Students experience bison harvest and Blackfeet traditional ceremony [Video]

VAUGHN — A bison harvest is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that recently became a reality for Great Falls and Helena students.

Giving these students an opportunity for cultural and agricultural education, Blackfeet organizers asked MTN to film during the ceremony to help educate the public.

“We are taking this animal’s life, but this animal is also going to be providing life,” said Larry Ground, a Blackfeet elder.

Students and community members gathered at Big Sky Bison near Vaughn.

Burning cedar and sage, smoking tobacco, singing traditional songs, and painting the gun and knives used to harvest the animal, Blackfeet elders held a traditional pipe ceremony to offer prayers before the kill.

A ceremony like this shows the perseverance of Indigenous culture and honors the bison as a sacred animal, which was nearly eradicated as white settlers moved west.

The director of Indian education for all at Great Falls Public Schools, Dugan …