Bill Schaaf

Bill Schaaf

August 26, 1940

A Funeral Ceremony for Kiiwedin Binesii, Bill Schaaf age 82, will be held at 10 AM on Monday, August 7, 2023, at the District 1 Community Center on the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Reservation with Ombishkebines officiating. Visitation will begin at dusk on Sunday, August 6, 2023, at the District 1 Community Center on the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Reservation. Interment will be in the Vineland Burial Grounds. Arrangements are with the Shelley Funeral Chapel of Onamia.

Kiiwedin Binesii, Bill was raised in the woods on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, where his father, a member of the Minnesota Logging Hall of Fame, taught him the importance of independence. His mother was a Mille Lacs Band member and direct descendant of Chief Buffalo of the Lake Superior Red Cliff nation. She introduced him to family members who taught him to trap, hunt, fish, and rice in traditional ways. After high school, Bill went to Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. It was there he learned to play basketball in the intramural program. After Haskell, he participated in a relocation and job training program. Bill learned air conditioning and sheet metal trades and worked for GM for five years, he headed back to college at Berkeley, where he majored in political science and American Indian studies. Taking part in the occupation of Alcatraz Island. During this time, he was also pursuing his love of basketball by playing in tournaments around the bay area and beyond, northern California, Reno, and up to Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Montana. Basketball, family, travel, and art-filled up his life. He was a man of purpose, vision, and passion. He cared about keeping our culture alive for future generations. He was a true activist. He taught about traditional tobacco use, he would sell and harvest wild rice often (the rice dealer), he would harvest walleye and traditional medicine, craft birch bark. He was a true entrepreneur and had too many businesses to count.

Bill is survived by his wife, Barbara Schaaf; children, Kateri Bohanan, Mikayla Schaaf, Wahelah Schaaf, Timothy Schaaf, William Schaaf Jr., Michelle Brown, Victoria Moon, and Laura Sherman; grandchildren, Kodah, Keenly, Kaelyn, Michael, Shaniah, Antonio, Tim, Sheena, Natasha, Marteen, Blaine, Delano, BillieDee, Shawnoah, Layla, Gena, Ethan, Verel, Elisha, Verissa; great-grandchildren, Ayaana, Dominic, Charlie, Graciana, Ahryanna, Deangelo, Athyna, Azellia, Serenity, Adriano; brother, Frank Schaaf; sisters, Suzanna Schaaf and Marilyn Whitney; special friends, Julian Reuter, Jake Reuter, April McGill, and Jessie Seim; and many loving relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Susan; father, Ambrose; sisters, Clara Kruse, Maryann Shedd, Dolly Granger, Nancy Arnoux, and Karen Applebee; brothers, Alexander and Ronald Schaaf; and great-nephews, Gage Kruse and Kayden Eagle.

Cemetery Details

Vineland Cemetery

Utopia Rd

Onamia, MN 56359

Previous Events

Visitation

AUG 6. 8:00 PM (CT)

District 1 Community Center

43646 Virgo Rd

Onamia, MN 56359

Funeral Ceremony

AUG 7. 10:00 AM (CT)

District 1 Community Center

43646 Virgo Rd

Onamia, MN 56359