BILLINGS, Mont. – In a celebration of life for those who survived cancer, as well as a time of somberness when remembering those who didn’t, 50 Montana American Indian and local women received honorary shawls in a Pink Shawl Ceremony Oct. 2 to recognize the impact of cancer among women during Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The event was sponsored by the Intertribal Clan Mothers, Montana State University Billings, the Montana Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council, and the Billings Clinic Cancer Center. The Clan Mothers, as well as mostly Native inmates from the Montana Women’s Prison, made the shawls. The Intertribal Clan Mothers are a self-described “group of professionals who were interested in supporting MSU B American Indian women as they made their way through the education pipeline.”

After songs by a drum group and Honor Guard presentation by young Native veterans representing the flags of each Montana tribe, Alma McCormick, who runs the Messengers for Health program on the Crow Reservation, gave an opening speech. The program educates women about cancer, and McCormick lost one of her infant twin daughters to cancer.

“From that time on, and what came out of that trial, was passion in my heart which still motivates me today. I believe that’s the same passion that the Intertribal Clan Mothers have felt in their heart to provide this to for you today – to bring this honor to our cancer survivors,” McCormick said. “And since that time I have lost other loved ones to this disease. But we still have passion in our hearts to go forth.”

The shawls were on display before the ceremony.

McCormick explained that the idea of a shawl ceremony originated in 2003 from an intertribal council from Michigan in honor of cancer survivors and victims, and through their idea it spread throughout Indian country to other communities nationally.

At the Crow Fair in 2008, the Clan Mothers raised cancer awareness on a Friday night; they presented shawls to any cancer survivor who came forward. McCormick said, “The impact was just powerful. The only thing that was going through my mind were the words ‘faith, hope, healing, and strength,’” as she honored the survivors.

She compared that impact to a historical event, and that Crow Fair moment became a major breakthrough and encouragement in promoting cancer awareness in Indian country that reverberated until “the baton was passed” to the more formal Pink Shawl Ceremony in Billings, were a few hundred people showed up to support the event headed by Reno Charette, the director the MSU B Native American Outreach, and Melissa Spotted Bear from the Billings Cancer Clinic Center and National Cancer Institute’s Community Cancer Centers program.

The Intertribal Clan Mothers would make three shawls each: One to remind them to complete their annual exam; one for a family or relative that is a cancer survivor; and one to be presented to a friend or family member in memory of someone who lost their battle with cancer.

A moment was acknowledged to give thanks to the 15 inmates who helped make 30 of the shawls, as it was said, inmates they are often forgotten by society. “Making 50 intricately fringed knotted shawls would not have been possible without the inmates, and those women were all too happy to help give something back to the community as it was discovered that each of them had known someone who had cancer, or even had it themselves in one case.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to do another project with the inmates soon,” Spotted Bear said.

Dyani Bingham, an advocate of the Montana Breast and Cervical Health Program, held back tears when she related a personal story in which her grandmother told her she had breast cancer. “It was really difficult, and I’m the one that cried. But she was so strong. Everything I do, I do for my grandma.”

She stressed the importance of women getting checked for cancer, and said she would give rides if needed.

Spotted Bear was pleased with the result of the ceremony, and said the shawls were a fitting symbolic end to the trial of a disease that so many women have been through. The event gave hope for the future and passed cancer awareness on to family and friends.

“It helped with the women validating a long journey and struggle that they had been through,” Spotted bear said. “It was a very emotional evening.”