Eddie Rogers, Athlete and Attorney

Transcript

Welcome to MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds.

Driving through Walker, drivers pass a bronze bust set outside the courthouse. Few notice it, and fewer still stop to wonder: Who was Eddie Rogers? In 1876, Ay-Nay-Way-We-Dung—Echo in the Woods—was born to an Ojibwe mother and a lumberman father in Libby, near the site of the Sandy Lake Tragedy, where 400 Ojibwe had perished from starvation and disease because of a forced removal and a corrupt government treaty. The teenager was a talented athlete and, under his English name Eddie Rogers, entered Carlisle Indian College in Pennsylvania to play football. The institution was notorious for erasing the Native identities of its students. But this was also where Eddie emerged as a star of the gridiron, eventually becoming captain of his team. Later, he pursued a law degree at the University of Minnesota, while also helping the Golden Gophers clinch the Big Ten title in 1903. Eddie Rogers would spend most of his post-college years defending the powerless and pursuing justice as a lawyer and county attorney in Walker where, in 1997, he was recognized with a bronze bust.

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