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Northern holds activities for American Indian Heritage Day

Montana State University-Northern is hosting a series of activities throughout the week in observance of American Indian Heritage Day this Friday.

The Montana Legislature voted in 1997 to designate the fourth Friday of September each year as American Indian Heritage Day. The Montana Office of Public Instruction says on its website that the day is meant to recognize the cultural significance of American Indian tribes.

This year's activities were organized by Northern's Little River Institute in conjunction with MSU-Northern Sweetgrass Society.

Erica Mckeon-Hanson, program director with The Little River Institute, said the university hosts a week of activities each year so people can take part in a wide range of cultural activities embodying the different tribes represented in Northern's community.

Activities this year include Native-themed painting, beadwork and hand games. Traditional food preparation lessons took place Monday and Tuesday. Hanson said dishes prepared included dry meat, fry bread and berry pudding.

"We want to have hands-on interactive activities this week where other students on campus, faculty and staff can engage in these cultural experiences," McKeon-Hanson said.

Most of this year's activities will be hosted in the Student Union Building, where the institute is housed.

The week of activities began Monday with a teepee-raising and traditional blessing organized by the Sweetgrass Society on campus at the corner of First Avenue and 11th Street.

Other activities include:

• Beading Lessons -  Two experienced women beaders, one from Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and the other from the Crow Indian Reservation, will give lessons in beading.

McKeon-Hanson said both women know how to bead moccasins and regalia. People are welcome to come to the SUB to learn beading or a new style of beading.  The lessons will take place today from noon to 4 p.m. and Thursday noon to 3 p.m.

• Hand games -  An instructional session on the origins and rules of traditional Crow hand games will take place today noon to 2 p.m. People can come and play hand games 5 to-7 p.m and Thursday at 8 p.m.

• Arrow throwing - Men's only arrow throwing lessons will take place today 2 to 5 p.m and Thursday 4 to 6 p.m on the lawn outside the SUB

• Painting lessons - Larry Dale Singer, a painter and enrolled member of the Crow Tribe, will teach Native-themed painting Thursday noon to 4 p.m.

Hanson said Singer's artwork can be found on the walls of the Student Union Building.  

• Viewing of the movie "Skins" - The Sweetgrass Society will host a screening of "Skins," a 2002 feature film  that tells the story of a police officer on a fictional South Dakota Indian Reservation and his relationship with his alcoholic brother. The screening will take place at 6 p.m.

The week of events concludes Friday with tours of the Louis and Antoinette Hagener Museum of the Northern Montana Plains Indian in the Vande Bogart Library 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 

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