Solheim students honor winter solstice, Northern Hemisphere’s longest day of the year

Around 40 people arrived at the school on Monday, Dec. 18 to celebrate the first winter solstice dreamcatcher-making gathering from 6 to 8 p.m. in the gym. The event sought to bring families together before students left for Christmas break from Dec. 23 to Jan 1.

Jax Sherwin, a fourth grader at Solheim, came to the event with his mother Shannon Peltier. The 9-year-old found out about the event after he received a note from Kari Bitz, the school’s social worker, inviting him since he attended the Indigenous family ice cream social in September. Despite the struggle to weave a bead into his dreamcatcher, he sat laughing with Peltier throughout the process. “The hardest part is trying to make my bead stay in the same place and making [the dreamcatcher] look good,” said Sherwin. “If you give it a try, you’ll get the hang of it.”

The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. After the winter solstice occurs, days become longer as spring approaches. Many Northern Plains tribes acknowledge the sacred day with fasting, praying and storytelling. This year, the solstice is welcomed on Dec. 21.

Before creating the dreamcatchers, students and families learned about 14 ways to honor the winter solstice. Key points included taking the day off work or just slowing down and resting, giving thanks for all your blessings, going to a ceremony or holding a personal moment of prayer, paying attention to the movement of the sun, making an offering and setting intentions for the longer days ahead.

Across the gym, many families attempted to properly weave yarn through their dreamcatchers. When students or parents got in a tangle, they’d pause to watch the tutorial playing on the screen. “Not many people have ever made one before and they are just trying to make these beautiful creations,” Bitz said.

Bitz collaborated with Bismarck Public Schools cultural coordinator Donovan Lambert to plan the winter solstice dream catcher event. Their main goal is to meet students’ families and celebrate different cultural events that happen within North Dakota’s Indigenous communities.

“The biggest thing I think is just the connection from home to school and that they have a common theme and that we celebrate them,” said Bitz. “Having that partnership from home to school is important to us.”

Bismarck Public Schools has more than 1,000 Native students, making American Indians their biggest minority population, according to the Public School Review. Altogether, 7.5% of Solheim students are American Indian, according to a U.S. News report.

Lambert encourages the district’s non-Native and Native families to become more involved in their children’s education by organizing these cultural events. He aims to create a line of communication with educators and parents as students navigate their lives from K-12.

“Building that community and getting our families involved with the school and their child’s education, I think they build a routine and begin to get comfortable enough to be visiting the school’s teachers, principal, counselors –– it’ll carry on through middle school and high school,” Lambert said

If Sherwin remembers, he and his mom plan to celebrate the winter solstice next year. Both said they’d like to continue attending cultural events at the school. “It was fun, spending time together,” said Peltier.

While the dreamcatcher activity is the last event for the fall semester, BP’s Indian Education team will resume organizing again in the spring. Before the end of the school year, Lambert said he wants to help host two more events at Solheim Elementary.