Native American Baseball In Wisconsin

In the above photo, the Keshena baseball team poses for a photo in 1908.

Different types of ball games have long been a part of American Indian culture but native people were introduced to baseball as it was taking root around the United States in the second half of the 19th century. Some, like Apache leader Geronimo, played baseball while held captive in Oklahoma. Others learned from merchants, missionaries, and soldiers.

In the late 19^th century, many Indian children were sent to government or mission-run boarding schools. At the time, politicians and educators believed that removing native children from their homes was the best way to convert them to white mainstream culture. It was at these schools that many children learned to play baseball as many included the sport as part of their educational curriculum.

Among the players to play for Keshena was star pitcher Louis Leroy. Leroy was born in Red Springs in Shawano County in 1879, near the Stockbridge and Menominee reservations. He attended the Keshena School, a reservation school for both Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee children, where he played his first game of organized baseball as a pitcher in 1904.

Leroy soon left Keshena for the Haskell Institute, an off-reservation boarding school in Kansas, and later the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Leroy quickly became the star pitcher on the Carlisle team, though like many other children at the school, he ran away several times. Some boys ran away to join minor or semipro baseball teams in the summer to earn extra money.

Leroy’s pitching attracted scouts from professional teams and he eventually played professional ball, first with the New York Highlanders, later the Yankees, and then teams in Montreal, St. Paul, Boston, and Indianapolis.

Leroy became one of at least 50 American Indians who have played professional baseball over the years.