Hopa Mountain News Blog

One of our greatest rewards at Hopa Mountain is serving citizen leaders in our rural and tribal communities. We appreciate everything these remarkable citizens do throughout the Northern Rockies to improve education, ecological health, and economic development.

In 2012, Hopa Mountain’s staff members were able to invest in hundreds of rural and tribal citizen leaders who are improving education, ecological health, and economic development and served more than 15,000 children through our cradle to college education initiatives. It is an exciting time and this is important work as rural and tribal citizen leaders are strengthening community self-reliance, livable wage jobs, education, and services.

Some of the highlights from our year included:

Launching Indigenous Scholars of Promise to help high-achieving high school juniors and seniors prepare for college. Hopa Mountain staff are currently piloting this initiative with 20 students on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations. All of our graduating seniors were able to gain scholarships to selective universities. It is our dream to expand this program to serve more students throughout Montana in the year ahead.

Hopa Mountain’s StoryMakers program provided low-income parents of children ages 0-5 with books and early literacy resources to support them in creating a rich home learning environment. StoryMakers now serves 9,500 low resource children and their families in 33 communities and all 7 Indian reservations in Montana. Through Community Teams of local citizen leaders, StoryMakers encourages parents to read and tell stories every day to their preschool children, beginning the first day of their children’s lives.

Please consider a gift this holiday season to Hopa Mountain that will enable us to sustain and expand the support citizen leaders need — to provide parents with early reading resources, develop after school science education programs for teens, support innovative citizen leader projects, and build stronger nonprofit organizations. You can donate online at http://www.hopamountain.org/donate.php Your generosity will ignite hope in others. Thank you.

Join Hopa Mountain for a benefit concert with Singer-Songwriter Judy Fjell on Wednesday, December 19 at 7 p.m. in the Emerson Cultural Center’s Weaver Room.
Singer-Songwriter and native Montanan Judy Fjell brings a delightful mix of energy and humor to the stage. She is an accomplished vocalist and guitarist, a beloved teacher and music minister, and someone who always loves to share her musical gifts. In her forty year performing career she has written over two hundred songs, released twenty album collections for adults and children, toured throughout the United States, and has been invited to teach and perform several times in Japan. In this benefit concert for Hopa Mountain she will perform many audience favorites along with poignant seasonal songs such as “In the Winter” (Bird Return CD), and original guitar solo selections from her upcoming instrumental CD. Tickets for the event are $10 and can be purchased at the door. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

Hopa Mountain, a Bozeman-based nonprofit organization, will host a free-of-charge Human Rights Day celebration beginning at 7 p.m. on December 10 at the Bozeman Public Library. Human Rights Day presents an opportunity, every year, to celebrate human rights, highlight a specific issue, and advocate for the full enjoyment of all human rights by everyone everywhere.

This year, the spotlight is on the rights of all people — women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, Indigenous people, the poor and marginalized — to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making.

Three speakers will explore the topic of human rights from different perspectives on the evening of December 10. From 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Linda M. Young, Associate Professor Dept. of Political Science, Montana State University will address the topic of Global Hunger and the Right to Food. From 7:30 to 8:00 p.m., Tom Jacobsen, CEO, Rural Dynamics, Inc. will discuss Creating Changes through Financial Security and Economic Opportunity for Low Income Families. From 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, Executive Director Hopa Mountain will speak about Education as a Human Right.

Hopa Mountain would appreciate a donation of food for the Gallatin Valley Food Bank that evening. Hopa Mountain invests in rural and tribal citizen leaders, adults and youth, that are working to improve education, ecological health, and economic development (www.hopamountain.org). For more information, please call 586-2455 or email info@hopamountain.org.

Modern Native Warriors, a new 33 minute documentary film created by Veronica Maday, will be shown at the Bozeman Public Library on Thursday, July 26 at 5 p.m. followed by a discussion with the filmmaker. This documentary explores the identity of Native American Veterans as they relate to the history of American colonial expansion and modern military service. In the film, Maday personalizes the individual struggles of veterans from various Indian tribes and shares insight to the paradox of why Native people would serve a country that historically attempted to terminate them. It follows a Lakota/Ojibwa woman who searches for other native veterans to discuss how they feel about their service. The result is a journey of discovery and personal growth/healing.

Filmmaker Veronica Maday is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and was raised in Northern Wisconsin. Maday works as the Executive Director for the Indian Nonprofit Alliance; an organization dedicated to assisting tribal nonprofits in the management and leadership areas of capacity building, and providing a link for rural nonprofits to the funding sector. There is no charge for the public screening of this film and everyone is invited to attend.

Teens from Hopa Mountain’s Youth Leadership Program, in conjunction with the Office of Activities and Engagement at Montana State University, will be collecting non-perishable food items outside of Rosauer’s, Albertson’s, Safeway and the 19th Street location of Town and Country from 1-3 pm on Friday, July 13th. Collections will be donated to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank. The young leaders will be volunteering their time as part of their participation in the Hopa Mountain Youth Leadership Program summer camp.

