Little Shell Recognition: It's been a long time coming

You've probably already heard the big news: the Little Shell tribe has finally received federal recognition! It's a momentous occurrence that has been a long time coming--125 years! As such it deserves discussion and provides a great teachable moment.

Government teachers

In addition to providing an opportunity to discuss federal recognition and what it means to tribes, it's also a great opportunity to feature bipartisanship--something all too rare in today's world.  Finally, it's an opportunity to learn about federal riders and the weird way things sometimes get done in D.C. One interesting exercise is to examine the bill itself. First, have students read the summary. Can they find information on the Little Shell? Next have them browse the Defense Appropriations Bill to find mention of the Little Shell. (It's hard to find. They'll ultimately need to do an electronic search.) Ask your students: What category is the recognition under ("Military Construction and General Provisions"). The rider is Subtitle F. What's in Subtitle E?

Other teachers

Consider showing the 2:49 minute video "Indian Nations: Little Shell Chippewa" created by the Montana Office of Tourism and check out the resources I highlighted in this earlier post on the Métis, which includes links to material to use grades 3-12.


In Canada, the Métis are recognized as aboriginal peoples, along with the First Nations and the Inuit. In the U.S. there is no such recognition. Many Little Shell also identify as Métis. Others identify strictly as Chippewa. To understand the Little Shell's connection to the Métis, see the tribe's official website, Nicholas Vrooman's article, "The Persistence of the Little Shell People," in Distinctly Montana, and his longer and more detailed explanation in the Study Guide and Timeline OPI published to accompany 'The Whole County Was ... One Robe': The Little Shell Tribe's America, particularly the introduction to " 'One Robe' Detailed Synopsis."

These are a few of my favorite things....

I hope you are having a wonderful break. Perhaps you are spending it skiing or curled up by the wood stove reading the new novel you received from your favorite cousin. If so, wonderful! Refresh yourself. But, if your mind is turning back to school, this post is for you.

Every spring I ask readers to let me know their favorite lesson plans, and every fall, I report back in posts on elementary, middle, and high school teachers' favorites. Now, however, I thought I'd be a little self-indulgent and tell you about some of my favorites. I'm limiting myself to lessons that only take 1-3 class periods instead of longer lessons (though I do love our more in-depth studies, especially those that require authentic research, like "Women and Sports: Tracking Change over Time.") Here's hoping that you find these lessons as appealing as I do--and that your students love them too (and learn lots from them.)

Elementary teachers: "Who Are the Métis?" is a PowerPoint that provides a quick introduction this an important Montana cultural group with roots in the fur trade.

Middle School ELA teachers: Montana and the "Great War" Lesson Plan is a great extension for anyone teaching Hattie Big Sky. After exploring the Story Maps to learn more about individuals' experiences during World War I, students will write a piece of historical fiction (a letter or journal entry) from the perspective of a Montanan--on the home front or serving in the armed forces--during the period.

Middle or high school Montana or US history teachers: It isn't a lesson plan, but it's a great activity. Help your students understand daily life during whatever period you are teaching by having them dive into the digitized newspapers to shop the ads or discover what people did for fun. (If you teach American history, you can find national newspapers here.)

High school US history and government teachers: Montana Women's Legal History Lesson Plan is an engaging way to have students think about the impact laws have on the lives of ordinary people and why laws change.

And here's a lesson that works across many grades: the Women at Work Lesson Plan: Clothesline Timeline encourages students to analyze historic photographs to draw conclusions about women and work from the 1870s through the 2010s.

What are the local effects of climate change?

I've shared about resources relating to Montana and climate change in the past. Lately several new articles have come across my screen on the subject, so I thought I'd share them with you.

• "The Impacts of Climate Change on Huckleberries," Flathead Beacon, November 21, 2019
• "Unprecedented sagebrush die-off, recovery reveals threat of weather swings," Helena Independent Record, November 28, 2019

Living with fire has always been part of the Montana experience and will become even more of an issue with climate change. Here are two articles on the topic:

• "Living with fire: New paper suggests rethinking relationship with wildfire," Bozeman Chronicle, August 20, 2019
• "Living with Fire Part 2: Building fire-adapted communities through land-use planning," Montana Free Press, July 4, 2019
• "U of I-led study: Back-to-back low snow years will become more common," Idaho Falls Post Register, August 20, 2019.

