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Remembering Blackfeet Educator and Basketball Legend Don Wetzel Sr.

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Don Wetzel Sr
Don Wetzel Sr
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Don Wetzel Sr.

My dad told me a story about his brother, my uncle, Blackfeet basketball legend, Don Wetzel Sr. Petesy, as my dad is called, told of a picture in the local paper, back when Don was playing basketball in high school. He said this picture showed Don jumping in the air, head over the rim, reaching for a rebound.

I had heard this story in some form by several people over the years. Always, my uncle, was soaring in the air, head over the rim. Eventually, I saw this picture in the paper's archives. Like any good tale, there is a grain of truth and also a bit of exaggeration to it. My uncle's arm was well over the rim, almost to his elbow, as he reached into the air. But not quite to his head.

I have heard so many stories about Don Wetzel and his basketball exploits. I have come to think a whole generation believed him to be a near god-like figure on the court, who could have averaged 100 points a game if only they could dunk and had the three-point line back then.

But it turned out that the man who could jump so high, known as "Flying Eagle", was still just a mortal like the rest of us.

Don Wetzel was born on August 1, 1948 on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. And on March 7, 2023 in Helena, Montana, at the age of 74, he passed away.

It is difficult to separate legend from reality. We can mythologize a person or event so much, that we often miss the real substance that lies within.

In the last decade, my uncle became known as an advocate for the former logo for the Washington Commanders. My family has an association with that logo. My grandfather, Walter "Blackie" Wetzel, former Blackfeet Tribal Chairman and President of the National Congress of American Indians, promoted the idea of an indigenous logo to the Washington team, and eventually they put a depiction of an indigenous man on their helmet. This logo and the team name, which was a racial slur, proved quite controversial over the following decades. My grandfather's intent was to promote and extol the virtues of indigenous people, and as well-meaning as this was, the controversy only grew in time, and eventually the logo and team name were abandoned. My uncle was a strong supporter of his father's mission. As recently as 2014, he and I were both interviewed by the Washington Post as opposing viewpoints to the logo and team name. Uncle Don was for them, I was not.

But over time, his stance evolved. He was open to a new vision and new ideas. In his final years, Don became an advocate for two things. Once the team abandoned the name and logo, he stated in several interviews that he would like the logo returned to the Blackfeet people. He also mentioned several times that he wanted to use a non-profit he created to call attention to domestic violence and the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).

This is where we can begin to fully understand the separation of legend and reality.

In the end, basketball is just a game. You can learn and acquire a great many skills and traits competing in athletics. Discipline, team work, self-motivation, and confidence to name a few. But, as I said, it is just a game. What is important is you can take these skills and traits and use them to shape who you are as a person. My uncle was a winner. He won as an athlete. He won as a coach. He won as an educator. He won so much that he found himself working for the governor of Montana as the state Indian Coordinator. He was a charismatic winner, every day of his life. Even as he aged and developed health problems and other issues, he was still the focus of every room he walked into. He still found a way to keep people interested in him. Don Wetzel never totally left the spotlight. He co-founded the Montana Indian Athlete Hall of Fame with his son, Don Jr. And, yes, he went on that final quest to bring the logo back to the Blackfeet people and to support MMIW.

The former, it's something I don't care to comment too much on. I just know it was important to him, and it's important to many members of my family. However the latter is what interests me the most. The topic of MMIW is an important one.

When it comes to substance, I find few issues as overlooked as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

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Bill Wetzel is Amskapi Pikuni aka Blackfeet from Montana. His writing has appeared in the American Indian Culture & Research Journal, Yellow Medicine Review, Studies In Indian Literatures (SAIL), Hinchas de Poesia, Red Ink Magazine, Literary (more...)
 

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