Rez Ball Dreams

Lakaylah Kearnes folds laundry in the living room of her family’s home on the Winnebago Nation Reservation in Thurston County. The Kearnes’ house sits on a gravel street on the southern edge of town within walking distance of the Ho-Chunk Tribe’s dance grounds. Each summer, North America’s oldest powwow takes place there.

The scent of clean laundry fills the home where Lakaylah lives with her parents, Trina and Cain Kearnes, her grandmother, four siblings and two cousins. Trina sits at the kitchen table, waiting for Cain to return home for lunch as Lakaylah finishes her chores. Seventeen-year-old Lakaylah may be a star on the court for the Winnebago High School Indians’ girls basketball team, but the high school senior is also a key household player.

Lakaylah hurries to finish her work so she can shoot hoops. She hopes to reclaim the glory her team experienced two seasons ago when the Indians’ girls basketball team made their first trip to the state tournament in three decades.

Basketball is life on the Winnebago Reservation. Thurston County is the poorest county in Nebraska, and U.S. Highway 77, which runs through town, doesn’t offer many amenities. But there is a bright blue basketball court on Bluff Street that locals call the Slab, right across from the Boys & Girls Club. Winnebago Public Schools – the center of the community with grades K-12 – has outdoor and indoor courts. And freestanding hoops dot dirt patches next to modest brick housing. 

Affectionately called “Rez Ball,” basketball became popular on reservations partly because it was cheap – all players needed was a backboard, hoop and a ball – and could be played on almost any surface. Native Americans adopted the game to fit their playing style, typically an up-tempo game of quick passes, fast breaks and open shots.

Around noon, Cain enters the kitchen from the back door and helps prepare the family’s lunch. He and Trina are Lakaylah’s biggest fans. Basketball is in their blood. Both Lakaylah’s parents played in high school. Lourde Kearnes, Lakaylah’s older brother, played on the 2017-18 Winnebago boys team that finished second at the state tournament. And Lakaylah’s great-grandfather once scored 60 points in a game before there was a three-point line. Basketball is a big part of family history for the Kearnes and many Native Americans. 

Native Americans first learned basketball at boarding schools after the sport was invented in 1891. The game was temporary relief from the horrors of forced assimilation. Government- and church-sponsored boarding schools from the 1860s to the 1960s endeavored to “kill the Indian, save the man.” Native boys endured forced haircuts, while boys and girls were required to wear uniforms or “Western” clothing.

Schools prohibited children from speaking their native tongues. Children cried themselves to sleep at night, missing their parents, families and friends. Basketball was one of the few bright spots.

Fortunately, times have changed. Native American children live at home with their families. They can freely learn about their culture and heritage. And today, instead of escape, basketball provides Native youth with different opportunities – for camaraderie, team building and honor.

In the 2020-21 season, the Indians’ girls team boosted their community when they shocked some of the highest-rated Nebraska teams to win the right to play at the state tournament – only the second time in the girls team’s history. Even more remarkably, they’d come back after a challenging series of losses that started their season. With a 4-7 record, the team faced a choice. Would they let their 4-7 record define them, or would they unite and become a powerful winning force? They chose to win.

The turning point came in a 66-38 victory over Laurel-Concord-Coleridge. With eight of nine players scoring, and the team combining for 14 defensive steals and dominating rebounding, the Indians saw the type of team they could be. That victory led to a similar win over Hartington-Newcastle and ignited the winning streak, with the Indians going 9-1 on their way to the girls team’s second-ever state tournament.

Then a sophomore, Lakaylah played a crucial defensive role. Trina was the first parent on the court after the buzzer of that qualifying game, wrapping her girl in a hug.

The day the girls traveled to the state tournament, parents, family, friends, teachers and fellow students packed the gym for a ceremony to send them off. A spiritual leader said a prayer in Ho-Chunk and English, acknowledging the Creator and asking that he watch over and guide the players, coaches and families heading to Lincoln.

He walked in front of the team, seated under one of the baskets in the gym, and smudged smoke from a stick of sage. Each player moved her hands, spreading the smoke over her body, an act of cleansing and acknowledging the spirits’ blessings.

After speeches and cheers, it was time to load up the school’s vans. Elementary students lined the hallways from the gym to the school’s exit holding handmade signs expressing encouragement and pride. Community members – including elders, for whom basketball was once a reprieve from despair – lined the street from the high school to the roundabout on the south edge of town, cheering and waving supportive signs. It had been a challenging year. Covid-19 disproportionately affected Native Americans. The girls team’s success was a joy during a difficult, uncertain time. The beaming players thanked their fans. Fire trucks, police SUVs and personal cars escorted the team to the town’s border.

Trina and Cain were at the end of the parade, watching as their daughter departed. Even though they’d sent their son to the state tournament years before, this was different. It made Trina weep.

“I was in tears. I was crying. I was so overwhelmed with happiness and joy for them,” Trina said.

Seeing the team’s win was special “not just for our daughter, but for all the girls on the team,” Trina said. “How many times does something like this happen for the girls?”

The team finished fourth place in the state tournament and returned home with heads high.

Dozens of elementary-age boys and girls line up on the sideline of the high school’s basketball court, practicing dribbling with each hand. The rhythmic sound reverberates through the gym. 

The Indians’ trip to the state tournament sparked even more interest in girls basketball, said Gregory Bass, director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Hocak Nisoc Naci at Winnebago. The Boys & Girls Club hosts an annual summer basketball camp, typically drawing more than 300 boys and girls from elementary to high school.

The 2022 camp featured former Winnebago High School stars: Natasha Deal, who helped lead the girls team to state and now plays at Peru State College, and David Wingett, who went on to play NCAA Division I basketball at the University of Memphis and South Dakota State University before transferring to Peru State for the 2022-23 season.

“We’re a Basketball town. Winnebago loves its basketball,” Bass said, watching campers practice dribbling and shooting drills.

Deal, who scored more than 1,000 points during her high school career, worked with the girls attending the camp, including the grade school players.

While Native American players, such as Ryneldi Becenti, Tahnee Robinson, Angel Goodrich and Shoni Schimmel have enjoyed success in the Women’s National Basketball Association, Winnebago players needn’t look beyond their sideline for a role model. Marquel Harlan, who owned the Indians’ school record for most three-point baskets in a game with eight, played college basketball at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa.

Before transferring there, she started her college career at Midland University in Fremont. She serves as a community liaison for Winnebago High School and, after serving as an assistant coach for three years, took over as head coach for the 2022-2023 season.

As Harlan and the Indians build a program that can annually challenge for state tournament bids, players, fans and the community can look back at the 2020-21 state tournament team as the first brick in the foundation of Winnebago’s rez ball story. With the help of leaders like team captain and now senior Lakaylah, Harlan wants to play to rez ball’s strengths this year – with lots of fast breaks, quick passes and open shots.

Harlan understands what it takes to guide the team. Growing up on a reservation, especially in the poorest county in Nebraska, has challenges beyond the basketball court.

“There’s a lot more that goes into playing the game than just putting the ball in the basket,” Harlan said. “School studies. Home life. All that goes together. You need parents to help support them.”

Lakaylah finds that support with her parents at home. As lunch is winding down, the conversation once again turns to basketball. Lakaylah dreams of playing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has worked hard on her goal.

During the off-season, she played for the Northeast Nebraska Bullets, an Amateur Athletic Union basketball team based in Pender, in weekly tournaments, from Omaha to Denver to Phoenix, facing some of the best high school players in the United States. She knows being the best takes commitment.