girls basketball story, you can find that anywhere.

This is HISTORY.
The history of a bunch of girls that changed they way people viewed Indians at the turn of the century.
The history of our families, our grandmothers, aunts, cousins finally told after over 100 years.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational & Entertaining!, November 18, 2008

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This review is from: Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School Basketball Champions of the World (Hardcover)

Had enough of football, can't wait for basketball? Full-Court Quest is the perfect gift book for any sports fan who loves inspirational stories this time featuring young women who played full court basketball and won while wearing dresses.