MISSOULA — More than 50 students in Missoula County experienced a traditional bison harvest, a culturally significant practice for Indigenous tribes in Montana.
Not only did they witness, but they also participated from beginning to end on Tuesday.
"The Iinii is a sacred and holy animal, he is a gift to the people from the creator," said Stephanie Little Mustache, noting that bison are the heart for Pikuni or Blackfeet people.
"We have a sacred reverence for him because he gives his life so that we can have life," Little Mustache said.
Students like Debra Comes at Night, this is a part of lineage.
"I'm not from the reservation, you know, there's a lot more opportunities to be able to do buffalo harvest," Comes at Night said, "but here in the city, as an urban native, we don't get to experience a lot of that stuff. So today, being able to experience this with all these students is actually really awesome."
Indigenous Education For All Director Dugan Coburn started the Bison Harvest over 10 years ago as an educational opportunity for students.
"We're teaching the kids that these animals have souls. And that's kind of for the belief of the people. And so they're our brothers. And so we treat them much with much more respect than somebody's who doesn't treat them that way," Coburn said.
Students took part in the harvesting from praying and laying down tobacco for offering, to skinning the bison and learning how every part of the animal is used.
Larry Ground, a cultural knowledge keeper, also wants to share the importance behind these cultural practices.
"The respect for life itself, uh, personally for them, theirselves. And that each and every one of them matters, you know, uh, in the way they're walking. And to think about other people, not just themselves. "That's why take a step. When you take a step into harvesting an animal, then it becomes a lot more when you do it for somebody that might be sick," he continued. "Do it for somebody that might be suffering. Do it for somebody that might be struggling. Having a hard time, huh. And understanding for each and every one of 'em changes in their minds about how they live personally." - cultural knowledge keeper Larry Ground
Educators from Missoula County made this possible with grant funding and the help of the Native American Student Services Department in Missoula. They hope to make this an annual event.
