CUTLINE: Scott Bredahl helps Elizabeth Tikanye learn how to run the clippers, a job that can be intimidating to a girl who weighs less than the sheep.

Traditionally the Three Affiliated Tribes raised horses and cattle in the river bottoms of the Missouri River in western North Dakota. After construction of the Garrison Dam in 1956, tribal members were forced to abandon their farms and move to the uplands where they found that the land lacked natural shelters and was unsuitable for raising gardens and livestock. Many of the people on the Fort Berthold Reservation have been separated from agriculture for as many as four generations.

Because of this decline in agricultural interest, the Agriculture Division of Fort Berthold Community College has begun an innovative program with youth ages 6-15 and feeder lambs. With grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Tribal College Extension Program, the college purchases market lambs. Youth sign up to work with sheep, as well as for educational activities and cultural lessons.

“Kids are actively involved in the spring shearing and vaccination of lambs. The kids ear tagged all the lambs– a few ear tags went in backwards, but that was okay,” according to the project director, Cheyanne Erickson. Scott Bredahl, a local rancher who raises purebred Columbia sheep just north of the reservation, helped the children shear their sheep.

Youth are responsible for training their lambs to lead with a halter and then progress to training their lambs to “set up” and brace for shows. It takes many hours of working with lambs to train them well enough to show without a halter, but all of the children succeeded in showing without halters this year.

“The reason sheep are ideal for the project is their size — they are far less intimidating than a 1,200-pound horse or steer, far easier to care for, and the expense involved is considerably less,” Erickson added. Integrating culture into the agriculture project, the group will make a shield or dream catcher as a token of gratitude for those who influenced their success with showing the lambs and getting them to market.

Upon completing the program and its criteria, the lambs are sold, and the revenue from those lambs goes into scholarship funds for participants. “Kids are welcome to come any time during the week to help with chores and feeding. On Tuesday meetings, we all feed together, and every weekend one child is designated to feed the lambs.” Erickson said.

The elders also get involved in this program at Fort Berthold. Elder Lydia Sage-Chase told a story to the children about how her grandmother used the wool from sheep to pad her moccasins. She is also going to be doing a cultural art lesson to craft thank you’s for the Extension Service in Mountrail County for allowing kids to compete.

The tribal college has received funding to continue the program for a third year. Tribal colleges and universities were designated as land grant institutions in 1994, making them eligible for such funds from the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES).

During this second year, the children competed at the Mountrail County Achievement Days, North Dakota State Fair, and will conclude with a local year-end show, cookout, and awards ceremony. From competing at the shows the kids learn responsibility (they have to take care of their lambs during the entire show), sportsmanship, patience, and a sense of self-accomplishment. “This year kids could really see how their hard work and persistence at home paid off,” said Erickson. “They really came a long way.”

Cheyanne Erickson is the livestock marketing specialist at Fort Berthold Community College. For more information contact her at  (701) 627-4738 Ext. 276 or cerick@fbcc.bia.edu.