Hopa Mountain’s Youth Leadership Program promotes positive and sustained educational experiences for Gallatin and Park County teens, by fostering direct interaction with the environment, the arts, respected adults and the greater community. These experiences help prepare teens for life as contributing members of their families, peer groups, and communities. The program is made possible through the generous support of the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch Fund, the O.P. and W.E. Edwards Foundation, the Walter L. and Lucille Braun Family Charitable Gift Fund, the Gilhousen Family Foundation, The Treacy Company, and Hopa Mountain members. The Park County program is collaboratively organized with LINKS for Learning in Livingston.

Hopa Mountain is a Bozeman-based non-profit that invests in rural and tribal citizen leaders, adults and youth, in their efforts to improve education, ecological health, and economic development (www.hopamountain.org). Citizen leaders are those individuals — adults and youth — who step forward when they recognize that their community needs help. Hopa Mountain provides these leaders with training, mentoring, and networking opportunities. Promoting and supporting youth leadership and community service is core to Hopa Mountain’s mission. Youth leadership program applications are available on-line at www.hopamountain.org/youthblog or by calling 586-2455.

Hopa Mountain’s Youth Leadership Program is now accepting applications for the 2012 summer youth leadership camps for teens 13-17. The camp for Park County teens will be held June 18-22, and the Gallatin County camp will be July 9-13. The camps are free-of-charge for accepted participants. In these weeklong residential camps, youth will participate in outdoor problem-solving and skill-building initatives, self awareness exercises, art and science activities, and community service. This summer’s camps also include canoeing and zip lining. Each summer camp is followed by weekly service-learning programs and community service projects throughout the school year.

Hopa Mountain’s Youth Leadership Program promotes positive and sustained educational experiences for Gallatin and Park County teens by fostering direct interaction with the environment, the arts, respected adults and the greater community. These experiences help prepare teens for life as contributing members of their families, peer groups, and communities. The program is made possible through the generous support of the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch Fund, the O.P. and W.E. Edwards Foundation, the Walter L. and Lucille Braun Family Charitable Gift Fund, the Gilhousen Family Foundation, The Treacy Company, and Hopa Mountain members. The Park County program is collaboratively organized with LINKS for Learning in Livingston.

Hopa Mountain is a Bozeman-based non-profit that invests in rural and tribal citizen leaders, adults and youth, in their efforts to improve education, ecological health, and economic development (www.hopamountain.org). Citizen leaders are those individuals — adults and youth — who step forward when they recognize that their community needs help. Hopa Mountain provides these leaders with training, mentoring, and networking opportunities. Promoting and supporting youth leadership and community service is core to Hopa Mountain’s mission. Camp brochures and applications are available on-line at www.hopamountain.org/youthblog or by calling 586-2455.

Join Big Fork author Barry Schieber and Hopa Mountain and Bozeman Public Library staff for a talk by Schieber along with children’s book activities and a book give away on Sunday, April 29, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Bozeman Public Library. This event is open to the public and free-of-charge to all children and their families.

During this celebration of friendship, Barry Schieber will share memories of the adventures he had with his beloved Bernese Mountain dog, Moritz. A series of children’s books authored by Schieber captures these adventures and will be given away to families. One of the books to be given away to participating children, An Open Heart, was illustrated by Bozeman artist Hedvig Rappe-Flowers.

Schieber recently donated more than 10,000 of his books to Hopa Mountain, a Bozeman-based nonprofit organization that invests in rural and tribal citizen leaders, adults and youth, who are working to improve education. The April 29 event will celebrate this donation and provide free books to children who attend. Through Hopa Mountain’s StoryMakers program, Schieber’s books will also be given free of charge to children throughout Montana in 2012 to encourage a love of reading.

The themes of Schieber’s books focus on healing, generosity, and kindness. Nose to Nose is a memoir about healing. Recovering from emergency surgery in a foreign country, Barry Schieber brought Moritz as a puppy back to Montana. He had never thought of owning a dog, any dog – let alone one that would soon tip the scales at over a hundred pounds. A Gift to Share is a book about generosity. The story follows the adventures of Moritz the puppy as he moves from Switzerland to Montana and learns to be a therapy dog. An Open Heart follows Moritz on a hike to the Bob Marshall Wilderness where he teaches Barry about kindness. Moritz has recently passed away.

Explaining his donation, Barry Schieber shared a favorite quote from friend, Tsering Gellek, “I am convinced that while interest, effort, and resources provide the foundation of any undertaking, aligning yourself with inherent goodness is by far the most powerful and surest way to get things done.”

“Barry Schieber’s very generous donation will help to ensure that all Montana children have access to high-quality books of their own,” said Hopa Mountain’s executive director, Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer. “We are humbled by Schieber’s gift and his vision for what is possible for Montana’s children. As a result of this wonderful donation of books, Hopa Mountain has planned a series of children’s book events throughout the month of May to give away his books and encourage summertime reading.”