I think it is important not just to look at the effects of climate change, but also to look at potential policy responses. (We don't want to make kids feel hopeless.) Here's one debate that's happening now:

• "Next-gen wind farm near Columbus argues for prices on par with gas, coal," Helena Independent Record, October 3, 2019 

 P.S. Wishing everyone a restorative and joyful holiday break.

Why Reinvent the Wheel?

I've found a new social studies blogger whom I love! Jill Weber, who writes "A View of the Web," is a Kansas social studies teacher who taught middle school for thirteen years before this year switching to high school.

She is also an incredibly generous and thoughtful blogger, who somehow--between raising her own family and teaching--finds time to share ideas and strategies that have worked in her classroom.

Here is a sampling of posts:

Fake News of the Past: Historical Skills in Action. When her seventh graders seemed to be forgetting how (and why) to source documents, Jill came up with this review. (It involves a focus question ("which is more accurate: primary or secondary sources?"), analyzing documents in small groups, comparing group results with a very clever rotation, and full class discussion during which the students learn (drumroll, please) that the focus question was a trick question. They need to look critically at ALL sources.

Cutthroat History: Using Reality TV to Create Engaging Activities details how she used the concept of Cutthroat Kitchen to create an activity that had her seventh grade students creatively completing this task: "describe Shays Rebellion and its significance." It looked impossibly silly and wild--but a lot of fun and involved real learning--and adaptable to other topics.

Document Yelp Review asked high school juniors to rate (Yelp style) how persuasive a series of primary sources were (in this case, on temperance). As Jill explained, the activity "provided a different way for students to use their analysis of primary sources. Sometimes when we're working with documents daily, it can get to be the 'same old thing' and this activity allowed for team discussion, analysis, and a quick justification of their reasoning along with a connection to their world by calling it a "Yelp Review".

Polish It Up Day, Take 2 explains how and why Jill allows students to revise and resubmit assignments on the unit review day (but doesn't allow extra credit).


There's more over at Jill's blog! I suggest you check it out.

Discover Lewis and Clark

We've offered hands-on history footlockers for years and have been slowly (too slowly!) updating and revising their contents.

Thanks to the teachers who helped us test our "Discover Lewis and Clark" lesson plans and who provided invaluable feedback, we are able to offer new and improved lesson plans to go along with some exciting new objects--including a sextant, grizzly bear hide (including head and claws), peace medal, Métis sash--for one of our most popular footlockers. "Discover Lewis and Clark" now joins "Montana's State Symbols," "Coming to Montana: Immigrants from around the World," and "The Original Governor's Mansion: Home to the Stewart Family in Turbulent Times, 1913-1921" on our list of new and improved footlockers!

Like all of our hands-on history footlockers, "Discover Lewis and Clark" can be ordered for two weeks through our online reservation system. No rental fee is charged for the use of footlockers. However, schools are responsible for the cost of shipping the footlocker to the next venue.

I just checked with my colleague who handles reservations and "Discover Lewis and Clark" is fully booked for the rest of the year. However, you can still check out the User Guide to preview the contents as well as to find lessons on Lewis and Clark's role as naturalists and geographers, their encounters with native peoples, art inspired by the journey, and information about some of the tribal nations whose land the expedition passed through. Many of the lessons don't require that you get the footlocker (we've made all of the two-dimensional material--paintings, maps--available as PowerPoints on our website). However you'll want to, because teaching with objects is that powerful.

To dull your disappointment, I encourage you to look into getting one of our other footlockers, particularly "Coming to Montana: Immigrants from around the World" or "The Original Governor's Mansion: Home to the Stewart Family in Turbulent Times, 1913-1921." Both of these have amazing objects (a Swedish rosette iron and Victrola records, for example). "The Original Governor's Mansion" footlocker is particularly underused, I think because teachers believe it is just about the mansion. It's actually about growing up during the Progressive Era and World War I. (Need more encouragement? A retired Colstrip teacher regularly listed the OGM footlocker as her favorite in my annual surveys.)

