Montana Board of Public Ed vows to improve how state teaches Native history & culture
By NORA MABIE
Montana Free Press Montana Free Press
A group of Montana students, families and tribes recently reached a settlement agreement with the Montana Board of Public Education — a major development in a years-long class action lawsuit regarding the implementation of Indian Education for All.
Montana is the only state that constitutionally requires a commitment in K-12 public education to recognize the "distinct and unique cultural heritage of American Indians." In 1999, the state Legislature enacted the Indian Education for All (IEFA) Act to implement that constitutional mandate, requiring public schools to teach Native American history and culture. And since 2007, the Legislature has appropriated about $3.5 million annually to Montana school districts for implementing IEFA. Schools, according to the original legislation, are supposed to use the funds for curriculum development, class materials and teacher training.
In 2021, however, a group of Montana students, families and tribes filed a class action lawsuit against the state Office of Public Instruction and Montana Board of Public Education, alleging that school districts were improperly using funds meant to support IEFA. Tribal plaintiffs include the Fort Belknap Indian Community, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana.
Court documents alleged that in 2019 and 2020, only 10% of Montana school districts could account for spending all of their IEFA funding on appropriate expenses. Documents allege, for example, that while one Montana school district received more than $55,000 in 2019 and 2020 to implement IEFA, the district reported spending about 71% of that funding. The remaining IEFA money for the district, according to court documents, was unaccounted for. One school, according to court documents, used some of its IEFA funds to pay a portion of librarians' salaries. Other schools allegedly used the funds to purchase books unrelated to Native American culture or history.
"School districts and schools have no incentive to fully and accurately report their IEFA expenditures because there is no penalty for failing to do so," plaintiffs wrote in their complaint.
After a closed-session discussion, the Montana Board of Public Education on March 11 voted unanimously to approve a settlement agreement — which was negotiated directly between the plaintiffs and board — and gave Chair Tim Tharp the authority to sign on its behalf.
Though the Montana Board of Public Education agreed to a settlement, the class action lawsuit continues with OPI — the agency generally responsible for providing state funding, including for IEFA.
The board agreed in the settlement to improve financial accountability measures, content standards, tribal collaboration and teacher training regarding the implementation of IEFA.
Specifically, the board agreed to use the accreditation process to oversee and ensure the inclusion of IEFA in local instruction. It also agreed to request an annual IEFA implementation report from OPI. To the extent of its authority, the board will ensure IEFA is integrated across all content standards, and it will encourage all school districts to meaningfully consult with tribes in developing an IEFA implementation plan. The board will also require new educators to complete an introduction to IEFA course, which includes training on tribal collaboration.
Tharp said in a statement that the board "is pleased to reach this settlement."
"Our time and efforts are better spent working to improve education for all students in Montana and not arguing in court," he said.
Plaintiff Jessica Peterson said she was relieved by the settlement.
"When we filed this lawsuit, my daughter was in second grade," she said in a statement. "Now she is a sixth grader in Helena Public Schools. Year after year, I don't see Indian Education for All happening in the Helena Public Schools."
State lawmakers have also passed legislation to strengthen IEFA. In 2023, then-Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, brought a bill that required — rather than encouraged — school districts to implement IEFA. The bill, which was signed into law, also stipulated that IEFA funds could be revoked from certain schools if districts failed to report how the funds were spent.
This legislative session, Windy Boy, now a state senator, carried Senate Bill 181, which enhances tribal consultation and the role of Native language specialists within IEFA. It also adds new requirements for the Board of Public Education and OPI to strengthen accountability. That bill cleared the House and Senate and awaits Gov. Greg Gianforte's signature.
MTFP reporter Alex Sakariassen contributed to this story.
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Indigenous fashion week in Santa Fe explores heritage in silk & hides
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Fashion designers from across North America are bringing together inspiration from their Indigenous heritage, culture and everyday lives to three days of runway modeling that started Friday in a leading creative hub and marketplace for Indigenous art.
A fashion show affiliated with the century-old Santa Fe Indian Market is collaborating this year with a counterpart from Vancouver, Canada, in a spirit of Indigenous solidarity and artistic freedom. A second, independent runway show at a rail yard district in the city has nearly doubled the bustle of models, makeup and final fittings.