Hopa Mountain’s StoryMakers program is an early learning program serving rural and tribal children and their families. Through community teams of local citizen leaders, StoryMakers supports parents and primary caregivers as they provide the nurturing home learning experiences that lead to children’s success in school and life. Through these citizen leaders, who come from the fields of education, social services, and medicine, Hopa Mountain’s StoryMakers program offers: high-quality, age- and culturally appropriate children’s books as tools to enhance children’s social, emotional and cognitive development; current parent-friendly child development information and book-sharing ideas; and personal encouragement to shape home life for children’s success with relationships and learning. A growing body of research confirms that a strong early learning home environment predicts children’s success as readers and students. Success in school strongly predicts good health and economic self-sufficiency in adulthood.

For more information about the April 29 children’s event at Bozeman Public Library, please contact Hopa Mountain at (406) 586-2455 or info@hopamountain.org

Seventh Generation Fund and Hopa Mountain are delighted to announce that, in April 2012, we will publish a digital/print on demand volume of collected poetry, short stories, photography and creative works that addresses the complex relationship between indigenous people and climate change. This volume is meant to accompany the groundbreaking Echoes of the Earth conference on art and climate change to be held in Bozeman, Montana scheduled for Friday April 5-6.

As we face the reality of climate change and the possibility of irreversible damage to the biosphere, we are frequently called to alter our behavior and lifestyles, to revisit our relationship with the environment and, somehow, to ‘reconnect with nature’. But what does reconnection mean, and, more importantly, what does it imply? And does art, literature, and specifically poetry, have any role to play in that reconnection? Is it “echoes of the earth”? Can the creative expression of indigenous people help bridge the growing dissociation that pervades the relationships between contemporary humans and the natural world? Is creative expression in itself a form of environmental action, or can it inspire action?

We are now requesting submissions for this volume.

If you would like to submit your work to our anthology, please email up to four poems, photographs or other creative works that clearly fit the brief above to editor William Harjo at willam.harjo@gmail.com We will accept attachments in Microsoft Word format only, or creative work can be included in the body of the email. We will ONLY accept submissions by email. Please include a short biography with your submission, in the body of the email.

The deadline for submissions is April 2, 2012

We are looking for new, previously unpublished poetry – unless it appears in a very recent or forthcoming collection (in which case please note that we have no budget for permissions fees, and inclusion in the anthology would need to be agreed in writing with the relevant publisher of the collection on that basis).

All contributors to the anthology will receive a free copy of the published book (books will be published in e-pub and other electronic formats as well as services such as lulu.com. We reserve the right to Edit content, substance or length of submission.

Echoes of the Earth is sponsored by The Seventh Generation Fund For Indian Development in partnership with Hopa Mountain. Support for this event has been provided by the Bullitt Foundation, Cedar Tree Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation & Open Society Foundations.

Hopa Mountain and Sage Solutions will present their workshop, “Creating Boards that Lead: A Discourse on Nonprofit Board Development, Board Operations and Responsibilities” on March 23-24 in Bozeman at the Fish Technology Center’s meeting room in Bridger Canyon. The workshop will begin at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 23 until 8 p.m. and then continue on Saturday, March 24 from 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Presented by Terry Profota, Principal of Sage Solutions and Dr. Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, Executive Director of Hopa Mountain, this board development workshop is offered as a learning tool for current members of non-profit Boards of Directors or individuals interested in becoming a Board Member and will focus on roles and responsibilities of nonprofit board members and energizing boards. All handouts and related materials will be supplied at the workshop.

Hopa Mountain is a Bozeman-based nonprofit organization that invests in rural and tribal citizen leaders, adults and youth, that are working to improve education, ecological health, and economic development (www.hopamountain.org). Hopa Mountain provides these leaders with training, mentoring, and networking opportunities. Sage Solutions is a consulting practice led by Terry Profota that specializes in organizational effectiveness, program development, and Board relations. The cost of the workshop is $35 for Hopa Mountain members and $40 for non-members. For more information or to register, please call 586-2455 or email info@hopamountain.org.

Hopa Mountain, a Bozeman-MT based nonprofit organization is pleased to announce that Native American students attending a tribal college in Montana or Wyoming and pursuing undergraduate degrees in earth sciences, atmospheric sciences, natural resource management, hydrology, fisheries, wildlife management, forestry, and soil sciences are eligible to apply for a $2,500 tribal college Native Science Fellowship or a $5,000 university Native Science Fellowship to be earned working with a community-based environmental science or geosciences organization that matches their career interests. Fellows will be selected through a competitive process. Applications are available on Hopa Mountain’s website at http://www.hopamountain.org/NativeScienceFellows.php

If you, or someone you know, meets these qualifications that you would like to nominate, please email his or her name and contact information to info@hopamountain.org or call Hopa Mountain’s office at (406) 586-2455. The application deadline is January 5.

Hopa Mountain offers this innovative Native Science Fellows program for Native American undergraduate and graduate students to participate in community-based science organizations in an effort to increase their engagement in higher education and geosciences careers. The goal is to increase the number of Native American students who are engaged in community-based geosciences education and careers and to provide role models and work experience for Native American college students interested in the geosciences. Funding for the program is provided by the National Science Foundation.