Media arts is creating a unique bridge between cultures at Poplar Middle School, where students are documenting and preserving Native American traditions through an innovative educational program.
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The school has been teaching the importance of the buffalo to their students for about seven years. The school's Buffalo Unity Project, started by Jacob Turcotte, began with a buffalo given to the school by the Fort Peck tribes.
"Each year, roughly, we spend about $25,000 - $30,000 on the project. And for the first five years, Poplar middle school was not on the hook for any of it. We took it upon ourselves to go out and tap into private programs, different grant sources," Turcotte explained.
After successfully raising money for the first five years, the school launched a year-long media class last year.
This initiative serves two purposes: reducing the cost of hiring expensive production companies and teaching "Indian-Ed for all" throughout the academic year.
"There's so many lessons that need to happen to really provide quality footage and audio of the buffalo and the hunt itself," project manager Joseph Hammar said. "The importance of having the class really makes for better material, which gets us better coverage. And then also kids are able to learn more because we've started to video other Indian-Ed for all content. So all students all across the world can learn about Indian-Ed for all and the importance of the buffalo because of the class that we have."
The media class teaches various aspects of Native American culture, including the significance of the flag song and smudging ceremonies. Students create videos explaining these traditions to their peers.
However, the buffalo hunt remains the centerpiece of the project.
"The buffalo is what unites us as a school and unites the tribe as well. The buffalo is very important to us here at the Poplar Middle School and of all Fort Peck tribes and of most Native American cultures as well," Hammar said.
The buffalo hunt incorporates traditional elements including a pipe ceremony, along with educational components like anatomy lessons during the harvesting process.
"The Native American culture is very important for all students in the US to learn, because at one time, our country tried to eliminate not only Native American people, but the buffalo as well," Hammar noted.
The project continues to expand, with plans to extend it to both elementary and high school levels. The program has already found success collaborating with other schools.
"The last three years now we've done an exchange with other schools, and they've all came and joined us either on the buffalo hunt or we have an outdoor classroom in the fall where we set up seven teepees and have basically your classroom for the day is outside," Morgan Norgaard, principal of Poplar Middle School, explained. "There's different teachings in each of the teepees. And there was a grant... that came out that was really helpful, and they helped support that exchange between the schools and so they got to come be a part of the buffalo hunt. And then in exchange, we went to their communities and they had some activities for our kids to do."
The Buffalo Unity Project team works on improving the program each year. The next buffalo hunt is expected to take place in the fall, around Indigenous Peoples Day in October, weather permitting.
For more information on the Buffalo Unity Project and the buffalo hunt, click here to visit their Youtube channel.
From November 2024:
