Harlem Elementary School celebrated Native American Week from September 21-25 with various cultural activities. During the week, students also practiced their bus evacuation plan.

In years past, Harlem Elementary has collaborated with schools from Hays, Lodge Pole, Dodson, and Fort Belknap students attending White Clay Immersion School in order to provide a memorable celebration during Native American Week. However, COVID-19 altered those plans, leaving Mr. Thomas Molina, Harlem School District's Culture Teacher, to single-handedly coordinate the festivities.

To kick off the week, Molina sang the Nakoda flag song during morning announcements. He explained that in the early 1900's, Ira TalksDifferent bought the song from the Arikara and brought it back to the people of Fort Belknap.

Throughout the week, Molina delivered his culture lessons from an alternate classroom, a tepee erected on the north lawn of the elementary school. Here, small groups of students spent their Culture class time learning about Native American customs and traditions.

Molina also invited guest speaker Terry Brockie, an enrolled member of the Gros Ventre Tribe, to share his knowledge with the students about Aaniiih customs and beliefs, including the Creation story. Former Blaine County Superintendent of Schools, Brockie currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Island Mountain Development Group, the economic development arm of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation

Extra activities also took place in individual classrooms. These included the telling of Nakoda and Aaniiih legends, special artwork, and beaded projects.

Despite the precautions demanded by this school year, and in the absence of the interactive aspects of their traditional festivities, Harlem Elementary was still able to provide a memorable event while celebrating Native American Week, which culminated with American Indian Heritage Day on Friday.

In addition to the cultural enrichment the week offered, students also participated in the school's annual bus safety exercises and evacuation drill.

According to Harlem Elementary School Assistant Principal, Ms. Evelyn Bigby, the bus evacuation drill is similar to a fire drill and requires practice twice a year.

The first of two bus evacuation drills was conducted by District #12 Transportation Director, Mr. Robert Bear, who was assisted by Bigby. After educating students and staff on the correct safety procedures involved in bus evacuations, Bear allowed the participants to practice what they had learned. Each student was instructed on how to use the emergency door to exit a bus while following Ms. Bigby's 'Sit, Hop, Land, and Stand in Line' method of vacating the vehicle.

In this unusual year when extra preventative safety precautions are a must, the school district wished to thank bus driver Deni Carey, not only for driving the bus during the drill but for the added measures of disinfecting the bus between each and every class section so that the drill could take place safely.