But back to our newest offering: "Discover Lewis and Clark." You can explore the footlocker in detail here, but below is a list of the lesson titles to further pique your interest:

Lesson 1: Starting the Expedition*
Lesson 2: Neither Empty Nor Unknown: Montana at the Time of Lewis and Clark (NENUK) Lesson Plan*¹
Lesson 3:  Mapmaking^
Lesson 4: The Elusive Northwest Passage*¹
Lesson 5: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark¹
Lesson 6: Step into the Picture*¹
Lesson 7: The Métis and the Lewis and Clark Expedition^
Lesson 8: Lewis and Clark and the Sicangu Lakota at Bad River
Lesson 9: Lewis and Clark: Naturalists*¹
Lesson 10: Point of View: Grizzly Bears*^{^}

*Lessons using primary sources
¹Lessons you can do without ordering the trunk
^This lesson uses items from the footlocker but can be modified to teach without the footlocker.

Thanksgiving: A Guest Post from Mike Jetty

Hau Mitakuyape (hello my relatives),

My name is Mike Jetty and I am a member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation and a Turtle Mountain Chippewa descendant and I work at the Office of Public Instruction as an Indian Education Specialist.

I hope the school year is going well for all of you.  It is already the end of November and a major cultural celebration is once again upon us – Thanksgiving.  I was asked to share my perspective regarding Thanksgiving and to provide some examples of how educators can teach about the history behind Thanksgiving in a more accurate and inclusive manner.  These are my thoughts and are in no way intended to serve as a statement reflecting all of the multiple American Indian perspectives regarding this issue (Essential Understanding #2).

I have heard from several of my American Indian friends that they do not celebrate the holiday because it is based on a lie that serves as a way to perpetuate a feel-good history that does not tell the whole story of the cultural genocide that occurred in our country’s history.  Other American Indian people that I know do celebrate the holiday in the traditional manner reflected in our contemporary American culture and I know some American Indians who celebrate the holiday in their own ways that incorporate unique cultural traditions from their people.  I personally view Thanksgiving as a great time to gather with family and friends to give thanks for all that we have and to have a meal that includes all of the traditional fixings. Maybe watch a little football, eat some tasty left overs and share some bad jokes like this one…Do you know why some Wampanoags don’t like April showers?  Because they bring Mayflowers…. I could not resist throwing in at least one bad joke.

We know that cultures from all around the world have ceremonies to give thanks for a multitude or reasons.  Certainly all of the Indigenous cultures of the Americas had their own ways of offering thanks and so did the European immigrants who landed on the Eastern shores of North America.

So how did we get to this point?

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln, as part of his efforts to help heal the country divided by a bloody and violent civil war, declared the last Thursday of November to be a national holiday of giving thanks.   It took several years for the holiday to take on a mythical quality that was based upon a peaceful feast that occurred between the Pilgrims and Wampanaogs.  Historical accounts from both parties attest that a gathering did occur in 1621 but what happened before, during and after the feast has morphed into a dominant culture mythological narrative perpetuated by our educational systems for over a hundred years (Essential Understanding 6).

As educators it is important that we present a more accurate and inclusive history of our country and this includes deconstructing the myth surrounding the first thanksgiving in 1621. I think events like this provide an excellent opportunity for us to implement Indian Education for All in our classrooms. I have included numerous links to excellent teaching resources and articles that provide good background information about the holiday that I hope provide you with some ideas on how to approach this issue in your own classroom.

Whether or not you celebrate Thanksgiving, I do wish that all of you enjoy the upcoming break and get to spend some quality time with your family and friends or just enjoy some quiet time by yourself.  Please let me know if you have any questions regarding Indian Education for All and I will do my best to assist you.  Good luck with the rest of the school year!

Interesting links: 

• "American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving," National Museum of the American Indian 
• "Recognizing Native American Perspectives: Thanksgiving and the National Day of Mourning," National Geographic 9-12 Activity
• "The Wampanoag Side of the First Thanksgiving Story," Indian Country Today
• "Thanksgiving Mourning," Teaching Tolerance 6-8, 9-12 Lesson
• "The Thanksgiving Tale We Tell Is a Harmful Lie. As a Native American, I’ve Found a Better Way to Celebrate the Holiday," by Sean Sherman, Time Magazine
• Colonization and American Indian Perspectives," Montana Office of Public Instruction grades 7-8 lesson
• "What Educators Need To Know About Teaching Thanksgiving," National Public Radio
• "3 ways to expand Native American curriculum beyond Thanksgiving myths," Education Dive
• "The Invention of Thanksgiving," by Philip Deloria, New Yorker

What do we need to do to understand a topic?

