Native American Week, Milken Festival held at All Chiefs Park
By John McGill
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 12:21 PM MDT
After a mammoth opening ceremony at the Blackfeet Academy at Blackfeet Community College, students from the Academy were joined by those from De La Salle Blackfeet and the Cuts Wood school in learning how to set up teepees at All Chiefs Park Monday, Sept. 24. "Leo Bird won the Milken Festival for Youth grant," said Nikki Hannon, director of the Blackfeet Academy, "so he had to do a kickoff and that just happened to work extremely well with Native American Week starting Monday. So we collaborated with Blackfeet Community College, the Native Science Field Center and the Blackfeet Tribe, and between the four of us we hosted the kickoff."
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| Instruction in teepee raising was meted out to students from Cuts Wood and De La Salle Blackfeet schools, as well as the Blackfeet Academy and some observing students from Browning High School. Photo by John McGill
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Hannon estimates more than 150 local students took part, first in the opening ceremonies at BCC and then at the lodge building exercises at All Chiefs Park. To begin with, she said, plans were to raise the lodges at the Medicine Wheel at BCC, but the ground there was too wet so the exercise was moved to All Chiefs.
Leo Bird, a science teacher at Browning High School, won the Milken award earlier this month and devoted the resulting project to teaching kids about traditional lodge building. Bird himself directed a group of students in raising one lodge while other instructors from BCC's Native Science Field Center took charge in erecting three more.
"The idea is to introduce the concept to Blackfeet Academy kids of making and pitching teepees," Hannon said. While each instructor had his own method of showing how it's done, Hannon said that Bird gave the kids the lesson, then had them set it up themselves.
The opening ceremonies featured talks by Blackfeet elder Al Potts, as well as BCC President John Salois and Browning Schools Superintendent Mary Johnson. Students from the Cuts Wood immersion school sang and drummed for the event. Hannon noted officials from the Milken Foundation had been invited, but scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending. Instead, she said they would arrive this spring for Days of the Blackfeet at BCC.
The sight of teepees in downtown Browning was beautiful, but short lived. Once the students had them set up, they set about taking them down again.
Local residents should look for the Milken kids in a float this Native American Day in the Native American Week/Homecoming Parade.
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