Native Voices: We hear you

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Lighted buffalo ornaments adorn the Mandan Holiday Lights on Main display as seen here on Sunday, Dec. 8. The public can view all the festive Christmas presentations at Dykshoorn Park Nov. 29 - Jan 5 from 5-10:00 p.m. Organizers offered hot cider, too. Photo Credit Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

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‘Honoring Our Past’: North Dakota Tribal College System celebrates 30 years of empowering Indigenous education

North Dakota tribal colleges transform from ‘no money at all' to economic force

During the celebration on Dec. 5, Sheridan McNeil, director of Tribal Partnerships for the North Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, and Heidi Grunwald, associate vice president for research and faculty development at North Dakota State University, presented a blanket to the board of directors of the Tribal College System in North Dakota in recognition of their 30 years of dedication and service. (Photo credit Adrianna Adame)

Indigenous educators gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the North Dakota Tribal College System at the North Dakota Heritage Center on Thursday.

“This event is very significant in that we were the first state coalition of Tribal colleges,” said Tracey Bauer, the Executive Director of the NDTCS. “And so that really speaks to our predecessors and their visionary thoughts, that they actually had the foresight to know that this was needed and that this was an association that was going to be able to stand the test of time.

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Culture’d Couture fashion show brings Bismarck-Mandan community together for Native art and style

Local Indigenous designers and models showcase creativity on the runway

Twenty models, including 13-year-old Kaeley Rose Wilson, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, registered to participate in the Culture’d Couture Fashion Show and Silent Auction on Nov. 30. (Photo courtesy of Bonnie Good Bird)

Backstage, nearly a dozen designers prepped models to strut their colorful designs, intricate applique and silkscreen prints during the Culture’d Couture Fashion Show and Silent Auction on Nov. 30 at the Bismarck Civic Center.

Bonnie Good Bird and Rochelle Wells, the mother-daughter founders of Culture’d Couture, had long dreamed of hosting a runway fashion show in their community. Good Bird and Wells discussed the idea with Sacred Pipe Resource Center staff. Eventually, they organized the event following the 8th Annual Native Art, Craft and Entrepreneur Fair.