Do you know about Harvard University's Project Zero and their Cultures of Thinking initiative? I've written about their Visible Thinking Routines before, and I really admire their work other work as well.

Their research shows that students need to learn how to think (and why it matters) in addition to learning skills and content and they provide teachers with tools to make this shift.

Here's a chart they've created for you to print out and display in their classroom to help remind students of the steps they need to take to gain understanding of any topic: Wondering, describing what's there, considering different viewpoints, reasoning with evidence, building explanations, making connections, uncovering complexity, and forming conclusions (before starting all over again). Find more tools on their website.

I subscribe to "Rockies Today" and, boy, am I glad I do

Rockies Today compiles "The big stories up and down the Rocky Mountains, curated by Mountain West News." What that means is that every day I get an email with the top headlines. To be fair, I don't always have a chance to dive into it, but when I do, I find gems, many of which look at historical events or movements to explain the present. For example:

• This story from KUER, a Utah NPR affiliate about the American Prairie Reserve, "How big money is building a new kind of national park."
• The High Country News feature "The U.S. stole generations of Indigenous children to open the West Indian boarding schools held Native American youth hostage in exchange for land cessions" or the Minnesota Public Radio News feature "'I've never told anyone': Stories of life in Indian boarding schools."
• "A battle over Superfund coming to the U.S. Supreme Court," a collection of articles on how a case coming out of Butte has the potential to neuter Superfund.

I also find articles about Indian Country and sovereignty. For example:

• Two stories about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement and fears that the Keystone Pipeline will bring more sexual violence to nearby reservations (one from the Montana Free Press and the other from The Revelator, a publication of the Center for Biological Diversity, and
• "Tribal sovereignty and coal mine reclamation clash," a collection of articles about the dispute between the Navajo Nation, which owns "Montana’s largest coal mine," and the State of Montana, which refused to grant an operating permit if the tribe didn't waive sovereign immunity.

I wouldn't have time to find these stories on my own but am always richer for having read them. If that sounds like you, you can subscribe to get regular emails. You might also assign your students to find articles of interest simply by visiting the website.

Do Ink and Other Takeaways from the MFPE Educator Conference

This year's educators conference in Belgrade was fantastic, full of great conversations! I mostly didn't get to go to sessions because I was working our booth in the exhibit hall, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn new things.

Do Ink Green Screen

For about $3.00 you can install this app on an iPad. With the app, still images, and a green piece of fabric tacked to the wall, you can "combine photos and videos from the camera roll with live images from your iPad."

How does this relate to Montana history? Well, how about doing "live" news features about the fur trade in front of the painting Free Trapper? Or from an 1880s round up in front of Bronc to Breakfast? (Images of both of these Charlie Russell paintings--and more--are available as part of our Montana's Charlie Russell teaching material.)

MHS Teacher Leaders in History Rock!

Three years ago we started a teacher leader program to improve our outreach across the state. The Teacher Leaders showed up in force this year at the Educator Conference, allowing us to give a record eight different presentations! These teacher leaders are experienced social studies teachers, who are willing to provide professional development to your school or district. Looking for PIR programming or one-on-one advice/mentorship? Find a Teacher Leader near you for trainings on a range of topics from teaching with primary sources, incorporating Indian Education for All, and teaching Montana history to using visual thinking strategies, hands-on learning, and engaging students with National History Day.

Speaking of National History Day...

National History Day (NHD) is growing in Montana! I've written about NHD before (see this post from way back in 2012) and everything I've said before still holds true: National History Day is a great way to get students working as historians, digging into primary sources, and making arguments (evidence-based claims) about the past. Engage your students with NHD and you will engage your students in an inquiry arc (as recommended by the National Council for Social Studies C-3 Framework) and meet most (maybe all) of the Common Core ELA Literacy in Social Studies standards.

