Indigenous Students Connect With Cultural Knowledge At Montana State

Approximately 200 Montana middle school and high school students gathered at Montana State University in April for a three-day event focused on curating and sharing Indigenous knowledge and supporting Native American youth.

The RISE Native Youth Leadership Tribal Education Summit was hosted and sponsored by MSU. Montana’s Office of Public Instruction selected MSU to host the summit because it is a land-grant university sitting on ancestral land with a dedicated effort to supporting Indigenous students, said Rebecca Turk, director of MSU’s Center for Bilingual and Multicultural Education.

The RISE, or Resilience in Something Else, Native Youth Leadership program began during COVID-19 to virtually connect Indigenous students and provide them with leadership opportunities in school. The group helps organize a summit each year, where students in grades 7-12 meet in person and participatein sessions such as beading, powwow drumming and language learning. The summit also encourages attendees to see themselves as potential college students during campus tours and discussions with current Indigenous MSU students.

“I’m familiar with being around other Natives from powwows and games, but I’ve never really talked to them,” said Judasha Ellsworth, a senior at Ronan High School who is Salish. “Here, there are just these random kids coming up to me all excited like, ‘What’s your name? Where are you from?’ It makes my heart happy.”

Ellsworth and her peers, who hail from urban and rural areas and reservations, stood beside each other on the second day of the event and watched summit leaders take apart a bison carcass from the North Bridger Bison Ranch, learning about the animal’s environmental impact and how its hide is used to build lodges.

Passing on traditional knowledge was a central focus of the summit, particularly through 10 knowledge keepers, said Michele Henson, who facilitated the event as a tribal student achievement specialist for the Office of Public Instruction. Representing nearly every tribal nation in Montana, these cultural leaders spoke with students and provided guidance on how to maintain their cultural identity while walking in “two worlds” — one that is Indigenous and one that is not.

“Some of the students describe for the first time being proud of their heritage and being proud of who they are, and that’s beautiful,” Henson said. “Others describe a lesson learned, advice to live a good life, that they’re going to take back with them. Each student takes something unique from those conversations, and it’s meant to be that way.”

Ellsworth said younger generations like hers believe there is power in continuing practices such as beading and smudging. While she was growing up, her grandfather often reminded her of smudging’s importance before and during ceremonies to cleanse negative energy from a space and pray for what she needs. A smudging ceremony was held on the first day of the conference, followed by breakout sessions including campus tours and language learning.

Zemirah Across the Mountain, a sophomore at Capital High School in Helena, is studying the Blackfeet language and, during the summit, learned where the language comes from and how to speak it. Across the Mountain is Blackfeet, Cree and Sioux, but he didn’t always feel proud of this fact.

Across the Mountain said bullying caused him to distance himself from his heritage, but he said he is trying to reconnect through art, language and powwows. Each summit session inspired him to learn more about his tribes — he even discovered that he had a relative he had never met at the summit as they chatted about family members.

“I’ve kind of been distancing myself from being Native American,” Across the Mountain said. “Now I’ve been trying to come to powwow and be more connected. It’s taken a long time. Baby steps.”

For those who joined RISE for the first time this year, such as Plenty Coups High School students from Pryor, the summit was a chance to break out of their comfort zones. The 12 students were sometimes shy when speaking during RISE’s Zoom meetings. Scott Prinzing said he hopes meeting their peers face-to-face boosts their confidence for the future. Prinzing is the high school librarian and sponsors student groups like RISE.

Emberlyn Takes Enemy, a Plenty Coups sophomore who is Crow and Chippewa Cree, said she enjoyed icebreaker events with her peers, particularly one where students linked arms and lifted the smallest member of their group down a line.

“A lot of the opportunities they have for getting together are powwows and basketball games, where many people are spectators,” Prinzing said. “It’s nice to have something where they are actively participating and learning.”

RISE attendees also conversed with Indigenous MSU students, who shared their academic experience to help the middle schoolers and high schoolers feel less intimidated by college. Ellsworth said she resonated with a talk from former MSU Billings basketball player Donnie Wetzel Jr., a member of the Blackfeet Nation, who explained his journey to college and the knowledge his grandparents passed on to him growing up.

“It’s like looking in a mirror instead of feeling like you don’t belong,” Turk said.