Brothers on Three: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana

by Abe Streep

Overview

**Winner of the 2021 Montana Book Award**
**Winner of the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona General Nonfiction Book Award**
**Finalist for the Spur Award for Best Contemporary Nonfiction**
**A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick**

"A heart-stomping, heart-stopping read. Unsentimental. Unforgettable. Astonishing. Brothers on Three captures the roar of a community spirit powered by blood history, loyalty, and ferocious love."
—Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red

From journalist Abe Streep, a story of coming-of-age on a reservation in the American West and a team uniting a community

March 11, 2017, was a night to remember: in front of the hopeful eyes of thousands of friends, family members, and fans, the Arlee Warriors would finally bring the high school basketball state championship title home to the Flathead Indian Reservation. The game would become the stuff of legend, with the boys revered as local heroes. The team’s place in Montana history was now cemented, but for starters Will Mesteth, Jr. and Phillip Malatare, life would keep moving on—senior year was just beginning.

In Brothers on Three, we follow Phil and Will, along with their teammates, coaches, and families, as they balance the pressures of adolescence, shoulder the dreams of their community, and chart their own individual courses for the future.

Brothers on Three is not simply a story about high school basketball, state championships, and a winning team. It is a book about community, and it is about boys on the cusp of adulthood finding their way through the intersecting worlds they inhabit and forging their own paths to personhood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250210692
Publisher:	Celadon Books
Publication date:	03/07/2023
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	514,499
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Abe Streep has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Outside, The California Sunday Magazine, WIRED, Columbia Journalism Review, and Harper's. His writing has been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing and noted by Best American Essays and Best American Science and Nature Writing. He is a recipient of the 2019 American Mosaic Journalism Prize for deep reporting on underrepresented communities.

Table of Contents

Prologue: TU Be There 1

Part 1

1 We Just Know 11

2 They're Following You 23

3 We Need Her 29

4 This Crazy Feeling of Infinity 36

Part 2

5 Keep Up 47

6 Never Do It for Yourself 61

7 Almost Exactly the Same 74

8 He Don't Like to Go Far 91

Part 3

9 A Brutal Truth 107

10 Who's Tired? 113

11 This Is the Right Now 134

12 Why Do You Care What Other People Think? 143

13 It's Not by Accident 154

14 How Can It Be Business? 155

15 Should We Smile? 168

16 A Perfect World 170

17 As Good as Your Word 181

18 If It Could Just Be This 188

19 It Can Also Break Your Heart 196

20 "Love You" on Three 210

Part 4

21 The Cracks 233

22 The Singing 244

23 Home 261

24 Must Be the New Shoes 264

25 Where It All Began 280

26 Where We're Gonna Be 289

Epilogue: We're Still Playing 305

Author's Note 309

Acknowledgments 315

Notes 319

Editorial Reviews

"[A]n immersive portrait of a small tribal town where shared history runs deep, opportunity feels elusive, and basketball is a visceral expression of collective pride, hope and grit...By the end of the book, you’ll want to shout it from the rafters: Ar-LEE War-RIORS, Ar-LEE War-RIORS."
—The New York Times

"A heart-stomping, heart-stopping read. Unsentimental. Unforgettable. Astonishing. Brothers on Three captures the roar of a community spirit powered by blood history, loyalty, and ferocious love."
—Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red

"Occasionally a sports team can reflect a community in all its complexity and beauty. The Arlee Warriors played with enormous grace under pressure, and this superb book—by being honest, real, and reflective—mirrors and honors that strength. You will not soon forget it."
—Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of Falter and The End of Nature

Brothers on Three "is by turns a rousing tale of a singular basketball team pursuing a second and even more unlikely title, a chronicle of the persistent racism and college recruitment discrimination faced by the players and their families, and a snapshot of small-town life on the reservation... [Streep's] prose about the rugged landscape paints a portrait that will live in your mind long after you finish his book."
—5280 magazine

"Meticulously-reported and exquisitely-written, Abe Streep's Brothers On Three is a masterwork of immersive journalism. Streep's integrity as a journalist and as a human shines through on every page."
—Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Amity and Prosperity and The Tenth Parallel

"Brothers on Three is a terrific piece of reporting by a writer who went deep into the Flathead Reservation in Montana. The sports story is a page-turner and beautifully told, but what makes this book exceptional is its embrace of the texture, emotion, and drift of Indian life.”
—S.C. Gwynne, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell

"The very definition of a page-turner. In his book, Streep becomes equal parts reporter and poet, painting the illustrious beauty of Montanan landscapes overlooked by mainstream America and the complex people intimately connected to these landscapes’ past, present, and future... Brothers on Three is a must read."
—Alexander Williams, Transmotion

