James "Jim" Charboneau Sr.

James “Jim” Charbonneau Sr., 80, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, North Dakota.  He was born in August 1941 to the late Clarence and Lucy Charbonneau.  He is survived by his son James, Max and Venaya and the Yazzie family.   Also, his siblings and family in Belcourt, North Dakota. 

In his early childhood in ND Jim attended Indian boarding school and, in his teens, he began his travels that would take him to work in Montana at the Wolf Point Airbase, then on to California where he worked with Nortons Inc.  While living in Oakland, CA where he was a pitcher for a men’s fastpitch Oakland semi-pro league.  Later he would me the permanent move to Farmington, NM where he established his family and had his son. While in NM he continued playing softball with the Ricketts Park softball league in Farmington.  In the 1980s he worked as a Heavy Equipment Operator for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Navajo Nation Roads Department where he built and paved the roads throughout the Navajo Nation highway infrastructure. Jim was interested in many things including coaching his son in baseball & managing him as a BMX racer. Among his hobbies later in life were attending car races at Aztec Speedway in Aztec, New Mexico.  In his later years Jim became an avid dancer in the southwest “Powwow Circle” as a Northern Traditional Dog Soldier dancer. He made many friends on the trail and was grateful to have his powwow family and friends in the four corners.  He made many friends on the surrounding reservation lands.  Jim always had a smile to share and a story to tell those he me, he was always making new friends wherever he went. He will be greatly missed on this earth, there will never be another like him.