A cultural celebration at Rocky Boy

People from all around the United States and from Canada came out last weekend to celebrate at the Chippewa Cree Tribe's Rocky Boy Christmas Celebration.

Organizer Dustin Whitford said the tribe has been preparing for the celebration since October and had many sponsors helping make the event happen.

The Rocky Boy Christmas Celebration kicked off Friday at 10:30 a.m. with a traditional feast, Whitford said. He added that the event saw a good turn out of people, including elders and many of the youth attending the event.

Later Friday, a community feed was held followed by a round dance ceremony.

Saturday was a powwow with grand entries at 1 p.m. and at 7 p.m.

Whitford said it is important to hold on to these dances and ceremonies.

"Without them, without our language, we are not Native Americans," Whitford said. "That's what identifies us as Native American, that's what identifies us as Chippewa Crees."

He added that Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, although one of the smaller reservations in Montana, is unique. Rocky Boy is special because it is the only reservation that has Cree in the United States, he said. All the other Crees are in Canada. Rocky Boy is also the farthest-west reservation in the United States where Chippewa live, he said.

Whitford said the powwow and the other ceremonial events held at Rocky Boy are specifically unique to that reservation.

"(The traditional dinner) started off our weekend to pray for all the families here, all our visitors," Whitford said.

He said Rocky Boy Reservation experienced many deaths over the past year, at least one every week since the month of April.

"What we want this ceremony to do is to help our people to begin to heal and to deal with a lot of the losses we've had here," he said.

Clyde Brown said he believed the round dance was good for the community and provided much-needed healing for a lot of families.

He added that the tribe is losing their culture in many ways and by holding ceremonial events such as the round dance, they are able to show their kids an important part of their culture.

The traditional feast included many ceremonial events, such as a pipe ceremony and spiritual prayer, Whitford said. He said the ceremonies were lead by spiritual leader Douglas Standing Rock. Standing Rock was assisted in the ceremonial events by his grandson, who was home from college for the holidays, Whitford said.

He added that this was exciting because one of his concerns is passing traditions down to the younger generation, teaching them so they can be future leaders of the tribe and so the younger generation knows why and how these ceremonies are performed.

"All these different things, these different teachings, these dos and don'ts that we have as Chippewa Cree people, we have to continue on," he said.

He added that the loss of these traditions is one of his biggest concerns for the tribe.

Whitford said his favorite part is when he sees families with their children interacting in a drug-and-alcohol-free weekend.

He said one of the ceremonies the tribe has for grief is the round dance and the way that it was taught to him is that the tribe brings somebody out to dance. No matter how grief-stricken the person might be, they join in the dance, Whitford said.

"Even if it's just for a second that they feel good, they are going to have a good feeling," Whitford said. "A little smile, a little bit of happiness, even if it's just for a little while it's gonna heal, even if it's just for that little moment. We hope and we pray that they feel that. To bring them out of that grief and that mourning."

He said the tribe has events such as the round dance to help individual people. So many people in Rocky Boy, he said, are lost to drug and alcohol abuse.

Whitford added that he has seen people getting excited about the event.

"There are some people that are excited in the community, people who are ready and waiting," he said.

Joyce Denny and Rose Sutherland were at the round dance, with Denny saying she came to see and enjoy people and visitors. She said she likes when they dance and that it gets them feeling good. She added that she thinks it's good that the tribe put the round dance together because many people are in mourning.

"It gets minds off (the loss) and lets people enjoy themselves," she said.

Whitford said the tribe usually has a Christmas powwow and holds round dances at different times in the year. The round dance, he said, is usually held in small groups, but this year the tribe invited guests to join in the ceremony.

"When we have these, they are not closed just to Native people," Whitford said. "We are all under one creator and when we have these ceremonies everybody is welcome, everybody."

He said he wants to encourage people from outside communities to come out and learn about the tribal people.

Leticia Longknife and her daughter Nadia, 7, came from Fort Belknap Indian Reservation to the round dance. She said events like the round dance and powwows are a good way of keeping families together. Longknife added that her daughter was dancing fancy style at the powwow Saturday.

Kyle Mountain Sheep, a grass dancer, said during the powwow it is important to keep traditions alive because it keeps kids out of trouble and teaches them responsibility.

He added that some kids don't have a strong family foundation and, when that is the case, it is up to the community to teach kids to grow up in the traditional ways.

Mountain Sheep said that he learned to grass dance from watching Andrew Windyboy Sr. and he taught his son Avery, 4, who is also a grass dancer.

Tony Picard, a northern traditional dancer from Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho, said he came to the powwow because he wanted to dance. He said it was his first time in 11 years that he has danced competitively. His friends and family made his regalia for him, he said, adding that all of it means a lot to him.

Picard said it is important that during the holidays people get out and be with other people, to see friends and family that people don't see very often.

"People are always the strongest when they are brought together," Picard said.