A 41st Annual Kyi-Yo Celebration will be held at the Adams Center, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana on April 17 and April 18, 2009. For this years Kyi-Yo Celebration the theme will be Walking in Two Worlds.

The celebration will feature different activities like Native arts and crafts that will be sold; there will be cultural dance specials, a Youth 3 on 3 Basket ball tournaments and other activities. This celebration and activity hopes to bring together alumni, current student may they be Native Americans or Non-Indians together with the Missoula community in celebrating a clean and safe environment.

The Kyi-Yo club aims to provide a positive image and pride to the Native American people and its culture. They provide a venue for Native American students to meet and discuss their important issues. This club is open to all Native Americans and non-Indian students at the University of Montana. They support the diverse culture community that the university has.

The Kyi-Yo club achieves its goal by sponsoring basketball tournaments and educational conference. At these educational conference the focus of issue and discussion are the issues that are important for the Native American and the university community. They sponsor the most awaited and oldest student-hosted powwows. The activities are the Native American Dance Theatre, Men’s & Women’s basketball tournament, tipi race, International Food Festival, Youth 3-on-3 Basketball tournament, Youth Conference and Jordan Carlson Memorial Scholastic Bowl.

At the earl 1950s a small group of Native American students formed a club. This club after a few years was addressing more issues as the years passed by. So the members decided to make it a formal organization in 1960. The member decided to name their club Kyi-Yo this means bear in Blackfeet Language. The name was in honor of their school symbol, grizzly bear.