Students To Present Fashion Show
A good amount of learning and creating have been being conducted for a group of Northside Elementary School students during the past three weeks. Their hard work will take the spotlight when a fashion show and celebration of talents takes place on Thursday, March 5, in the Wolf Point High School auditorium.
The program, featuring third through fifth graders, will start at 6 p.m. The show is presented by Fort Peck Tribal Health and Northside School’s Indian Education For All class.
Joetta Allrunner-Fourstar, training coordinator for tribal health, said the students have been extremely busy creating ribbon skirts and shirts with the guidance of instructors.
“We want to show them their culture and for them to have pride in themselves,” Allrunner-Fourstar said of the goal of the project.
A special treat was having international tribal model Andrew Shaye Moran teach the students how to model their clothes.
“He’s helping kids show confidence in their walk for the fashion show,” she said.
She added that she is impressed that some of the students can actually sew.
“I’m surprised by how much Assiniboine language that they know,” Allrunner-Fourstar said.
Instructor Patricia Payne dis- cussed goals of Northside’s Indian Education For All classes.
“This year, I specifically taught the children on the Assiniboine and Sioux cultures and history,” Payne said.
The three large units included Sitting Bull and the Battle of Little Bighorn. Students even got to visit Fort Buford during the unit.
Another unit covered Tananka and featured history of the Fort Peck buffalo treaty.
The third unit is the ribbon skirts and shirts, its history and its changes.
Payne said she worked with Phoebe Blount, tribal director for suicide presentation, in order to provide culture to the youth.
Payne is thankful for the help she received from tribal health members.
“The belief is it takes a tribe to raise a child,” Payne said.
