Baca /Dlo'Ay Azhi Community School Visits Washington D.C. for 2024 Ornament Project

In the spring of 2024, Baca/Dlo’ay azhi Community School was selected by the National Parks Service and the National Park Foundation to participate in the 2024 Ornament Project. A collection of 58 trees with student-designed ornaments will represent the 56 states and territories with schools managed by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education and the Department of Defense Education Activity.

All the Baca/Dlo’ay azhi Community School students drew an ornament during class. A school committee narrowed down the 210 drawings to 50. The 24 drawings representing the school were chosen and made into ornaments for The Bureau of Indian Education Tree and archived by The National Parks Service.

The 58 trees were on display the evening of the National Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington, D.C., on December 5, 2024. Four sixth-grade students - Makaya, Ryu, Ulijah and Ambrielle - and Baca staff represented the school and BIE at the tree lighting. They left on the morning of December 3. This was the students’ first time on an airplane, and they all got to speak to the captain and see the cockpit.

They took a night tour of monuments and memorials. They saw the US Navy Memorial, the White House, the US Capitol Building, the World War II Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Enteral Flame, and the US Marine Corps War Memorial.

They also visited the Smithsonian National Museum, The National Archives and The National Museum of the American Indians. Students learned about fascinating stories of the planet, its fiery beginnings through billions of years of transformation, animals and other topics. At The National Archives, they learned about the development of women’s rights, coal miners, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. At the National Museum of the American Indians, the students saw and learned about other tribes, treaties between the US and American Indian Nations, different collections of art and the contributions of Native Americans.

The students attended lunch with the 2024 Ornament Project committee at the Hamilton Washington D.C., one block from the White House. Afterward, they headed to the Christmas Tree lighting, which started at about 6:00 p.m. They lit the Christmas tree around 6:15 p.m.

The students enjoyed the trip and experienced some new things and foods — sushi, new fast food chains, a fancy dinner, riding on a plane, sky train, elevator, escalator, and taking a ride share for the first time.