William Stanley Yellow Robe, Jr., Assiniboine playwright, actor, director and teacher died in Bangor, Maine on July 19, 2021, after a long illness. Although he had hoped to return to teaching in the fall, his body lost the fight against the traumas of colonization.
William Yellow Robe was born February 4, 1960 and raised on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Wolf Point, Montana. He attended reservation schools and was encouraged early by one of his teachers to become a writer. Becoming a playwright meant leaving the reservation; William attended the University of Montana in Missoula, honing his writing and acting skills, but encountering frustration when directors would cast him only in “Indian” roles, or not at all. He began to write his own plays, using the art form to tell stories of contemporary Native American people. William worked with other young Native American writers and actors all over the country in the budding Native American theatre movement of the 1980s. He was a member of La Mama Theater in New York, founded Wakiknabe Intertribal Theatre Company in Albuquerque, NM and became an advisor to Red Eagle Soaring Youth Theatre in Seattle, WA. He was recognized early in his career as a recipient of a Princess Grace Fellowship and a Jerome Fellowship. He taught theatre and playwriting at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM; over the years he was invited to lecture and teach at tribal colleges, Ivy League schools and state universities. Recently he was a member of the Creative Writing faculty of the University of Montana, and a lecturer and Libra Professor at the University of Maine. William Yellow Robe wrote over 70 plays, some of which are published in his three volumes of work: Where the Pavement Ends, “Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers and other untold stories,” and “Restless Spirits.” His plays have been produced around the United States and in Europe, including venues such as AmerLinda, Inc. and The Public Theatre in New York, Penumbra Theatre Company in St. Paul, MN, Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, RI, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Wash DC, and at the Mark Taper Forum in Loa Angeles, CA.
In December 2006, William married Jeanne Domek in South Dakota. Their time together was very happy, favorite activities included dog walks on the beach at New London, evenings of theater or movies, and attending summer powwows hosted by Narragansett, Wampanoag, and Pequot communities. Together they lived in Connecticut, South Dakota, Montana and Maine. In the last decade William Yellow Robe was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Naïve Writers Circle of the Americas, a Raushenberg Foundation residency, A Helen Merrill Award from the New York Community Trust, A Dramatists’ Guild Award, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Montana.
William Yellow Robe is survived by wife Jeanne Domek-Yellow Robe, his sister Karen Yellow Robe and daughter Canté Wasté Brown and son Ray Foote of Wolf Point, his niece Mina Yellow Robe Lingle and her daughter Kayla Lingle and son Sean LIngle of Spokane, WA, his nephew Stanley “Man” Lingle.
He is predeceased by his father William Stanley Yellow Robe and his mother Mina Forrest Yellow Robe, his brothers Alvin Yellow Robe and George “Fish” Redstone, his sister Helen Lingle and his nephew Mann Lingle.
He will be dearly missed by friends, students, and colleagues all over the world who learned from him and loved his work.