Bill was raised in the woods on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, where his father, a member of the Minnesota Logging Hall of Fame, taught him the importance of independence. His mother was a Mille Lacs Band member and direct descendant of Chief Buffalo of the Lake Superior Red Cliff nation. She introduced him to family members who taught him to trap, hunt, fish, and rice in traditional ways. After high school, Bill went to Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. It was there he learned to play basketball in the intramural program. After Haskell, he participated in a relocation and job training program. Bill learned air conditioning and sheet metal trades and worked for GM for five years, he headed back to college at Berkeley, where he majored in political science and American Indian studies. Taking part in the occupation of Alcatraz Island. During this time, he was also pursuing his love of basketball by playing in tournaments around the bay area and beyond, northern California, Reno, and up to Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana. Basketball, family, travel, and art-filled up his life. He was a man of purpose, vision, and passion. He cared about keeping our culture alive for future generations. He was a true activist. He taught about traditional tobacco use, he would sell and harvest wild rice often (the rice dealer), he would harvest walleye and traditional medicine, craft birch bark. He was a true entrepreneur and had too many businesses to count.
Bill was raised in the woods on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, where his father, a member of the Minnesota Logging Hall of Fame, taught him the importance of independence. His mother was a Mille Lacs Band member and direct descendant of Chief Buffalo of the Lake Superior Red Cliff nation. She introduced him to family members who taught him to trap, hunt, fish, and rice in traditional ways. After high school, Bill went to Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. It was there he learned to play basketball in the intramural program. After Haskell, he participated in a relocation and job training program. Bill learned air conditioning and sheet metal trades and worked for GM for five years, he headed back to college at Berkeley, where he majored in political science and American Indian studies. Taking part in the occupation of Alcatraz Island. During this time, he was also pursuing his love of basketball by playing in tournaments around the bay area and beyond, northern California, Reno, and up to Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana. Basketball, family, travel, and art-filled up his life. He was a man of purpose, vision, and passion. He cared about keeping our culture alive for future generations. He was a true activist. He taught about traditional tobacco use, he would sell and harvest wild rice often (the rice dealer), he would harvest walleye and traditional medicine, craft birch bark. He was a true entrepreneur and had too many businesses to count.
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