Imagine you are travelling 700 miles on a bus with just a piece of paper in your pocket with a phone number on it. Imagine your future depends on whether or not you contact the person at that phone number.
Terrance Little Thunder is 6"10 and is a decent basketball player, but he's 29 years old and down to his last chance to get a college education and play college basketball. He is travelling from his home on the Lakota Indian Reservation in Eagle Butte, S.D. to Lawrence, Kansas. The phone number on his piece of paper is that of Haskell Indian Reservations University Head Basketball Coach Ted Juneau. "All I had was a little bit of money and that piece of paper with Coach's number on it," Little Thunder said. "I held onto that thing so tight, man. I wasn't about to lose it."
Juneau spent 33 years in the Lawrence public schools as both an assistant principal and principal, and both as a boys and girls basketball coach. In fact, Juneau is the only coach in Kansas history to win both a Boys and Girls Basketball State Championship. One of his former players was former Kansas Jay Hawk star Danny Manning. In 2007, Haskell took the job at Haskell as the Athletic Director and Men's Head Basketball Coach. The HIRU President told Juneau that had only $5,000 in their budget to pay for a new coach. Juneau decided to take it. "I wanted to see if I could give these kids something they had never been exposed to; I thought they deserved it," Juneau said. "They're no different than the kids at KU. They deserve a college atmosphere every bit as much."
There could be no two worlds more different from each other. The University of Kansas is only 10 minutes from Haskell. KU, as you know, is one of the elite basketball programs in the country. they just finished a $42 million renovation of Fogg Allen Field House with a new court and new locker rooms with multiple flat tv screens showing other games going on along with new reclining chairs. On the other hand, Haskell's only really cool thing they have is a relic. Haskell plays on the court that was used at Kemper Arena in Kansas City when Danny Manning and his Kansas "miracles" won the 1988 NCAA National Championship.
Opportunities for Native American students, let alone student-athletes,
are dim. The student-athletes at Haskell are a rarity. There is a 40.7 % high school drop out rate among students living on Indian reservations. In fact, according to the most recent labor force reports from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the unemployment rate for Native Americans nation wide is 49%, and 29% are employed below the poverty line.
"In some ways it mirrors what's happened to Natives in this country," Juneau said. "They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they try to join the general population, they encounter problems and discrimination. If they stay on the reservation, what is there for them there?" There is no doubt that American Indians have talented athletes, including basketball players. Basketball on the reservation is held in high esteem. Thousands of people will fill the reservation high school gym, some donning Indian headdresses, to see a game. They call it "Rez Ball".
However, college coaches will go everywhere from French Lick, IN to France or from New York City to Sudan to find talent, but shun the talent on the Indian reservations.
Here's one example of this. D.J. Fish is a Sophomore Forward at Haskell, a school competing in the NAIA. He use to travel with a Summer travelling team who played in a show case tournament in Las Vegas a few years ago. He said he had heard that coaches from NCAA schools were interested in him. "But then they heard I was Native and they dropped me like that," he said, snapping his fingers. "Why? I don't know. I think because there are so many stereotypes."
As for the one who took the long bus ride, Terrance Little Thunder, Haskell was his last stop. He had redsirted at Presentation, a small NCAA Div. lll school in Aberdeen, S.D. He then transferred to United Tribes, a tribal college in Bismark, N.D., where he played two seasons. After two seasons at United Tribes, he moved back to the Lakota Indian Reservation where he was making good money as a welder. Then someone suggested to him that he should finish college. "In my tribe, the Lakota Nation, a man like me is supposed to be a warrior, to himself last," Little Thunder said. "That's what I'm trying to do. I want to help the youth and be a good example to them. I want to teach them what's out there for them. When I was working, I was taking care of myself but how was I helping other people? I wasn't."
So Little Thunder decided to take the bus ride to Lawrence. He was playing well for Haskell two season ago, until he tore his ACL. Last Summer, Little Thunder worked out with KU Center Cole Aldridge, and the Morris twins, Marcus and Markieff. Danny Manning also helped out Little Thunder. Both he and Aldridge taught him some new post moves.
Unfortunately for Little Thunder, his season this year is over because of bureaucratic junk. After he tore his ACL, Little Thunder had two choices. He could stay in school as a full-time student, but this year would count as his final year of eligibility since he redshirted a few years ago. The other choice was he could be a part-time student at Haskell and keep his final year of eligibility. There was one big problem with choice #2, however. If Little Thunder wasn't a full-time student, he would lose the medical insurance which is part of the federal government's covenant with Native American students at Haskell. In other words, he couldn't get the surgery he needed to have on his ACL.
Little Thunder decided to stay and enroll as a full-time student, and try to win his case on appeal to the NAIA. "We waited three months for the red tape before he even got the surgery," Juneau explained. "And then we applied for the hardship." The NAIA ruled that Little Thunder's case was a hardship case, but they wouldn't grant him that extra year of eligibility. The NAIA's Marcus Manning said that under the organization's bylaws, only two situations allowed for an extra year: pregnancy and/or illness, and Little Thunder didn't fit either one. I'm wondering how a torn ACL cannot be considered an illness. He had a "sick" ACL. The NAIA must mean by "illness" a terminal illness, like cancer.
Haskell fought on Little Thunder's behalf, and the NAIA changed its ruling and granted the appeal. However, there was a catch. Lttle Thunder could only play one term and it had to be the first term. Therefore, he could only play the first 8 games of the season. His eligibility ended on Dec. 14, 2009. In his final game on Dec. 14 against Rockhurst, an NCAA Div. ll school, Little Thunder had 19 points, but Haskell lost 89-80.
When the Christmas break came, Coach Juneau wondered if Little Thunder would come back for the Spring semester. He still had another full year to earn his degree. It wasn't unusual for Haskell players to go home to their Indian reservations during the Holidays and decide not to come back. "We're going to stay on him and make sure he finishes," Juneau said. As much as the game of Basketball is played worldwide, there is one stunning statistic coming out of the NCAA Student-Athlete Race and Ethnicity Report. Out of the 5.051 basketball players playing at the NCAA Div. l level, only 5 are Native Americans or Alaska natives.
To me, this is a surprising statistic since Native American athletes have had tremendous success in the past. The two most prominent examples are former Olympians Jim Thorpe and Billy Mills. Why college basketball coaches tend to shun the talent-laden Indian reservations is a mystery. You could argue that the situation on the reservation isn't any different than that of the inner city. ""In some ways it's no different than the kid in the inner city," Coach Juneau said. "They have to fight through things like poverty, alcoholism, drugs, dysfunctional families. But what they don't have, they don't have the person who can funnel them to some topflight program and get them out. It doesn't exist." However, coaches are plucking African American players from the inner city. They should also be targeting the Indian reservations. They have talent too.
As far as Haskell is concerned, they could really use Little Thunder. The Fightin Indians are 2-20 on the season. It was their goal this year to win their conference regular season title so they could host the conference tournament. It doesn't look like that will happen. Much of the information in this article is credited to ESPN writer Dana O'Neil. You can see her work at espn.com
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