Rocky Boy residents honor drug victims

A group of Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation residents took part in a spiritually infused walk and run Wednesday morning to honor those who have died as a result of substance abuse and to rally the community against the problem.

Mike Geboe, a program director with Smart and Healthy Choices, a wellness organization on the reservation, said that he thinks generations of American Indians were punished  for taking part in cultural practices and stripped of their culture. This has contributed to the prevalence of drugs in reservation communities.

"I think it is all just having a cumulative effect," he said.

The race is part of a larger push by some to try and revive those cultural and spiritual traditions.  

Throughout the walk, one participant would carry an eagle's staff, a sacred symbol similar to a flag that often appears at cultural events. Two feathers blessed by tribal elders were attached to the staff to honor and invite protections upon the Chippewa Cree Tribe.

The walk's route stretched 19 miles, from communities in the Parker School area in the reservation's mountains down to Box Elder School. The participants were then joined by 12 other people who walked the final two miles.

Five runners began the run at 8:30 a.m. Each took turns running with the staff for three miles, while the others followed behind in a vehicle.

When they reached the Sunnyview village near Stone Child College, others then joined the walk.

The staff was presented to representatives of the Chippewa Cree at a methamphetamine symposium in Billings in June by the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

After the race, the Eagle staff was then taken to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, where the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes will attach their feathers.

It then will be returned to Fort Peck.

It will later be presented to the Blackfeet tribe, which will be holding a meth symposium in Browning later this month.