Fort Belknap holds family Christmas event Friday

Several Fort Belknap Indian Reservation agencies have partnered again this year to bring back a family-friendly event for the community for the holiday season.

The annual Warriors for Family is a Christmas event for the community and will be held Friday at the Red Whip Recreation Center at the Fort Belknap Agency from 1 to 4 p.m. 

An organizer for the event, tribal prosecutor Rob Johnson, said the event is for everyone and is a fun way for people to create good family memories.

“We got a lot of things going on,” he said. “… It should be fun.”

He added that a group of tribal employees have been talking for years about bringing events for the Fort Belknap Indian Community tribes to help strengthen families and provide a place for community members to come together in a positive way. Last year, was the first year they put on some events for the community, starting with a trunk-or-treat event for Harlem Schools for Halloween and a Christmas event at this time last year. He said the Christmas event was very well-attended with more than 700 people coming. 

“We just kind of decided we’d bring some holiday cheer to our communities,” Johnson said.

He said that growing up, many people remember small-town community events and have many fond memories of spending time with their families at these events. The community has not had any events like this for a number of years, but the tribes still need events to bring people together. He added that most of the time when people in the community come together is because of a tragedy, but the community needs something positive people can enjoy. 

Warriors for Families’ mission is not only provide a fun place for families to come together and make memories, but also a place for everyone to come together and enjoy.

“We should enjoy each other whole we are around,” he said.

Fellow organizer Avis Ball said that several Fort Belknap agencies, private businesses and organizations have partnered together to put on the event. She added that the event is free and has a number of activities for people of all ages as well as a free meal of chili and fry bread.

She added that last year the event went very well, and she was happy with the turn out. 

She said, like many other reservations across the country, Fort Belknap struggles with drug and alcohol abuse problems, domestic abuse and a limited number of law enforcement. 

She added that hopefully through events like this the community can strengthen the family and help people move toward recovery.

“If we can restore the family units and create that unity and give them a foundation to start building, I think that’s going to help,” Ball said.

She added that she is thankful for everyone who contributed to the event and the several businesses and organizations which helped sponsor the event.

“It’s pretty awesome,” she said.

The event will have a number of new things from last year, Ball said. She said that this year, in addition to having Santa at the event, they will also have The Grinch, and give families the opportunity to take pictures with both.

Johnson said a church group out of Helena is helping sponsor the event as well as will be holding a short Christmas service at the event. The church group will also be offering stockings for children to take home.

He added that the event will also have some traditional components, by having tribal elders come to the event. He said the elders will be telling traditional stories as well as lead a prayer before the tree lighting ceremony.

Ball said the event will also include a number of craft tables, including a Christmas decoration table and a sweet grass braiding table. She added that they will also be showing a Christmas movie for families at the events, either short traditional Christmas cartoons or feature Christmas movies such as “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer” or “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”

She said “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” were some of her favorite Christmas movies as a child and she has a number of good memories watching these movies during the holidays. Ball said she hopes to be able to give a similar experience to the families who attend the event.

“I’m just looking forward to having such a huge success again for all the families in attendance like it was last year,” she said.

Johnson said he hopes this year more than last year’s 700 attendees come to the event.

He added that his favorite thing about the event and what he is looking forward to is seeing children and their families make good Christmas and family memories, as well as the food. He said that for him personally, he enjoys eating and visiting with people he doesn’t get to see regularly, and get a chance to sit and catch-up with old friends.

“It’s all about making moments and memories and hopefully good ones,” he said.

The event will also have transportation available for people, he said. If people need more information about pick-up and drop-off times and locations or about transportation they can contact Fort Belknap Tribal Transportation at 353-2447.