A changing of the guard for Blackfeet Boxing

“I’m continuing his work and legacy because he’s changed so many lives,” Donna Kipp said of her father, Frank Kipp, founder of the Blackfeet Nation Boxing Club and Youth Center in Browning. “It means a lot to me, watching dad open the building. He’s the person I always look up to. He’s actually done it as an urban Indian who made it back.”

“I am what is called an urban Indian,” Frank explained. “I grew up in big cities like Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and Spokane. I came to Browning after my sister passed away due to an accident from alcohol.

“We were a close-knit family of seven children and my mom and dad. I lived in housing projects where my dad was a welder on huge ships. We lived in all-black areas as well as all-white and Mexican areas.

“We fought all the time with other kids coming home from school, and I had to be the back gunner because I had little brothers and a sister who I mentioned earlier had passed away. One time we got the bad end of a fight, and my father said, ‘It’s time you learn the family trade and fight back effectively’ so we became boxers.”

Frank’s beginning amid conflicting cultures gave him a deep understanding of young people’s challenges in a changing world.

“My brothers and I were known as the Kipp brothers - four of us,” Frank said. “My father was almost a full-blood Blackfeet man. My mom was a quarter Irish - her mother was half Irish and half Blackfeet. Mom called us double-I’s, (Indian-Irish), and the grandsons of Band-Chief Heavy Runner who was murdered in the Bear Creek Massacre on Jan. 23, 1870, in the Marias area of Northern Montana. It is also the day of my birth.

“When I became an Adult/Youth Juvenile Officer for the Blackfeet Tribe, I created the MIP (Minors in Possession) Program. Our community was losing one or two young people every six weeks in 2005 from alcohol related fatalities.

“I said ‘enough’ after seeing a group of young people get killed. For two years we put on presentations with the Montana Highway Patrol, Glacier County Sheriff and Coroner, EMTs, survivors and ex-prisoners. We put on presentations at high schools and colleges, and I was the first person to put on a presentation at a boxing event. It was a spiritual endeavor - the one where God let me know we will succeed, and we did.

“We don’t have it at that frequency anymore, and I did not do this myself. Our local priest and pastors prayed, and many became aware.”

For Frank, the Club has been about more than simply learning to fight. The building has become an oasis for young people looking for someplace safe to spend time with their friends and adults who care.

“In my tenure with my boxing club, I have talked more than 25 kids out of suicide,” Frank explained. “They had various reasons that they chose not to live, and I showed them they were important and that I heard them. That was five years ago and there have been many more since. I just chose to quit counting.

“We fed kids and little families after boxing years ago. I found food during my lunch breaks every day. We never made anyone feel bad to eat with us. They showed up with their babies and I would say you can’t come in and then not eat with us. They would get shy, but five minutes later they would be eating with their babies and be happy.

“We also created a clothing pantry for our team and community.

“We hold fundraisers by selling barbecue food sometimes in the winter, raffles, 50/50s, yard sales, and many businesses donate what they can. Today my wife and I make Native American wearable art pieces and various other graphics such as USMC, cowboy themes and such. A portion of the proceeds goes to the boxing club.

“In the many years of soliciting for my team’s kids, I felt like a professional bum. I did it for those kids. Some have never left Browning or could not afford boxing fees. We did it because we know what it is like to be hungry and financially challenged, and why many times I was a successful parole officer,” Frank said.

Having invested much of his life in helping young people through his experience and expertise, Frank is turning it over to his daughter.

“I have decided to retire and hand my team over to my daughter, Donna Kipp, and her boyfriend [Jesse Carlson],” noted Frank. I’ve been sick these past six years, first from cancer and high blood pressure, and in the past four months small strokes.

“She was featured in our documentary and grew up with boxing. As a former state and regional champion, as well as a Junior Olympic National Champion, she is qualified and, I believe, one of the first female Native boxing coaches.”

The 2020 ESPN feature, “Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible,” focused on Kipp’s training young girls and women in self-defense, as well as following Donna Kipp and Mamie Kennedy learning to box.

“Kids don’t change,” said Donna, “especially now when some think there’s no hope. Frank’s mentorship is how I do it. I get to be the change, and I’ve started already. I’ve been training hard since I realized I can’t let dad keep doing this. He can’t stay on them or critique them so it’s time for me to step up and get back to the kids.”

Again, learning to fight is a small part of the journey. For many, it’s opening doors to a more joyous life.

“We get a lot of kids, but only a handful can fight competitively,” Donna said. “I’ve got some who are autistic so with them it’s the ability to function. And sometimes it’s about behavior, that they weren’t properly corrected growing up. It’s tough changing that to finding good ways to get what they want. We show them that a negative mindset brings negative results, and we do a lot of affirmations to make that change.

“I want to make it back the way it was,” she said of the building, “with pinball machines and games split with boxing on one side and play on the other. The rest is up to the future.”

Effecting change in people takes an individual approach for each person. Sometimes it’s easier for Donna with other women while her boyfriend, Jesse Carlson, is locally famous in Indian Relay racing and can often communicate more easily with men.

“Especially as a woman, I see many girls who marry early and get themselves into trouble, so it’s a matter of getting over that stepping stone of wanting love,” Donna said. “They need to realize their worth – ‘if Donna can do it, I can too!’ I’m a normal person and I watched Dad be ‘Uncle Frank,’ and being a woman, I can bring more understanding to how we can do it.”

Events are upcoming for the Blackfeet Nation Boxing Club and Youth Center as spring arrives.

“We plan on hosting the Montana Novice Championship in Browning at our big event center on Nov. 6-7, and we’re inviting your communities to come,” Frank said. “There will be teams from Libby, Missoula, Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell, Spokane, Fort Belknap, Havre, North Dakota and Canada. I invite you folks to come support us and experience my community’s hospitality. Some people, years ago, were afraid to come to Browning, and I said we are like anyone else. They came and were surprised at how well my community treated them.

“This is also a farewell to the amateur boxing world from me,” Frank concluded. “I believe I made a positive difference and am proud of my accomplishments. I love my community and would live nowhere else. God’s blessings to you all.”