Memorable Ceremony Held For Fort Shaw Basketball Team Legend

The family of a trailblazer from the Fort Peck Reservation can finally know their accomplished ancestor has a fitting final resting place.

A memorial service for Nettie Wirth Mail, a member of the legendary 1904 Fort Shaw girls’ basketball team, was conducted at the Poplar cemetery on Wednesday, June 12. A temporary marker is in place for Mail, who lived from 18861964, until a gravestone provided by the Fort Peck Tribes will take its place.

During the ceremony, a proclamation signed by Poplar Mayor John Q. Grainger recognizing June 12 as a day for all residents to remember the challenges faced by the Fort Shaw girls’ basketball team in winning the championship at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The proclamation noted that the Fort Shaw team dominated opponents to be recognized as world champions.

Ardis Cecil, a granddaughter, said at the ceremony that when Nettie died in Washington state, her body was shipped to the Fort Peck Reservation. There wasn’t any type of marker for the gravesite until Wednesday. She thanked tribal executive board vice chairman Charles Headdress for requesting funds for the gravestone.

Cecil said that after the Fort Peck boarding school burned down, Nettie’s father wanted the children to have a good education so they were sent to the Fort Shaw boarding school near Great Falls. Nettie was 6 years old at the time.

James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, the Fort Shaw girls really took to the new sport a few years later. They were selected to compete at the World’s Fair in St. Louis held in 1904, and they traveled by train to the destination. Cecil said the girls lived at a Model Indian school in St. Louis for five or six months and worked to own their own keep. Work included musical performances.

After her school days, Nettie tried to make a living in the Poplar area but then moved with her husband near Seattle. She kept her competitive attitude as she finished first in several walking races.

“We know where her grave is now,” Cecil said.

Wolf Point resident Mikel Sansaver attended the ceremony. She is a descendant of three of the Fort Shaw players: Nellie Wirth, Kate Snell and Emma Sansaver.

She said she is very proud of the accomplishments the Fort Shaw team achieved. “We went there when the monument was put up in 2004,” Sansaver said.

Linda Peavy, co-author of the book Full Court Quest about the team, was also in attendance. Peavy held a book signing later in the day.

Poplar resident Craig Cain remembers when Nellie babysat him in 1961. He was just 6 years old at the time.

“My dad told me to give her a hug because she was world champion basketball player,” Cain said. “I will never forget she’s a world champion.”

The marker at the Poplar cemetery will now help others remember she was a world champion as well.