Rocky Boy holding Our Way, Healthy Living youth conference

Rocky Boy Health Center, in partnership with Stone Child College and Box Elder schools will be holding the Our Way, Healthy Living Youth Wellness Conference and Basketball Tournament April 5 through 8, and event organizers are hoping it will promote physical and mental wellness through athletics and encourage young people not to use addictive substances.

The event’s primary organizer, Melody Henry, said the Health Center is trying to ramp up their addiction prevention and mental wellness efforts, and it made sense to tie that into an athletics event, which they have helped put on in the past.

Henry said the wellness conference is open to adults who want to come, but it’s primarily geared toward young people who they want to make feel cared for, whatever they may be going through.

“We want a chance to honor our youth and tell them, ‘You guys are important, you guys are worth it,’” she said.

She said basketball is extremely popular at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation and athletics isn’t just good for physical health, but can help improve mental health as well, so making it all one event made sense.

The first day, she said, would mainly revolve around local organizations, as well as speakers, local and otherwise, talking about addiction prevention, as well as suicide prevention.

“We’re just trying to equip our kids to make them a bit stronger,” Henry said.

She said the Hill County Drug Task Force as well as the Chippewa Cree Police Department and the Chippewa Cree Youth Council will be at the event along with local speakers like Mahchiwminahnahtik Chippewa and Cree Language Revitalization Program Executive Director Dustin Whitford.

She said Whitford would be talking about how the preservation of language and culture can positively affect young people’s mental health.

She said the center’s own Dr. Deborah Essert will be talking about trauma resiliency and how trauma can affect how people react to the things going on in their lives.

Henry said the goal of this talk is to help people recognize how their own experiences affect how they interact with the world, and if they need to make changes to ensure that their trauma doesn’t control them.

Les Lefthand and Terrance Lafromboise will be talking about alcohol addiction prevention and suicide prevention respectively, she said, and a panel of local elders will also talk about the traditional views of the Chippewa and Cree on suicide.

Also, that day, she said, there will be a talk on diversity, equity and inclusion focusing on the wellbeing of people in the LGBT community.

On April 6, Henry said, they will also have high school All-American basketball player-turned-documentarian Lakota Beatty speak about mental health and suicide prevention, subjects she has personal experience with, having lost her sister to suicide.

Famous Left Hand, another All-American basketball player, as well as Rock Boy native and Minnesota State University-Moorhead basketball player Jaden Stanley and former NFL player Levi Horn, will also be there to talk about how their sports helped get them through hard times.

Henry said she’s hoping the stories of these players will give young people some hope for the future and show them how their passions can help them through their struggles and allow them to choose the lives they want for themselves.

She said there will also be a talk that day about the relationship between individual and public health, and how a holistic approach to health can benefit everyone.

That day is also when the athletics begin in earnest, with the K-6 Basketball Camp starting at 1 p.m. at the Chippewa Cree Wellness Center and the Junior High and High School Basketball Tournament beginning at the same time at Stone Child College and Box Elder High School.

April 7, she said, from 9 a.m. to noon the Junior High and High School Mental Toughness Camp will be a Box Elder High School with the tournament resuming at 8 a.m. a the Stone Child College and at 12:30 p.m. at Box Elder High School.

The tournament will resume at 8 a.m. April 8 as well at both Stone Child College and Box Elder High School.

The entry fee for the tournament is $200 with a maximum of eight players per team.

Prizes included hoodies and T-shirts.

Henry said lunch and breakfast will be provided at the Stone Child College Gym and there is no charge for these events.

She said they are still accepting team registrations as well.

She said the event has only been made possible with the help of Box Elder Schools and Stone Child College.

“It’s been a collective effort,” she said.