Villaluz Wins Honor For Documentary

National History Day

The Montana Historical Society announced that Wolf Point High School junior Kailayla Villaluz won a women’s history special award for the senior division.

The recognition is part of the National History Day program.

Villaluz created an individual documentary regarding the forced sterilization of indigenous women.

She explained the topic wasn’t something she learned in school, but she found the subject interesting. Wolf Point Junior High School Principal Tara Thomas gave the students a list of topics to choose from for their presentations.

The documentary runs for eight minutes. Villaluz said the project took her three weeks to complete.

“I was very happy with it,” the student said. “But I knew there were little things I needed to tweak.”

Thomas added that one of the local judges said the documentary was the best thing that he ever saw.

Villaluz thanks teacher Will Larsen for providing a little guidance and her parents for allowing time for her to work on the project.

She was happy when Thomas brought the National History Day program to Wolf Point. While at Frontier School, Villaluz’s younger brother Kayeiko qualified for the national competition.

“I thought that I could do it too,” Kailayla said.

Wolf Point’s National History Day squad will head to the state competition in Bozeman on Friday, April 24.

“Hopefully, I can make it to nationals,” Kailayla said. “I want a lot of people to see and learn from it.”