In June, I will don my beaded graduation cap to accept my diploma. After three years of high school, I will complete this journey a full year ahead of others my age. Despite this, I have taken the most advanced classes available to me, boasting 8 AP classes in only two years. I am also involved in numerous extra-curricular activities including Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (Spanish Honor Society), National Honor Society, Young Democrats, and the 2011 State Championship Speech and Debate team. Athletically, I participated in track and field for two years and am currently on the Glacier High School tennis team. In my community, I find a variety of ways to serve. While living in Helena, I would regularly tutor younger Native students at the Helena Indian Alliance. Last year I helped coach Highlander Track and Field, a Kalispell based program designed to give elementary and middle school students experience in the activity. Despite these accomplishments and contributions, my greatest endeavor was the creation of a cultural exhibit for a local science museum.

Sharing my native culture has always been a high priority in my life. Since I was 7, I have been presenting Native American Sign Language with my dad, in addition to teaching and performing separately. When it was announced that the next project of the high school Gifted & Talented program would be constructing an exhibit of the Blackfeet people, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to lead my peers in the exploration of the traditions, culture, and history of my tribe. It was clear this would be challenge; as a hands-on science museum, Exploration Works! had never presented a cultural exhibit before. It would have to be child friendly, educational, and aesthetically appealing. Before creating the display, we would have to immerse ourselves in detailed research to achieve the most accurate presentation possible.

Rather than sticking to the only internet and libraries, we decided to engage in personal interviews and experience. This required a 2-night trip to the Blackfeet Reservation in a school bus full of high school kids. The students were divided up into groups based on areas of focus. Mythology, art, astronomy, language, music, and history were all included. On the way to the Reservation, we stopped at the Charlie Russell Museum in Great Falls to learn about exhibit construction as well as the importance of the bison. Arriving in Browning, we met with a local high school science teacher to discuss the relationship the stars had in Blackfeet traditions. 

Along the journey, we also participated in class at the Cuts Wood Language School, an immersion program, conversed with Darrell Kipp about tipi design, and looked at Blackfeet artifacts. I had to act as a leader, an interpreter, and a guide. Many of the students had never heard a “rez accent” before and were unaccustomed to the dialect. Back in Helena, I worked to facilitate the construction of the exhibit. We designed computer studios for language lessons, a hands-on map to show the original location of the Blackfeet, a complex light up star display, and my personal project, a tipi setup with a recording of traditional Blackfeet stories playing inside.