By Alan Sorensen
Hays-Lodgepole Junior High School students are participating this week in the Little Rocky Mountain Eagle Challenge Run and Native American Style Show.
The events are sponsored by the schools language arts and vocational education programs, Native American classes, and the Junior Tribal Council.
Activities get under way Wednesday with a pipe ceremony from 10 a.m. to noon, followed by lunch at the junior high school in Hays and a sweat for all runners at 6:30 p.m.
Students entered in the Eagle Challenge Run will be bused from Hays School to Highway 191 near Beaver Creek at 6 a.m. Thursday. All students not participating in the run must attend classes as usual. The run is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. from Highway 191 and should take about 4 to 5 hours.
Vietnam War veteran Kim King will carry a Warrior Stick with an eagle feather during the run in memory of a soldier killed in action in Vietnam. The Louis Healy family will join in at the Healy turnout, and family and friends of Truman Walsh will carry his eagle feather on a bamboo stick.
Flag cars, nurses and police will provide support services throughout the run.
A victory song and presentations will be made to the runners when they return from the Eagle Challenge Run. Lunch will feature Indian Tacos.
The run will be followed by an Indian Style Show in which students and community members will be given the chance to style and show their Indian costumes. The Hart of the West and Master Sports provided clothing from their stores for students to model, too.
Thursday will end with a round dance.
All events will take place on the football field, organizer Violet Crasco said, unless the weather turns bleak. Then everything will move inside to the gym.
There will be homemade bow-and-arrow and spear competitions and an Indian-form of football.
