National Basketball Team will be expressing to youth on how they deal with the problems of peer pressure, jealousy, and historical trauma throughout their life and more importantly, how they learn and continue to learn to overcome the obstacles they face everyday. They will also engage the students in a discussion about their college experiences and how to be better prepared in taking that step both academically and athletically.
The Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council will also be developing, with the help of this team, life skills basketball camps covering everything from relationships to the significance of culture; linking the ideals of basketball to the challenges of everyday life through the importance of teamwork, self confidence and cultural strength.
National Basketball Team We have selected the cream of the crop for this team. They will be representing the MT & WY Tribes and they will be playing exhibitions with Colleges and Universities around the state. As we proceed, we will work them into Indian Tournaments around the nation and eventually overseas. They are committed to helping the youth not only in basketball, but also in preparation for peer pressure, bullying, violence, and hopelessness; reinvigorating them in discovering, developing, and demonstrating their Tribal Strength and Culture within their lives. These Gentlemen are willing to work and speak to youth at their level, to offer advice in living a healthy lifestyle.
Honor Your Life - PSOH The Planting Seeds of Hope program began in May of 2006. It is a SAMHSA grant for Youth Suicide Prevention. We push the idea to "honor your life, honor your ancestors." Since 2006, each PSOH Tribal Training Coordinator has worked on crisis intervention teams, promotion of the Lifeline number (18002738255), grief support group development, and life promotion trainings. They have also developed tribal specific suicide prevention plans that include culture components and collaborations with IHS, BIA, schools, and most recently the Tribal Veterans Reps. Over 500 people have been trained in ASIST and even more in QPR.
Youth Councils We are in the process of developing Native Youth Council at each reservation and have already started on the Fort Belknap reservation. These youth councils will be at an equal, yet lower level of the Tribal Councils. We will be working with the youth in their understanding of by-laws, resolution development, grant developments, working a budget, and developing their own Tribal plans including, but not limited to suicide prevention, youth promotions, economic development, and media development. We have so much talent with our youth and this can give them an opportunity to harness it!
Media Development We are in the works of putting together a proposal for media development. We have resources available to us for high quality recording sessions and high quality video development. We want to develop a archiving library of stories from each tribe. Teach the youth in the ways of interviewing, video production, and editing and to help them create a quality production of anything they would want to produce. With the increased development of web video sites, such as You Tube, anyone can promote positive videos and have the possibility of becoming a star over night. We would like to use this craze to benefit the talented youth on our reservations.
Summer Camps For the summer of 2009, we will be working on developing youth summer camps that will teach a variety of necessary skills for the youth to prepare them as they enter the different lifestyles that await. Lifeskills development, relationships, balancing finances, substance abuse, bullying, peer pressure, culture, proper diet and training. All this mixed in nicely with basketball, teambuilding, and competition.
MT Indian Hall of Fame This is a justification of the legends in our midst, both past and present! We are starting to acknowledge these athletic greats, so the youth will understand that the Native people have some of the most amazing and athletic people in the world, breaking records, winning belt buckles and trophies at a consistent basis year in and year out. The main mission is to honor those that came before us!
