Donato Seabolt, second from right, participating in a traditional Cherokee challenge call during the 112th Annual Cherokee Indian Fair. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)
By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Donato Seabolt is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation from Tahlequah, Okla., where he works as an armed security officer for Cherokee Nation Health Services. He is an Anetsovsgi (Ball player) for the Wudeligv (west) Anetso (Stickball) team out of Oklahoma.
“I was born here in Tahlequah and raised in Fort Gibson, Okla. I’d say it’s about 15-20 miles west of Tahlequah and it’s within the Cherokee Nation reservation. I was just a regular country kid. I grew up playing sports, tried baseball and wasn’t very good at it. I was better with contact sports – wrestling, football. I loved getting into trouble, loved hanging out with my buddies, fishing, coon hunting, riding ATVs, just doing normal everyday kids’ stuff,” Seabolt said.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of interaction with the Cherokee culture growing up. My grandfather was born in 1912, and he passed away at 98 when I was about 9 years old, and he was the last fluent Cherokee speaker in our family. My mom and my dad are both deaf, so my first language is sign language. I didn’t even start talking until I was 5 years old, because my household language was sign language.”
Donato Seabolt in the Wudeligv v. Walelu game at the 112th Annual Cherokee Indian Fair. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)
Seabolt is a veteran, serving his tour of duty in the United States Navy as Military Police. He met his wife with whom he has three children while stationed in Coronado, Calif. Seabolt received his associate’s degree last May from Connors State College in Sociology with a focus in police science. He is currently a student at Northeastern State University (NSU) pursuing a bachelor’s in criminal justice with a minor in American Indian studies. Seabolt plans on becoming a marshal or probation or parole officer for Cherokee Nation upon graduation.
NSU is one of the invisible strings that has pulled Seabolt into learning more about his culture. “How I got involved in stickball and actively involved in the Cherokee culture—going to stomp, trying to learn the language, being involved in the community—is my wife. She used to work at Northeastern State University, and she’s also currently a student and she graduates this year with her degree in accounting, but she had a coworker there named Kendra Mouse, and her and Kendra wound up becoming friends. And Kendra Mouse is the wife of Wudeligv’s team captain Josh Mouse, or Tsisdetsi (mouse).”
Tsisdetsi recruited Seabolt to play, knowing that Seabolt competed in Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu.
“I thought he was talking about Choctaw stickball, the most popular one out here that everyone plays. And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And he was like, ‘No, no, no, not Choctaw stickball, Cherokee stickball. We used to play out here, but we haven’t played in a long time, what they still play back in our traditional homelands in North Carolina. We’re starting our own stickball team, and we’re wanting to take a team out there to go to the Qualla Boundary and play with the community teams out there.’ I went to a practice, and I immediately fell in love with it,” Seabolt said.
Seabolt has been playing now for about three years. “A lot of the guys that I’m on the team with, I didn’t know them at all prior to stickball, and now some of them are my closest friends. It’s given us, which you probably hear among a lot of stickball players, a sense of brotherhood, which it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.
“I started doing stickball, which actively started influencing me to learn about my heritage and my culture. I started learning the language. Some of the guys on the team either work for Cherokee Nation at the Immersion School as teachers or coaches, or they’re also CLMAP [Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program] graduates, so they help me from time to time.
“I’m wanting to learn the language, too, because my goal is to be a marshal, and some of the communities out here and the people out here are first language speakers, and that’s what they’re more comfortable in. Language is how you connect to people, and if I’m going to those areas, I want them to know that I’m there to help and I’m there to serve.”
In speaking about his experiences on the Qualla Boundary, Seabolt describes it as a homecoming. “The first year after every game, we went to water with just about every team. For some of us, we’d never been to North Carolina before. It’s beautiful. The people are lovely. They welcomed us. We talked about how some of our family members and our ancestors haven’t been here in a long time, so it felt like coming home, and it was just beautiful.”
Seabolt highlighted Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) member Frankie Bottchenbaugh as being particularly welcoming and helpful to Wudeligv as a driver during games.
Seabolt broke his jaw at stickball practice and will not be able to play this year, but he is still making the journey home for the 113th Annual Cherokee Indian Fair.