The big news this year is that not only will there be regional competitions in Billings and Missoula (and a statewide competition in Bozeman) but the statewide competition will allow students, competing in select categories, to Skype in if they are too far away to make the competition in person.


This year the NHD theme is "Breaking Barriers in History" (not my favorite theme, to be honest, but workable). Check out our NHD web page for information on the prizes the Montana Historical Society is offering and suggestions for Montana topics/people who fit the theme, including Elouise Cobell (blackfeet banker), Hazel Hunkins (Billings suffragist), and the 1918 Montana Sedition Act--a barrier created by the Montana legislature and broken at great cost by 76 Montanans.

More Métis Recommendations

Earlier in the month I posted on resources I'd discovered, or that my colleagues created, to teach Métis culture and history. I also asked you to send in resources you used or knew about.

Helena elementary librarian Marla Unruh wrote to let me know that "the 5th book in the Birchbark House series by Louise Erdrich, Makoons, introduces a Métis character and includes in the story details about dress, houses, those big-wheel wagons, and culture." I'm excited to read this. If it's anywhere as good as Birchbark House (for which OPI has created a model lesson plan), I'm in for a treat.  


Erik Holland, Curator of Education at the State Historical Society of North Dakota, pointed me toward the graphic novel, Louis Riel: Patriot with the caveat that he had not yet read it. However, he wrote: "I have a copy of Red River Mission: The Story of a People and their Church, by the same author and it appears to be a well documented 'graphic novel' which might engage students."

Cool Stuff on the Internet (IEFA Edition)

Every time I come across an interesting article or resource, I copy the URL and put it in a file to share some day. Today's the day, at least for articles on the topic of Indian history, culture, and law.

Note: these are NOT lesson plans--but they could be the basis for lessons and they certainly give food for thought. For actual lessons, I encourage you to check out the classroom resources created by OPI's Indian Education division, the National Museum of the American Indian, or MHS's own IEFA lesson plan web page.

Videos Worth Watching and Sharing

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes has produced a remarkable 28 minute video called In the Spirit of Atatice: The Untold Story of the National Bison Range, which tells how the bison returned to the Flathead reservation (and discusses the tribes' conflicts the National Bison Range).

PBS broadcast the 27 minute video, Before There Were Parks: Yellowstone and Glacier through Native Eyes in 2009, so I don't know why I just learned about it, but luckily for me it is still available to stream. "This program explores modern indigenous perspectives on these great wilderness areas," Yellowstone and Glacier, which for "more than 12,000 years, the intermountain West's native peoples have called ... home."

Treaty Rights and Voting Rights (Plus Geography)

The Native American Rights Fund has a rich website dedicated to Indian law and contemporary tribal legal issues. I found their website when I was looking for information on the voting rights case in North Dakota and discovered a blog that included articles and videos on topics including civil rights (voting rights, juries, census), development of Indian law (legislative actions), environmental protection (climate change), federal recognition of tribal status, human rights (violence against women, mascots, boarding school healing), hunting and fishing rights, religious rights (religious freedom, sacred places, repatriation), and tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction. This is not a neutral site; the material has a defined point of view--but it's a point of view worth exploring.

A landmark case recently decided by the Supreme Court is Herrera v. Wyoming. The ruling found that finding that the Crow Tribe’s right to hunt, as set out in the 1898 Fort Laramie Treaty, survived Wyoming’s statehood. there's been a lot written on this, but one place to start is this article published in Mountain West News, not least because it has links to more detailed stories.

And speaking of the Crow tribe and Wyoming, check out "Before Wyoming: American Indian Geography and Trails," by Greg Nickerson on Wyohistory.org, which includes maps of trails and Crow, Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Omaha, Otoe, Ute, and Shoshone place names across Wyoming.

Halloween

Halloween is fast approaching--so this is a good time to remind students about the #CultureNotCostume movement, created to discourage students from wearing offensive costumes that make fun of, sexualize, or appropriate other people's cultures. Here's a quick primer. Many other resources exist on the internet.

