Students tackle stereotypes on trip to Browning

Students from Bigfork and Browning met in January to break down stereotypes through conversation and shared experiences.

The two-day trip, funded through Indian Education for All money, was meant to allow Bigfork students to get to know their peers on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Bigfork High School teacher Hans Bodenhamer, who worked as a teacher in Browning for six years before coming to Bigfork, said he noticed a lot of negative attitudes about the reservation and his experience had been the opposite. This was why he has taken a group of students on a trip to Browning the last two years and why many of the students themselves decided to go.

"You hear a lot about reservations and not all of it is good," BHS senior Lena Olson said. "I wanted to figure it out for myself."

Nine BHS students and 15 students from Blackfeet Academy, Browning's alternative high school, teamed up and experienced a tour of Browning, rode horses bareback and climbed a buffalo jump, among other activities including a shared meal Friday, Jan. 22.

Several students went on the trip last year when Bodenhamer first set up the visit and were anxious to go again. In fact, it was at their "pestering" that Bodenhamer said he decided to do the trip a second time.

Olson said she was nervous the first year, not really knowing what to expect or how she'd respond. Others shared similar sentiments.

"Going in, I thought they would all be the same," senior Cassie Campbell said. "But they are all different, just like us."

The fear of judgments went both ways, as the groups were able to share their expectations of each other before meeting.

The Bigfork students weren't very fond of the Browning students' prejudices toward them either.

The students agreed the bus ride together with the Browning students helped calm their nerves and overcome their pre-judgements, as they were able to sit and talk with each other.

"It was cool to see us as a close family," Campbell said. "It was nice to have the opportunity to build those kinds of relationships."

The highlight of the trip was attending a ceremony for the Bear River Massacre, also known as the Marias Massacre, on Saturday, Jan 23. The little-known massacre in the 19th century involved the killing of a group of nearly 200 Piegan Blackfeet Indians, mostly women and children since the men were out hunting at the time, by the U.S. Calvary. The troops allegedly knowingly mistaked the camp for that of another group.

"The Marias Massacre is a big wound that never fully healed," Bodenhamer said. "One person said it was an incredible peace offering (for us' to come."

The ceremony included an invocation about the fight not being over that many of the students found to be powerful.

"They talked about our responsibility as youth to carry on (the fight)," Olson said. "We need to do our part no matter what."

The Browning students were not required to attend the ceremony since it was on Saturday, but many came anyway to spend more time with the Bigfork students.

"I was super impressed," said Brian Suttle, science and math teacher at Blackfeet Academy. "That spoke volumes for kids who are usually at school at 10 a.m. to be up at 8 a.m. on Saturday. It was something they wanted to be a part of."

The students became close with their Browning peers and some said they have plans to hang out with them this summer.

"Some of the Bigfork kids admitted their parents are still prejudice," Suttle said. "It is encouraging that this generation is open to figuring it out for themselves."

Their teachers have also started formulating plans for future exchanges, including sharing some academic resources, a trip to Bigfork or a possible trip on common ground.

"We need to make more working bridges," Bodenhamer said. "It's challenging, but hopefully the kids will take up the charge."

Indian Education for All funds are required to be used to implement education about Montana's native cultures, but the challenge is that those cultures have grown and changed over time.

Teaching about drums and teepees is not exactly comprehensive, Bodenhamer said, because there is a whole modern, contemporary culture.

"Getting groups together, I think, is one of the strongest ways to do it," he said.

Other experiences with Native American culture the students remembered experiencing include making moccasins in art class and learning a bit about it in U.S. history classes.

"You can read about a culture in textbooks, but you never really know about it until you experience it," Olson said.

And Suttle agrees, which is why he teamed up with Bodenhamer for this year's visit.

"I think that's the best use of Indian Ed money – taking them out for a meal, talking and erasing stereotypes," Suttle said. "This is the trick to moving on and growing in understanding with each other."

Suttle said it gave his students at the Blackfeet Academy a boost of pride to be able to share about their place and history.

"It gave them pride and confidence that there was an interest in this," Suttle said. "They also had to learn some stuff about their own culture and history."

The BHS students on the trip agreed that their fellow students in Bigfork and the community as a whole would benefit from similar experiences, whether that's a trip to Browning or a visit during local celebrations.

"I would tell [others' to stop looking at the Blackfeet and the reservation with such a narrow point of view," Olson said. "There are problems, but we share basically the same problems. They are no different from us. All it really takes is to get to know them."