"Beautiful. Extraordinary. Step up into this book, which like all great books leads us to the center of something of great importance. Who deserves a place in Montana, or for that matter, a place in America? To be not just the writer who wrote this book, but the person who could write this book, and ask these questions, took a sublime amount of humility and grace. Long live Arlee, its elders and its children. They bring honor to our world."
—Bob Shacochis, recipient of the National Book Award, author of Kingdoms in the Air and The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

"A rich, expansive portrait of modern Indigenous life."
—The Washington Post

"An action-packed yet reflective account of the quest for a high school basketball championship on and off a Montana Indian reservation... A thoughtful call for social justice as much as a story of striving for athletic excellence."
—Kirkus Reviews

"While the teens’ hoop dreams are what push the narrative forward, the questions that arise in the natural course of their greater pursuits are what lingered with me, among them what it means to be a success in our society to those who are marginalized by it. Streep’s incredible reporting, which spanned years, and the relationships he took care to cultivate and respect are evident."
—Tasha Zemke, Outside

"Streep is in top form with the on-court action and insights into the discrimination faced by Native athletes... This is a rousing portrait of a long-shot team beating the odds."
—Publishers Weekly

"A riveting portrayal of the Flathead Indian Reservation in Arlee, MT... In addition to being great sports journalism that will touch anyone who loves high school sports, Streep’s book will appeal to readers interested in histories of generational trauma."
—Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher

06/21/2021

Journalist Streep debuts with an earnest account of a Montana high school basketball team’s quest to repeat as state champions in 2018. Most players on the Arlee Warriors had familial ties to the Salish and Kootenai tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation, and Streep documents growing excitement in the community during the team’s march to victory in the 2017 “Class C” final. He also details a star player’s work with a literacy coach to keep up his grades, and an administrator’s concerns that the competitive pressure might spike suicide rates, which were already high among Native American boys. During the 2017–2018 season, the stakes were raised, especially for the team’s seniors, many of whom sought a college education with the goal of returning to make Arlee better. Streep documents injuries and illnesses that nearly derailed the season, and describes how the players and their coach launched a suicide prevention initiative. After winning a second state championship, some Warriors left Arlee to play college ball. Streep is in top form with the on-court action and insights into the discrimination faced by Native athletes, though he somewhat shortchanges the tribal history. Still, this is a rousing portrait of a long-shot team beating the odds. Illus. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 08/01/2021

Streep expands on his 2018 New York Times Magazine article in this debut—a riveting portrayal of the Flathead Indian Reservation in Arlee, MT, home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The focal point is the Arlee high school men's basketball team, whose members Streep follows as they win multiple state championships and pursue their dreams of playing college ball. Arlee is also the center of a suicide cluster that affects the entire community; recognizing the positive impact of the team's success, their coach urges the basketball players to make videos addressing mental health. The experiences of grandparents, parents, tribal elders, and teachers also figure prominently, adding perspective to the basketball action. Streep's magazine portrait won an American Mosaic Journalism prize for exploring generations of Salish and Kootenai families and their joys and difficulties; this book-length expansion benefits from his talent and compassion. VERDICT In addition to being great sports journalism that will touch anyone who loves high school sports, Streep's book will appeal to readers interested in histories of generational trauma. The focus on high school life and basketball gives it YA appeal.—Laurie Unger Skinner, Highland Park P.L., IL

Library Journal

2021-07-10
An action-packed yet reflective account of the quest for a high school basketball championship on and off a Montana Indian reservation.

“In rural Montana, on the weekend of the state tournament, small towns evacuate, their residents filling arenas designed for rock bands and college teams.” So writes Outside contributing editor Streep, setting the scene for a team on the Flathead Indian Reservation competing in Class C basketball, which “occupies emotional territory somewhere between escape and religion.” The Arlee Warriors lack nothing in the way of community support; when they travel for away games across the sprawling state, nearly half the Flathead Nation goes with them. In other matters, the players are less fortunate. The school is underfunded, the reservation plagued by poverty and addiction, and prejudice is seldom far below the surface beyond its borders. Much of the success of the Warriors can be attributed to the skillful coaching and encouragement of a young man named Zanen Pitts, who recognizes what his players are up against. “Out of the kids that people are afraid to give a chance to, I’d give this kid a chance,” he says of one of his students, a diligent and inventive player who gives his all off and on the court: “To watch him play was to become accustomed to surprise,” writes Streep. Other players have their own styles, some brash and attention-seeking, some shy but fearless. Readers will applaud the boys’ accomplishments against the long odds while shaking their heads at the many institutional and social obstacles placed in their way, not least of them lack of support from higher education. As the author documents, of 222 Montana students recruited for college athletics, “just one basketball player was Native American, a young woman.” With its excellent on-court set pieces and search for context, Streep’s book nicely bookends Michael Powell’s Canyon Dreams(2019), a story of basketball on the Navajo Reservation.

A thoughtful call for social justice as much as a story of striving for athletic excellence.

Kirkus Reviews