Arrows...How it came to be...
While the crowd yells "Go Arrows'" at Watertown High School athletic events, many taking up the call may have no idea how the Arrow name originated.
Prior to having an official name, the football team had a variety of titles. The most frequently used were "the purple and golders," the "old maroon and gold," and the "Roesmen." The latter was for football coach Harry E. Roese who had originated Ki-Yi Day two years earlier.
In 1926, a Ki-Yi Day float was sponsored about an Indian legend which supposedly occurred at Lake Kampeska. The legend was written by Watertownian Gen. M.W Sheafe about a romance between a Sioux chief's daughter and a young Pawnee brave during a period of Sioux-Pawnee hostilities. The events are supposed to have taken place on the shores of Lake Kampeska prior to the area's settlement.
The float won the best float award and helped to inspire the team name. According to the Public Opinion on Nov. 11,1926, the Watertown High School student body officially "christened" the football team the "Arrows" at a convention the preceding day. Donna Burt, a student, read the legend (the predecessor of today's Ki-Yi legend) during the christening ceremony. The name stuck and quickly spread to the other athletic teams at the high school.
The Legend...
"Elaborately decorated floats, a score of automobiles gayly bedecked in purple and gold, two bands, groups of colorfully costumed Indians dancing and shouting at the top of their voices, horseback riders, clowns, hoboes beyond count, a bicycle brigade Hashing school colors and hundreds of marching school children passed along thronged streets at 1:30 this afternoon." (Public Opinion, Oct. 25,1924)
Such was the spectacle that greeted observers of Watertown's first Ki-Yi Day festivities. Since that flamboyant beginning Ki-Yi Day has become even more elaborate and one of the most unique homecoming celebrations in the nation. The idea for Ki-Yi Day came from football coach Harry Roese, who wanted to drum up support and enthusiasm for his team's toughest game of the season. Watertown was going to try to end a seven year losing string to Brookings High School- The game would knock one of the teams out of contention for the state championship.
Roese introduced the idea to the high school students, who approved it on Oct. 16 at a mass meeting. The idea was so well received that nearly everyone in the city became involved the Boy Scouts, each of the six grade schools and downtown merchants. Elaborate preparations, under Roese's direction, began immediately for the mass rally and two parades which were to precede the game. The high school kicked off the festivities on Wednesday, Oct. 22, with a convocation at which a "Big Chief" and "Indian Princess" were elected by the student body. The two were to represent the high school spirit, and preside over the celebration.
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The Legend cont'd...
Ethel Lawrence was the first Indian Princess and Clayton Doyle was named "Big Chief."
With the slogan "Beat Brookings" on everyone's lips, "one of the best costumed spectacles ever presented by the schools in Watertown" marked the beginning of Ki-Yi Day. After the parade, hundreds of people jammed Fletcher Field to see Watertown topple Brookings 12-0.
Ki-Yi Day followed the same pattern for several years. But in 1939 a new touch was added — a touch which would set off Ki-Yi Day from any other homecoming.
In 1939, Florence Bruhn was in her first year as an art instructor at the high school. She was asked by Principal Dwight D. Miller to come up with an original way the school could present the homecoming couple. "When you ask yourself what can you use with a word like 'Ki-Yi,' the answer, of course, is something to do with Indians," Miss Bruhn recalled. "What else could it be? So I tried to come up with an idea and invented these two tribes." Those two tribes are the Kione (pronounced ki-OWE-knee) and the Yiwawa. Represented by the school colors of purple and gold, respectively the tribes provide the basis of a legend which has become a Ki-Yi landmark.
In the legend, the two tribes meet on the shores of Lake Kampeaka, or "the lake of the shining shells," as the atory refers to it- The tribes have differences, but a council is held in which the differences are reconciled. As a result, the tribes form one tribe, the Ki-Yi, and select new leaders.
"That's the basis of the story so it was a matter of bringing the two tribes together and having an election," she said. The new leaders are represented by the Chieftain and Princess elected by the student body. New elements are added to the story every year, usually reflecting important events. For example, during the 1976 Ki-Yi Legend, remarks were added reflecting on the nation's bicentennial. Now nearly 60 years old, many of the problems with the presentation have been worked out. Several obstacles were presented over the years.
"That first year was rugged because we had no auditorium then, so we had it on the football field and it was terrible out there," Bruhn recalled. "We gathered up old Camp Fire Girl outfits for the girls to wear and then we pasted fringes on the pants for the boys.
Several script changes also had to be made over the years. One such change was the introduction of the "Chief of Arrows," who is elected by the football team. "The Chieftain invariably was a football player for a while, but we had to change it," according to Bruhn. "That was because the royalty had to show up for the home coming game dressed in their Indian costumes, and this made it hard for the football player to go and change back and forth into his uniform."
Florence Bruhn produced the Ki-Yi Legend each year from 1939 to 1976...
Back to Florence Bruhn
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