Montana
POPLAR, Mont. (AP) — American Indians depended on the buffalo for hundreds of years for food, clothing, tools and medicine. Now today's tribes want to return the favor by helping preserve one of the last genetically pure herds in North America.
The Sioux and Assiniboine tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing 5,000 rolling acres in northeastern Montana for 50 wild bison from Yellowstone National Park. Their neighbors to the west at the Fort Belknap reservation have also asked for a role in managing the bison.
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — The population grew on four of Montana's seven American Indian reservations, with the largest increase a 24 percent jump recorded at the state's smallest reservation, new census data show.
Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, the smallest reservation in terms of land mass, expanded by 647 people over the last decade to bring the total population to 3,323, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
POPLAR, Montana (AP) — Chelle Rose Follette fashioned a noose with her pajamas, tying one end to a closet rod and the other around her neck. When her mother entered the bedroom to put away laundry, she found the 13-year-old hanging.
Ida Follette screamed for her husband, Darrell.
He lifted his child's body, rushed her to the bed and tried to bring her back.
"She was so light, she was so light. And I put her down. I said, 'No, Chelle!'"
RED LODGE, Mont. (AP) — The Red Lodge School District board of trustees has unanimously voted to change the high school's mascot, the Redskins, amid criticism that it is a derogatory term referring to Native Americans.
Before Tuesday night's vote was taken, schools Superintendent Mark Brajcich warned that changing the mascot was going to have a divisive effect. Meanwhile, Trustee John Elsberry asked the district to "embrace the Redskins mascot" until a new one is chosen by students and the community.
RED LODGE, Mont. (AP) — A southern Montana school district's trustees will vote next week on whether the district's public high school should drop its Redskins mascot.
The Red Lodge School District board held a hearing on the topic Wednesday night. Comment was evenly divided between those supporting the 60-year tradition of the Redskins mascot and those who say it's a derogatory term referring to American Indians.
Weighing heavily on the trustees was a letter from the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council asking them to change the mascot.
