Sweetgrass Society hosting suicide awareness event at Northern

Sweetgrass Society at Montana State University-Northern is hosting an event this week in support of an important cause — suicide awareness.

Sweetgrass Society, the American Indian student organization at Northern, and the American Indian support agency at the university, Little River Institute, will host a suicide awareness walk on the Northern campus beginning 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The society is collaborating with Northern’s Healthy Lifestyle Advocates.

Sweetgrass Society President Aryn Longknife-Jake said the goal is to get as many people attending as possible.

“People attending, that’s the main goal is to invite community members and that would be a success,” Longknife-Jake said.

Little River Institute Director and Sweetgrass Society co-advisor Erica McKeon-Hanson said suicide has been a high-priority issue for the American Indian community, including locally. She said about a year or two ago Fort Belknap Indian Reservation’s tribal council declared a state of emergency due to suicide.

“For me, I’m very proud of these students, or figuring out a way to, to do this and to have an event that is, in the middle of a global pandemic, is still safe, but allows people the ability to be in a shared space to talk about something that’s really can be painful, and it’s painful, but it is important to be together,” McKeon-Hanson said.

This event comes at the time Sweetgrass Society usually holds its annual powwow on Northern’s campus.

“If we didn’t have COVID, I think (this year) would have been our 46th annual spring powwow. ... One of the weekends that we usually had it (was in) late March or in April, as part of the university powwow circuit. So as you can see, the Sweet Grass Society has a long standing history,” McKeon-Hanson said.

She added that 2021 marks the second consecutive year students will be missing the powwow, something they look forward to every year and that they work together on. Longknife-Jake, who comes from the Fort Belknap reservation, has been a proponent that the organization should also try to raise awareness for issues that are important to them.

“We have, in addition to the powwow, the last couple of years had awareness blocks for missing and murdered Indigenous women. …(Suicide is) something that has certainly touched (Aryn) personally, and many of our other American Indian students and others,” McKeon-Hanson said.

McKeon-Hanson said Longknife-Jake and other society members wanted to have a place where they can remember and to tell others who may be feeling, feeling down, there are people here that care and are listening.

The event will start on the lawn in front of the Student Union Building with two guest speakers from the Fort Belknap Indian Community, Terry Brockie of the Aaniiih Tribe and Kenneth “Tuffy” Helgeson of the Nakoda Tribe.

Longknife-Jake will show a short documentary video that she has prepared to share the impact of suicide on her own life and community.

The walk will proceed across the Northern campus, finishing at Tilleman Field where the traditional American Indian game of double-ball will be played. McKeon-Hanson added that Longknife-Jake is planning to sing at the event.

Attendees will receive a free T-shirt, bracelet and healthy snacks while supplies last and prizes for participation in the games. McKeon-Hanson said she wanted to acknowledge society member and graphic design major Eduardo Velazquez for designing the event’s T-shirts.

Northern staff, faculty, and students are welcome as well as community members. For the prevention of COVID-19 spread, attendees will be required to wear a face mask and adhere to other Northern COVID-19 policies including social distancing and sanitization.