Northern Arapaho students produce art during Longmont stay

Sky Eagleheart and her five classmates from the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming spent the past week touring Invesco Field, enjoying a batch of Voodoo doughnuts, walking the University of Colorado-Boulder campus and taking in other sights in the area. 

Eagleheart and her group were part of an historic Sister Cities arrangement with her Northern Arapaho tribe and the Longmont Sister Cities Association. Last week, Longmont students took part in a pow-wow on the Wind River Reservation, witnessed a religious ceremony and ate traditional tribal foods.

Eagleheart said she enjoyed all the places and events she visited over the past two weeks.  Still, the 14-year-old said her biggest thrill was making new friends through the Sister Cities exchange. “I came here and I am leaving with a really good feeling,” Eagleheart said. “I enjoyed being here. I came away with friends that I didn’t have before.”

Eagleheart and her peers spent Friday, their last full day in Longmont, at Longmont’s Firehouse Art Center putting colorful designs steeped in meaning on skateboard decks under the tutelage of Walt Pourier. An Oglala Lakota, Pourier is an artist who creates skateparks on reservations.

Pourier helped Eagleheart and other exchange students create a portrait of Chief Black Coal, a prominent leader of the Northern Arapaho during the latter half of the 19th Century.

“He made a big impact on his people, he was a great leader,” Eagleheart said.

Pourier not only helped the students with their techniques but also gave them lessons on their history and the importance of becoming tribal leaders. “These young people are the seventh generation. I want them to see their history, stand where they are now and to move forward,” Pourier said.

Longmont and the Northern Arapaho Tribe made history in 2021 by signing an agreement sealing the first sister city union between a sovereign nation and a U.S. city. Former Mayor Brian Bagley pushed hard for the sister city deal, who wanted to honor the Northern Arapaho who used to call what is now Longmont home.

A treaty in the 1860s eventually forced native people out of the Longmont-area. The Northern Arapaho were pushed onto the Wind River Reservation with the Shoshone.

Longmont has forged sister city relationships with cities in Japan and Mexico. Students from those nations stay with local families for the most part, Janice Rebhan, president of the Longmont Sister Cities Association said. 

The Northern Arapaho arrangement is being handled differently, Children from the reservation cannot stay overnight with local families, given the history of White families kidnapping Native children, Rebhan said. 

The Northern Arapaho students all stayed overnight at the Longmont Youth Center, she said. “A lot of these kids have never visited an American home. We didn't want to instill fear in them. We wanted to do what is most comfortable to them at this point,” Rebhan said.

Eagleheart said she enjoyed working on art. But when she graduates from high school she will follow in the footsteps of her family and join the Army. 

“I want to do something for my country,” she said. “It kind of runs in my family.”