Elements of Friday's collections from six Native designers ran the gamut from silk parasols to a quilted hoodie, knee-high fur boots and suede leather earrings that dangled to the waste. Models on the Santa Fe catwalks include professionals, dancers and Indigenous celebrities from TV and the political sphere.
Clothing and accessories rely on materials ranging from of wool trade cloth to animal hides, featuring traditional beadwork, ribbons and jewelry with some contemporary twists that include digitally rendered designs and urban Native American streetwear from Phoenix.
"Native fashion, it's telling a story about our understanding of who we are individually and then within our communities," said Taos Pueblo fashion designer Patricia Michaels, of "Project Runway" reality TV fame. "You're getting designers from North America that are here to express a lot of what inspires them from their own heritage and culture."
Santa Fe style
The stand-alone spring fashion week for Indigenous design is a recent outgrowth of haute couture at the summer Santa Fe Indian Market, where teeming crowds flock to outdoor displays by individual sculptors, potters, jewelers and painters.
Designer Sage Mountainflower remembers playing in the streets at Indian Market as a child in the 1980s while her artist parents sold paintings and beadwork. She forged a different career in environmental administration, but the world of high fashion called to her as she sewed tribal regalia for her children at home and, eventually, brought international recognition.
At age 50, Mountainflower on Friday presented her "Taandi" collection — the Tewa word for "Spring" — grounded in satin and chiffon fabric that includes embroidery patterns that invoke her personal and family heritage at the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in the Upper Rio Grande Valley.
"I pay attention to trends, but a lot of it's just what I like," said Mountainflower, who also traces her heritage to Taos Pueblo and the Navajo Nation. "This year it's actually just looking at springtime and how it's evolving. … It's going to be a colorful collection."
More than 20 designers are presenting at the invitation of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts.
Fashion plays a prominent part in Santa Fe's renowned arts ecosystem, with Native American vendors each day selling jewelry in the central plaza, while the Institute for American Indian Arts delivers fashion-related college degrees in May.
This week, a gala at the New Mexico governor's mansion welcomed fashion designers to town, along with social mixers at local galleries and bookstores and plans for pop-up fashion stores to sell clothes fresh off the fashion runway.
International vision
A full-scale collaboration with Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week is bringing a northern, First Nations flair to the gathering this year with many designers crossing into the U.S. from Canada.
Secwépemc artist and fashion designer Randi Nelson traveled to Santa Fe from the city of Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon to present collections forged from fur and traditionally cured hides — she uses primarily elk and caribou. The leather is tanned by hand without chemicals using inherited techniques and tools.
"We're all so different," said Nelson, a member of the Bonaparte/St'uxwtéws First Nation who started her career in jewelry assembled from quills, shells and beads. "There's not one pan-Indigenous theme or pan-Indigenous look. We're all taking from our individual nations, our individual teachings, the things from our family, but then also recreating them in a new and modern way."
April Allen, an Inuk designer from the Nunatsiavut community on the Labrador coast of Canada, presented a mesh dress of blue water droplets. Her work delves into themes of nature and social advocacy for access to clean drinking water.
Vocal music accompanied the collection — layers of wordless, primal sound from musician and runway model Beatrice Deer, who is Inuit and Mohawk.
Urban Indian couture
Phoenix-based jeweler and designer Jeremy Donavan Arviso said the runway shows in Santa Fe are attempting to break out of the strictly Southwest fashion mold and become a global venue for Native design and collaboration. A panel discussion Thursday dwelled on the threat of new tariffs and prices for fashion supplies — and tensions between disposable fast fashion and Indigenous ideals.
Arviso is bringing a street-smart aesthetic to two shows at the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts runway and a warehouse venue organized by Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, from the Siksika Nation.
"My work is definitely contemporary, I don't choose a whole lot of ceremonial or ancestral practices in my work," said Arviso, who is Diné, Hopi, Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham, and grew up in Phoenix. "I didn't grow up like that. … I grew up on the streets."
Arviso said his approach to fashion resembles music sampling by early rap musicians as he draws on themes from major fashion brands and elements of his own tribal cultures. He invited Toronto-based ballet dancer Madison Noon for a "beautiful and biting" performance to introduce his collection titled Vision Quest.
Santa Fe runway models will include former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland of Laguna Pueblo, adorned with clothing from Michaels and jewelry by Zuni Pueblo silversmith Veronica Poblano.
