Students lost remembered at Rocky Boy schools

Hundreds of balloons took to the skies Friday in a memorial to two Rocky Boy High School students who have died in the past year, Tyra Parker of Rocky Boy, 13, who died in April from injuries sustained in a vehicle crash, and Lacey Arkinson of Rocky Boy, 16, who died earlier this month in a hit-and-run crash.

The balloons were red and blue, red for Arkinson and blue for Parker. The event was organized by the students for the high school, to help celebrate the lives of Arkinson and Parker and remember the time they shared with their fellow students.

Rocky Boy School tutor Direk Small said during the memorial that the dedication was for students to remember their classmates and that fellow Rocky Boy High School tutor Donna Raining Bird wanted him to remind the students to remain safe during the holidays.

"We are getting close to Christmas and we have lost some loved ones, so she wanted to me to send a message to all of you to have a good Christmas, make good choices, love one another and help one another, so remember that."

The Rocky Boy community also held a candlelight vigil for Lacey Friday at 5 p.m. in Veterans Park at the reservation.

After the balloon dedication, Arkinson's grandmother Harriet Standing Rock, with whom Arkinson and her siblings lived, said she wanted to thank the school district, administrators, faculty and staff as well as the students for putting on the event.

"It's rather hard to say thank you, but I want to wish every young boy and girl that got to know her that they don't forget her," Standing Rock said. "We say she is in a better place. I want to thank everybody for supporting, it's going to be a hard road for me."

Standing Rock added that Arkinson was full of life and, in addition to being a good student, had a number of dreams and aspirations for her life after she graduated from high school. Arkinson had opportunities in life and was eager to live it to the fullest, Standing Rock said.

She added that Arkinson, being the oldest of the children in the house, was a big help to her and her siblings at home and was a good student.

"She was a person who cared," Standing Rock said. "She may have been crazy in her own way, but she was very thoughtful, and I'm going to miss that about her."

Arkinson loved high school, Standing Rock said. She added that, in addition to Arkinson learning her tribe's culture and traditions, she worked hard to learn non-Native culture as well.

"Maybe there is a high school up there," Standing Rock added.

She added that one of her sons had also found a video of Arkinson as a little girl dancing in a dance contest. Standing Rock said it was great to be able to see her granddaughter dancing.

"That's going to be missed dearly," Standing Rock said.

She said that she greatly appreciated everyone, on and off the reservation, Native American and non-Native, who have offered their condolences for her loss.

"I wish that all the kids be safe during the holiday," she said.

Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation needs to face the drug problems on the reservation, she added. The drug problem has ruined families and have taken many lives and the community needs to come together to face the issue, she said.

"I don't know what it's going to take, it's taken lives and taken even more," Standing Rock said.

Raining Bird said that Parker's grandmother could not make it to the event because of a memorial at Denver Hospital that was held for Parker Thursday.

Parker was a good student and was winning the battle with cancer at the time of her death, she said.

Rocky Boy High School student Kirsten LaMere, one of the organizers for the event, said Parker was a sweet girl who was nice to everybody who came her way. LaMere added that it is terrible that Parker was able to beat cancer only to end up dying in a car crash.

LaMere said that she wanted to hold a memorial for her fellow students and wanted to thank the high school principal who allowed her and helped organize the event in two days.

Raining Bird said that it is a huge loss to the high school and the student body to have Parker gone.

"She will be greatly, greatly missed," Raining Bird said. "We are going to miss her laughter and her giggling."

Ashlyn Sun Child, student body president and friend of Arkinson, said that missing and murdered indigenous women is a tragic thing for reservations, and it is terrible to see that the problem has made its way to the Rocky Boy Reservation.

"I just hope that justice is served and who ever did this is found and will bring her family some peace," she said.

Rocky Boy Police Department issued a release Thursday saying it had located and seized the car involved in the hit and run, and has a suspect in the case, but has not announced that anyone has been apprehended or turned themselves in.

Sun Child said she enjoyed having a memorial for Arkinson and Parker. If Arkinson was still alive she wouldn't want her fellow students to be sad and crying all the time because of their deaths, she said, but rather celebrate the time they shared with them and the memories they have with one another.

"They should be remembered. they shouldn't be forgotten," she said. "... They deserve it."

Sun Child said Arkinson was always at school, encouraging everybody and was a positive influence on her fellow students, always putting a smile on everybody's faces.

She added that she has many great memories hanging out and growing up with Arkinson, and she will be greatly missed. The memorial meant more because it was something led by the students, she said, and wasn't something that the administrators or teachers made them do.

Student Katarina Parker said that she grew up with Arkinson and was a childhood friend. She added that it was great the students were able to come together in a positive way.

LaMere said that one of her favorite memories of Arkinson was that Arkinson would wake up at the weirdest times during the night to bake, making cakes and other sweets which she would share with the other students.

Raining Bird said that she believes that the memorial was a very positive thing for the students. Many young people don't know how to process great loss and have a hard time coping with death, but the memorial was a great example of how they are working though two very tragic losses in a positive way, she added.

Especially Christmas so close, she said, it is important that people have comfort in their hearts and be safe and make good choices.

"It warmed my heart," she said.

Rachel Seiler, English teacher at Rocky Boy Junior High and High School, said that she had both Arkinson and Parker in her class and remembers both of them as very sweet girls. She said they were bright students with even brighter smiles. Even though they had their struggles, they were hard workers and were always polite and positive influences in her classroom.

"Tomorrow's not promised, and we need to have compassion for each other," Seiler said.

LaMere said that she is proud the memorial was a student-led effort, and it is important everyone comes together in times of crisis. 

"We are not different than one another, we are equal," she said. "We wanted to prove to them that we cared."