The Native Ways student club at Northwest College will be hosting its annual Buffalo Feast on Thursday, April 21 at 6 p.m. in the Yellowstone Building Conference Center. The event was previously postponed from its traditional date in November after being canceled in 2020 due to COVID.

Tickets are $25 for the general public, and $10 for NWC students. Those who wish to attend the event are encouraged to reserve tickets no later than Thursday, April 14. Contact NWC Associate Professor of History Amy McKinney at amy.mckinney@nwc.edu or 307-754-6008 for reservations and more information.

This year’s feast includes smoked bison brisket, roasted red potatoes, seasonal roasted vegetables, roasted beet salad with goat cheese mousse, Three Sisters soup, bannock bread and berry soup. The featured guest performers are Jasmine Pickner Bell and the North Bear Singers.

Bell, or Cunku Was’te Win (“Good Road Woman” in Dakota), is a member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe. A two-time world champion hoop dancer, she trained with her father, renowned hoop dancer Dallas Chief Eagle and was the first woman to win the world championship in hoop dancing. She lives on the Wind River Reservation with her husband, Luke Bell, who is her drummer and member of the North Bear Singers.

A central focus of Bell’s hoop dancing is education. A dance of healing, connectedness, and prayer, her goal is to share the meaning and stories of the hoop dance. She is one of the featured women of the Women in Wyoming exhibit.

“The hoop dance has taught me that you keep moving forward no matter what,” Bell told Women in Wyoming. “Sometimes a hoop might fall, and a design may fall apart, but you pick up those hoops, you keep going, and you keep dancing. No matter what, as hard as life gets, you’re going to still be able to jump through that hoop.”

“When you get done hoop dancing with me, you’re going to feel better,” she said.