Putting Montana History on the Map

Every spring I ask teachers to share their favorite lessons and every fall I share what folks send in three posts, one for elementary classrooms, one for middle school and one for high school. These always top the most read list and are my favorites too. At the end of each of these posts I include a plea: "it's not too late! Send me your favorite lesson to share with the group," but teachers are busy and I don't usually get any responses. That's why I was so pleased to get an email from Deb McLaughlin (Belgrade High School), who wrote: "Every once in a while we stumble on to a project or idea that exceeds our wildest expectations. This project is one of those. I called it 'Putting Montana History on the Map.' ... My students loved it and it made Montana History so alive and personal."

Here are Deb's instructions: 

1.Go to http://mtplacenames.org/

Using the pull down arrow under “place names” go through the list spend enough time to familiarize yourself with the map.

2. Pick a place.

3. Locate it on your Montana map.

4. Cut and paste the history information from the web site into a Google Doc.

5. Decide what part of the town’s history you want to explore and then EXPLORE.

6. Find at least three websites that focus on some aspect of the town history, and save your research.

7. Summarize your findings in a paragraph.

8. Add the historical information from http://mtplacenames.org/, your own research (summary) and a picture that supports your summary on the map poster.

9. Label the top of the poster with your town, or place and indicate your place on the map.

10. Participate in a Gallery Walk around Montana.

Here's her rubric:

Map identification of place and labeled	10,5
History of place from website cut/paste	5
Saved Research	10,5
Three quality web sites	10,5
Summary	20,15, 10
Historically supported picture	10, 5
Gallery Walk (3)	15,10,5
Neat and organized	10, 5

P.S. It's not too late! If you have a lesson you think other teachers should know about, for any grade, drop me a line!

Museum School Partnerships

Two weeks ago, I plugged the MFPE Educator Conference in Belgrade (the largest educator conference in the state), highlighted some sessions, and invited attendees to visit us at our booth in the exhibit hall.

Sandra Oldendorf, who organized the Montana Council for Social Studies excellent track at this year's Educator Conference in Belgrade, asked me to mention a special Wednesday night session at the Gallatin Gateway Museum at 317 W. Main Street that I had overlooked. Called "When a Jail Becomes a Museum," the session will be held from 6:00 p.m.-7:50 p.m. Curator Kelly Hartman will tell some interesting stories about the jail and Sandra and Kelly will lead a discussion on how to use museums and local history in the classroom. The session includes free refreshments, a cash bar for beer and wine, and an opportunity to visit with the National Council for Social Studies president Tina Heafner.


I'm really excited about this session because I love, love, love museum school partnerships and local history projects. If you aren't attending the Educator Conference, you can read more ideas for working with local museums, including ideas for field trips across the state and best practices for making field trips meaningful, in the links above. If you ARE coming to the educator workshop, perhaps I'll see you at the Gallatin Gateway Museum on Wednesday evening or in the exhibit hall or one of my sessions on Thursday or Friday.

Resources for teaching about Métis culture and history

The Métis--a distinct cultural group indigenous to the Americas--gets short shrift in Montana history.

These descendants of European (often French, Irish and Scottish) fur traders and American Indian (often Ojibwe, Chippewa, and Cree) women have a complex history that crosses the U.S.-Canada border. The Métis as one of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada; in the United States, they are not recognized as a separate nation. In Montana, many Métis are members of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana, which has state recognition but (as of September 2019) remains in a battle for federal recognition.

Want to include the Métis in your curriculum but don't know where to start? Check out these resources.

Elementary

MHS Program Specialist Deb Mitchell recently created a short (30-50 minute) PowerPoint-based lesson plan to introduce the Métis to students grades three through six: "Who Are the Métis?"

In looking to include information about the Métis on the Lewis and Clark Expedition as part of our footlocker revamp, we discovered a great book called The Flower Beadwork People, written and illustrated by Sherry Farrell Racette and published by the Gabriel Dumont Institute. Elementary librarians: I highly recommend this book for your collection.

You can find coloring sheets and other downloadable resources from the website of the Métis Nation British Columbia.

Upper Grades

The Métis of British Columbia: Culture, History, and the Contemporary Community is an online version of a DVD project created to help disseminate information on Métis history and culture. It includes many short videos, including ones on music and dance and other aspects of culture. There are two main sections: Culture, History, and Hunting, and Music and Dance. Although it is from Canada, the material is relevant to Montana as well. I highly recommend the 17-minute introductory video and can imagine this would make a great site for a web quest or some sort of group research project.

