Juanita E. Belgarde, 63, passed away due to natural causes at her Great Falls home on Friday, March 7, 2025.  Wake services will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 9, 2025, and will continue until her funeral service which will be at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, March 10, 2025.  Burial will follow in the New Rocky Boy Cemetery.  Holland & Bonine Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements.

Juanita was born on December 19, 1961, in Havre to Gilbert Belgarde and Elsie Chapican.  She was adopted by her grandparents, Louis and Elizabeth (Denny) Belgarde, at 4 years old, and they raised her in Rocky Boy.  Juanita attended grade school in Rocky Boy, and her high school years were spent in Renton, Washington, where she lived with a kind family who taught her in her Mormon faith.  After high school, Juanita attended Brigham Young University for a year before returning to Rocky Boy to live with her grandma, Elizabeth Belgarde.  There, she helped care for her nieces.  In 2007, she moved to Hosanna Home in Great Falls.

Juanita was a kind, soft-spoken, reserved woman who enjoyed listening to music and dancing.  Her favorite was 90's pop.  She loved watching movies, especially scary ones.  She adored her family, and her memory for names and family history and dates was impeccable.  Juanita was very knowledgeable about her heritage; she was very fluent in Cree.  When in Great Falls, she loved to visit with family during the holidays and Christmas shopping for her loved ones.

She was preceded in death by her biological parents, Gilbert Belgarde and Elsie Chapican; grandparents, Louis and Elizabeth Belgarde, and William and Mary Chapican; siblings, Lavidia Belgarde, Jewel Arkinson Gopher, Luwanna Belgarde Herron, and Yvette Belgard; stepmother, Darlene (Arkinson) Belgarde; most of her aunts and uncles; and many extended family.

Juanita is survived by her siblings, Harold and Ramona Zeze of Germany, Shannon and Gina, Joey Arkinson of Maskwacis, Alberta, Canada, Gilberta Belgarde of Havre, Lana (Waylon Potts) Saddler of Box Elder, Veronica Belgarde of Billings, and Alex (Jayme) Belgarde of Rocky Boy; many nieces and nephews, especially her special nieces and nephews she helped raise, Jade (Zachary Hutton) Saddler, Tess (Aryn Gardipee) Saddler, Shalimar (Garrett Demontiney) Small, and Josh (Ashley) Belgard; uncle, Earl "Archie" Arkinson of Rocky Boy; aunt, Sylvia Russette of Rocky Boy; numerous cousins and other extended family, including the Denny, Chapican, and YellowRobe families; and many friends.