By Dan Ninham
History was made during a recent 2025 Minnesota State Girls High School Basketball Tournament game. The three person official’s crew were comprised of Ojibwe men. This was probably the first time throughout the country that this occurred and perhaps the first time three Native American men worked the same state tournament game.
Many states that have a Native American demographic of student athletes may have had one or two officials that were Native American work a state high school basketball tournament but most didn’t have three. South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming interscholastic athletic associations responded that they never had a three native official’s crew at the state high school tournament. Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, and Idaho interscholastic athletic associations didn’t respond.
Mike Thomas, enrolled member of the St. Croix Chippewa of Wisconsin, lives in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. He has been a state certified high school varsity official for 20 years, and has worked state high school tournaments for 10 years. An idea turned into a passion to get three Native American officials to work the same game in the state tournament.
“I’ve been working on this for four years, to get three Native officials to work a game in the state tournament together,” Mike Thomas said. “They (Minnesota state high school league officials association) had told me that I would have to find native officials because I was the only one that they knew of.”
“I knew an official out of Cass Lake, Darryl ‘Duck’ Drouillard,” said Thomas. “I got in touch with him for some names, he knew of some guys he worked high school games with, Phil Johnson and Dan Jourdain. I also contacted the local assigner that assigns games up north and he gave me two names, Jon White and Frank Bowstring.”
The officials were eventually evaluated in varsity games and the state officials association made their decisions to who was going to work the game.
“Phil got picked last year and Jon and Dan got picked this year, so they put all three together on a consolation game this year at Concordia College. I could not have been happier to see three native men doing a state tournament game, it brought tears to my eyes, very proud of them for their accomplishments and I accomplished what I set out to do,” added Thomas.
Phillip Johnson, is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and he lives in the Winnie Dam/Jackson Village communities on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota.
“I have been a certified high school basketball official with the MSHSL (Minnesota State High School League) going into my 10th year,” said Phillip Johnson. “I have been officiating basketball from the youth level, to adult tournaments and leagues going on 25 years. I am also in my third year as a MSHSL-certified high school football official as well. This will be my second year certified as a baseball and softball umpire.”
Jonathan White, also an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, lives in Ball Club, Minnesota. “Around five or six years of being a certified official with a total of 17 years of officiating, I started doing junior high levels while I was still in high school at Deer River. So far I have done Pony League, Junior High, Junior Varsity, High School and Junior College (JUCO) officiating.”
“I was never the greatest athlete on the team but I knew what hard work was and I applied it when I was out on the court,” said White. “I translated this to my commitment as an official, and trying to be the best at what I do as an official as well.”
Dan Jourdain, enrolled Red Lake Ojibwe member, also talked about hard work in the KARE11 sports broadcast: “We hope that it goes back to our communities as a good thing, a positive thing, because this is what hard work does; it pays off at times.”
Representation of native officials at the state tournament level is a positive not only for native people but all people.
“For the native community to finally see representation (for officials) at the biggest stage for basketball was absolutely incredible,” said White. “We earned it by merit, not by virtue, and that itself was the best feeling of it all.”
“When you are noticed because of your hard work, you can achieve anything and be anything you want to be. To have the support that we did, when the word was out about us working together—it was awesome. To see all our communities come together and be proud of what we did—it was breathtaking,” added White.
White added, “Now, that’s not the end of the goal—the goal now, is to ref together in a state championship.”
The KARE11 sports broadcast is at: https://www.kare11.com/article/news/lo al/minnesota-basketball-tournament-history-three-native-americans-officiate-a-game/89-030662cd-cd73-400d-a8c5-0d53b2df77a4
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