"Sun Dance in Silver Bow: Urban Indian Poverty in the Shadow of the Richest Hill on Earth" is a PowerPoint-based lesson plan that explores the complexity underpinning the change-over (or reconfiguration) of the West (and particularly Montana) from Aboriginal lands into Euro-American hands at the end of the nineteenth century. This PowerPoint was created by the late Nicholas Vrooman for an educator workshop--you'll need to review and modify it to work in your classroom.

"Montana's Landless Indians and the Assimilation Era of Federal Indian Policy: A Case of Contradiction" is a week-long primary-source based unit designed to introduce students to the history of the landless Métis, Cree, and Chippewa Indians in Montana between 1889 and 1916, while giving them an opportunity to do their own guided analysis of historical and primary source materials. Students wrestle with issues of perspective, power, ideology, and prejudice and closely examine the role Montana newspapers played in shaping public opinion toward the tribes’ attempts to maintain economic independence and gain a land base and political recognition. The material is difficult and works best with eleventh or twelfth graders--or college students.

The Gabriel Dumont Institute has an abundance of resources--so many that I find the site a bit daunting. For those interested in incorporating Métis history into art, there is a great tutorial on finger-weaving, along with the history of the Métis sash.


Do you teach Métis history and culture? What resources do you use? Email me and I'll share them out.

  

October Educator Conference

Deb and I are getting excited about going to the upcoming MFPE Educator conference in Belgrade! Are you considering going? As always, we'll have a table in the exhibit hall, so I hope you'll stop by and say hello.

I'm also giving two sessions, one on the 2020 Women's Suffrage Centennial (can you believe it's only been 100 years!?) on Thursday, October 17, from 1:00-1:50, and one on tools for teaching Montana geography on Friday, October 18, also 1:00-1:50.

Sessions by MHS Teacher Leaders 

I'm really excited that MHS will be sponsoring sessions by four master teachers, who are part of the MHS Teacher Leaders in Montana History program. Schedule permitting, they, and other of our Teacher Leaders are also willing to provide PD at your school! Learn more here.   

In Belgrade they are offering a range of great sessions. Ron Buck, of Shelby will be presenting "The Art of Storytelling: A Plains Indians Perspective," in which he'll show how he's adapted our pictographic art packets for use in his fifth grade classroom. (We'll be giving away copies of those packets at our booth--so more reason to stop and say hi.)

Michael Herdina, Conrad, doubles not only as an MHS Teacher Leader but also the statewide coordinator of National History Day so naturally he's talking on "Project Based Learning with Montana National History Day." (It's a TERRIFIC program for grades 6-12).

Billings middle school librarian will be providing an introduction to our resources with "Treasure within Montana Historical Society: MHS 101."

Ruth Ferris, elementary school librarian from Billings, will be presenting two sessions. The first is "Step into the Picture," one of the lessons from our newly revised Lewis and Clark Hands-on History footlocker. The second is "Why Does History Matter?" which looks at having students conduct primary source research, especially for National History Day projects.

Other Sessions of Interest

There are so many other good sessions, it's going to be hard to choose. If I could only recommend one it would be "Digital Treasures for Primary Sources: MMP, Montana Newspapers, and DPLA," presented by Jennifer Birnel of the Montana State Library. MMP (Montana Memory Project) and Montana Newspapers are both amazing resources that I think are underused.

For a full schedule, visit MFPE's "Session Search" page. To register to attend the conference, go here.

