The Sagamore test: no resident holder proven — and the two near-misses expelled

Tested November 2026 · the state's highest civilian honor, against the record that exists

The record problem: the Sagamore of the Wabash is Indiana's highest civilian honor, conferred personally by the Governor, and the state keeps no roll of its holders — each governor keeps his own list, and the governor's office itself says the total number of recipients is unknown. The sister builds established the working rule this build inherits: a Sagamore is proven from the presenter's record or the recipient's own institution's record, and a name on an unsourced list prints at list strength. The test: the compiled recipient list was read whole, governor by governor,; targeted searches were then run against the town — Walkerton's name, the John Glenn schools, the town's officeholders and coaches — in the congressional record, in presentation coverage, and in institutional biographies. No Walkerton resident stands proven by any of them. The near-misses, expelled with reasons: Charles R. Tiede was born in Walkerton on October 19, 1929 and graduated from Walkerton High School in 1947, and he holds a Sagamore (2004) — but the honor crowned a life's service seated in Wabash, where he lived, worked, and died on July 31, 2022; he is Wabash's Sagamore, and his Walkerton line is a birth-and-schooling tie, printed here so the claim is never made the other way. Don Bunge coached four years at Walkerton-Lincoln and holds a Sagamore (1974) and an Indiana Football Hall of Fame induction (1988) — for a career seated at Bremen, where he lived 52 years; he is Bremen's man, and his Walkerton years print at boundary size in the Sports leg's custody, not as a town honor here. The verdict: as of November 2026, no Sagamore of the Wabash held by a resident of Walkerton stands proven in any record this build reached.

Sources

1. Office of the Governor of Indiana, on the award's nature and the absence of a state roll (as carried in the Indianapolis Star's explainer of October 2, 2019 and the governor's website) — the record problem.
2. The compiled list of Sagamore recipients, read whole — the list-strength test.
3. Obituary and institutional records for Charles R. Tiede (b. Walkerton 1929, Walkerton High School 1947, Sagamore 2004, of Wabash) and Don Bunge (Sagamore 1974, of Bremen) — the expulsions, each on its own record.
4. This build's sister awards legs (Granger, Osceola) — the standing rule for proof strength.