In response to youth suicides, teachers show students the power of headbagning at Fire in the Mountains festival.
Buffalo Hide Academy, situated in Blackfeet Nation takes the metal world by storm to raise awareness about youth suicides. The alternative public high school hosted a semester-long, two-hour heavy music symposium, dedicated to the study of metal and hardcore. At the start of the program, they hand selected students who seemed like they might by more isolated and reserved, and may be into darker, more aggressive music.
Using heavy, metal music as a catharsis for the darkness Blackfeet youth have walked through, Speicher was a guiding light for these youth and instrumental in bringing the Fire in the Mountains festival to the rez, convincing tribal council to take a leap of faith in supporting their youth through music. Speicher went the extra mile for these kids and brought big-name bands to headline such as Wardruna and Converge along with up and coming metal Natives, such as Sage Bong (DIné and Nde).
The festival brought Natives and metal heads together, highlighting how much we really have in common with one another and breaking down stereotypes about one another. Many felt the Ancestors with them, and that they too had gathered with them for this monumental event.
