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40 “i live here!”Willie catapulted to stardom in Andrew’s book as “the greatestthing on earth.” Billy never forgot the story. “I always remember thatbecause that was the kind of guy Dad was. He took care of those kidsas if they were his own.”From the start, the smiley, chubby-cheeked boy adored his bigsister Maiselle, who became a second mother. Maiselle too had spenttime at Mud Bay. She lived there for seven years watching her grandmother,Louisa Tobin, weave cedar root baskets—masterpieces ofbeauty—and cook for religious conventions of the Shakers. Louisadied the year Billy was born, however, and Maiselle moved home tothe Landing.When Billy was eight, Maiselle boarded the bus for Chemawa IndianSchool, the nation’s oldest continuously operating boarding school.The separation devastated Billy, and Maiselle never forgot theirgoodbye. “Billy just stood there screaming and crying at the top of hislungs,” says Tom Keefe, a family friend. “Maiselle felt so guilty all theway down there and every day she was at that school. I remember herrecalling that image frozen in her memory, all the way to Oregon. Shecouldn’t stop crying, because she just saw Billy’s face. . . . To this day,the dynamic between the two of them is very loving. Maiselle is definitelythe big sister/surrogate mom in his life.”“We missed each other,” Billy recalls. “She was going off to schoolat Chemawa, which in them days was a long ways away, clear in Salem.I never dreamed of even going to Salem, Oregon.” But school hasalways meant something to Maiselle, Billy says.In 1939, enrollment at Chemawa was down from its onetime peakof a thousand students in 1926, but it was a fully accredited highschool. Like all Native American students, Maiselle was scrutinizedupon her arrival from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. “Irecommend enrollment and suggest the following: Home Management,Industrial Art, and Music,” the administrators concluded atplacement.Maiselle’s brothers, Andrew and Don, joined her. In fact, accordingto Don’s daughter, Nancy Shippentower-Games, Maiselle and Don