Dear Buffalo’s Fire Readers:
The first thing I want to say on this Wednesday morning is this: Please — everyone — let’s stay positive. I will share more thoughts on this later. For anyone just checking in, many people associated with the Kyi-Yo Powwow this weekend left the Adams Center a bit shaken. In short, the University of Montana had an unfortunate mini-drama take place on campus over the weekend. The good news is no one was physically hurt, but there were a lot of “hurt feelings.” I posted my spectator experience on this blog site Sunday night. The problem at hand was that the Kyi-Yo Club invited dancers from all over the country to compete in prize-money dance contest. Club officers had to make an embarrassing announcement at around 3 a.m. Sunday morning.
Their message: We don’t have any money. Well, they had about $5,000, far short of the amount needed to pay dancers in all the categories. The students learned of their shortfall around 5 p.m. Saturday. They tried to raise money in the final hours to no avail. The end result at least half the competitors didn’t get paid. On that note, the university’s Adams Center collected about $35,000 from fees and gate admissions associated with the powwow, according to Kyi-Yo sources who talked with me.
Given my experience in dealing with public affairs matters, the first thing I did on Monday was call Cary Shimek in University Relations at the University of Montana. I asked if they planned to release a statement regarding the massive shortfall of prize money to dancers, singers and drummers who arrived from around the country. Shimek didn’t know anything about what had happened. He later told me that Jim Foley in the UM president’s office suggested I contact Vice President of Student Affairs Theresa Branch. She then told me they would need some time to get the Kyi-Yo students together to see what happened. The university took more than 48 hours to get a handle on the situation before finally sending out the following press statement.
Meanwhile, for anyone who missed the statement in a reader comment post last night, here is the university response:
“The University of Montana extends its apology to those members of the greater Native American community who were adversely affected by the University’s actions at the Kyi-Yo Powwow. The University did not plan adequately for the unexpected shortfall in total revenue. As the result of this inadequate planning and communication, many Powwow participants and Kyi-Yo members were understandably disappointed and hurt.
The University intends to identify the Powwow contest winners and compensate them at the same levels as previous Kyi-Yo Powwow winners. The University meant no disrespect to any executive officers or members of the Kyi-Yo Native American Student Association. The Kyi-Yo officers, Program Coordinator, and other volunteers are to be commended for their commitment and hard work. They managed a very impressive event and the University salutes them.”
For more information contact: Teresa Branch, Vice President for Student Affairs at 243-5225 or teresa.branch@mso.umt.edu.
The Kyi-Yo students have been working with Fredricka Hunter, American Indian Student Services director at UM, to resolve the issue. Here is a repost of Hunter’s comments from last night:
Greetings to everyone! I just came from a meeting with the U of M Student Affairs Administrators and the Kyi-yo club officers. A public statement will be made on behalf the Officers by the U of M. When things like this happen it is always easy to blame others for what went wrong. Again, I’m supporting our student officers. They did an awesome job with the resources given. They had no idea they were going to be short until Saturday night at 5:00. The club officers did the best they could to pay those who won and they even paid out of their own pockets, borrowed from family members. Indian Country does hold them responsible and yes there is accountability and they know it. They were accountable…they could have ran but they stepped up to the plate and stood there in front of an angry crowd. To me that is a true leader…they stayed to the very end. When they knew they were going to be short, they started pushing the 50-50’s, raffles…they got into “we can do it mode.” The students dedicate their time, they are not paid, their academics suffer, their family members suffer. The students have been threatened. One of the officers went into early labor due to the stress. She had her baby 5 weeks early. Unless you’ve served on a pow-wow committee you will never know the stress, hard work, dedication, scrutiny and backlash.
These are students who stepped up to the plate to make it happen and by all accounts, many people had a good time. The only thing these students have, is their names and their honor. We are going to try to find ways to help them restore their honor and their name. Please…all of you reading this, please reach into your hearts, gather around these students and offer your prayers and support. Kyi-Yo has been in existence 48 years and it will come back bigger and better next year. We as Indian people need to support one another! We have enough oppression and obstacles in our lives, let us be there for one another.
Keep reading the Buffalo’s Fire for the lastest updates on the matter. And please, everyone, let’s stay positive. It already feels like this happened a long time ago. An effort is underway to make things better for everyone who was effected by the incident at the Adams Center.
Jodi Rave
