Background History
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The Boarding School Era (1879-1933): The boarding school system was among innumerable oppressive situations that caused intergenerational trauma for Indigenous people. It was also the Allotment Era, which because of the Dawes Act, DISSOLVED tribal land holding and allotted parcels to Native families while selling the remainder to non-Indians.
While some parents sent their children to be educated for lack of better educational systems, the majority were unwillingly taken from their families. During the Boarding School Era, students were forbidden from wearing traditional clothing, speaking their cultural languages and engaging in ceremonial practices.
Not only were the victims condemned to harsh treatment, but many died at the Boarding School, and most were/are so scarred by the system that many have remained silent about their experiences.
Made specifically for Indigenous Americans,the boarding schools had ulterior motives: “to wipe out traditional Native cultures and to fully assimilate their children into the dominant white culture”(Brittanica 2023).
See more at: ; image Redding Record Searchlight
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The Fort Shaw Boarding School was near Great Falls, Montana. It was the boarding school where Emma Sansaver was enrolled. The decision to send Emma to Fort Shaw, which had a good reputation for a boarding school, would offer Emma better opportunities. However, since Emma was Chippewa-Cree-Metís from what became Canada, her culture was not recognized by the US government (‘landless’). Without government recognizing her tribe, she was not eligible for federal schooling. So St. Paul school officials changed her affiliation to Sioux and sent her to Fort Shaw. Fort Shaw had a good reputation and was centrally located, therefore the kids over there became like family at the Fort Shaw boarding school as they observed a new sport - basketball.
The basketball team connected the girls with a sport called double ball (see also Full-Court Quest, Peavy and Smith 2008: 5-7). The Fort Shaw girls excelled, became legends…1903 season, the coach scheduled games with college teams as they beat them all to becoming the champions of Montana. Emma was among the starting five.
Fort Shaw Team embarked on a barnstorming tour across the northern part of Montana. Emma was apprehensive about going back to Havre because of the story of her missing mother in the papers who was never found. The team preferred boys’ basketball rules and ended up being so popular, they needed to use a building (Luther Hall in Great Falls) for their games. Emma became know as ‘the little one’ who set up her teammate Nettie With with passes. The Team had an opportunity to go to the 1904 World’s Fair to play for a world championship. The team were also required to give artistic performances at the Fair; so despite the fact that they had been prevented from wearing traditional clothing and carrying out traditional practices, they all needed to make their own dresses.
So the girls made their own buckskin dresses and went on the road to prepare for the trip to St. Louis. They showcased their traditional performance art and then played a local team while traveling. The coach planned to charge admission to make money for the trip. However, nobody wanted to play them because of their reputation as an unbeatable team!
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She is both a victim and survivor of the Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School near Great Falls, Montana. Born in 1886 Emma’s mother was Chippewa Cree and her father was Metís; both from the Blackfoot Reserve in Canada. Sometime between 1879 and 1881, Emma's family moved near Havre (Montana) where her father helped to build Fort Assiniboine. This area is where Emma spent her formative years, living in a Native community derogatorily called Breedville. Emma’s father died suddenly in 1890 when Emma was 3, leaving Emma’s mother struggling to raise 4 children (three girls, one boy) alone. Emma’s mother then ended up in an abusive relationship and went missing in 1897. Amid all of this trauma, Emma was sent away to St. Paul's Indian Residential Boarding School near Hayes, Montana. In 1897 Emma, after being unofficially reclassified as Sioux by the Ursuline Sisters (allowing her to attend a federal Indian boarding school), was enrolled at the Fort Shaw Federal Indian Boarding School near Great Falls, Montana and became part of their ladies basketball team. That team, in just its second year of competition in 1903, was declared Montana state champions, beating all comers, even boys and both state university women’s teams. In 1904, Emma Sansaveur and the Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School Ladies Basketball Team traveled to the St. Louis World’s Fair as part of the boarding school exhibit.
Even though they and other boarding school students were forbidden from wearing traditional clothing and from their cultural languages and practices, Emma and her classmates on the team were required to make their own buckskin dresses after being invited to participate in the World’s Fair. To raise money for the trip to the St. Louis World’s Fair, Emma and her teammates made their own buckskin dresses and went on a barnstorming basketball tour of the Great Plains, wearing their dresses to showcase their performance art during halftime or before playing local teams. Their coach charged 50 cents admission and put the proceeds toward the team’s trip expenses to St. Louis. These special buckskin dresses became an iconic part of the literal and figurative road(s) to St. Louis. Integral to funding the trip itself, but also as a material snapshot of Indigenous American history, the dresses speak to the resilience of Emma and her teammates, who faced unfathomable odds as early 20th-century students/victims of the federal Indian boarding school system.
Emma and her Fort Shaw Ladies Basketball teammates not only made the trip to St. Louis, but they bested all-star teams from both Illinois and Missouri there, being named 1904 Ladies Basketball Champions of the World! To the best of our knowledge, Emma’s Dress is the only surviving buckskin dress from the Fort Shaw World Championship team’s epic experiences. Emma’s family has generously loaned the beaded buckskin dress Emma made in 1904 to UM with the request that we use it to educate and to inspire.
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The buckskin dress is on loan to the 91次元 by Emma Sansaver's granddaughter, Beverly Braig, realizing its inspirational potential. Given this dress’ connection to Indigenous Boarding School history, the working team created pop-up exhibits, educational programs, and presentations that began with the September 30, 2022 Boarding School Symposium here on the 91次元 Campus. These displays have since been featured at the UM men’s and women’s Nike N7 basketball games in 2023 and 2024, on the CBS Saturday Morning television show (), and for a series of K-12 programs intending to promote Montana Indian Education For All. As an example of the latter, this Char-Koosta News article from 2023 features a group of 4th graders from St. Ignatius, Montana who made a special trip to the UM campus to see Emma’s Dress and hear her story:
Team Emma here on campus would like to multiply this outreach, with Nike N7’s assistance and insights. We envision having a special vehicle to allow us to safely take Emma’s 120 year plus old dress and the pop-up exhibit on statewide tours.