Here are a few other sessions that caught my eye:

• "A Frontier Photographer and a Naturalist, Evelyn and Ewen Cameron," presented by Lorna Milne.
• "Teaching Montana History Using Artifacts," presented by Sandra Oldendorf and Peggy Kimmet
• "A Day at the OTO Ranch: A Writing Marathon," presented by: Tamara Dalling
• "Do Treaties Matter?" presented by Mike Jetty (Come for the jokes, stay for the knowledge.) Mike did an version of this talk for us and it was mind-blowing. It's also available to watch as part of our Montana History in 9 MORE Easy Lessons series, for which you can earn renewal units from the comfort of your own home.
• "Humanties Montana: Bring Speakers to your Classroom," presented by  Ken Egan. I LOVE the Humanities Montana Speakers in the Schools program.
• Living History: A Visit With An 1879 Fur Co. Trader, presented by Greg Smith. Did you know you can bring him to your classroom through the Speakers in the Schools program?
• "Project Archaeology: Investigating Rock Art at Medicine Rocks State Park," presented by: Sabre Moore
• "Resources and Ideas for Implementing Indian Education for All," presented by: Mike Jetty, Zach Hawkins, and Stephen Morsette
• "Russell for Learning-Art and Literacy Based Learning," presented by Melissa Werber
• "Contemporary American Indian Art, IEFA, and the Missoula Art Museum," presented by Kay Grissom-Kiely
• "Lewis and Clark Amongst the Grizzlies," presented by Duane Buchi (and if this topic interests you, check out Lesson 5 from our Montana State Symbols footlocker, which compares the way Lewis wrote about grizzlies with the way Plenty Coups described them.
• "Before the Horse: Northern Rockies Lifestyle," presented by Kae Cheatham
• "Placing the Writer: Teaching with the Ivan Doig Archive," presented by Allison Wynhoff Olsen and Jan Zauha
• "Before the Park: 11,000 Years of Native Americans in Yellowstone," presented by Douglas MacDonald and Sandra Oldendorf 
• "History Lessons: Learned and Shared, presented by Bruce Wendt, a chance to share your best lessons and steal from your colleagues!
• "Other People's Stories," presented by Anne Thulson, a lecture/workshop that unpacks the history of harmful, multicultural art curriculum and presents ideas and practices from contemporary Native American art as a doorway to a more respectful and effective multicultural art curriculum.

Best of, Elementary Edition, 2019

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history of IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Go here for the high school teachers' responses and here for the middle school teachers' responses. Read on for the responses from elementary school teachers with some notes from me, in brackets.

Mary Ellen Igo, K-2, Belgrade, wrote: "I read Brave Wolf and the Thunderbird [by Joe Medicine Crow] to my students. We discussed the story, and especially the artwork in the book. I reminded them of all the beautiful colors and detail in the illustrations, and how they might have made those colored paints from things found in nature.  Then they drew a picture and we made a class book.  I have class books from almost ten years now, and they are beautiful to look at!"

Many of you wrote in praise of our hands-on history footlockers. Some commented on the whole program: "I love how all of the trunk materials are available online, it helps me find applicable lesson plans even when I don't have the trunk." Others gave shout-outs to particular footlockers, for example, "Montana State Symbols."  Kimberly Winkowitsch, who teaches K-8 at Hidden Lake Elementary, wrote "I ordered two footlockers from the Montana Historical Society. One was on Lewis and Clark, and one was on Native Americans. I love these footlockers and will definitely do it again next year.

A K-12 art teacher wrote: "In art, we did a life-size paper mache grizzly bear. Next year we hope to make a life-size colt or bison calf in paper mache."

Ron Buck, who teaches 5-6 grades in Shelby, wrote: “My best IEFA lesson is the Art of Storytelling. ... It captivates my students and allows them to understand the importance of expressing themselves and their heritage through storytelling.”

One teacher does a Blackfeet Research Project: "students choose from a list of topics (Blackfeet Tribe) then find 12-18 facts about that topic and put it on a poster board, citing information and finding a picture to represent that topic. Then displayed.  The students love learning about about their surroundings and are intrigued by what they learn and the topics their peers have chosen." 

Another makes sure that all students can find Montana's 7 reservations on a map (and list the tribes associated with those reservations). [I think every fourth grader should be able to do this. Montanatribes.org has online activities to help students learn this.]

It's not too late! If you have a lesson you think other teachers should know about, for any grade, drop me a line!

Best of, Middle School Edition 2019

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history of IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Go here for the high school teachers' responses. Stay tuned for elementary school teachers' responses. Read on for the responses from middle school teachers with some notes from me, in brackets.

Jennifer Graham, of Philipsburg, who teaches Montana history in 7th grade, wrote, "Mapping Montana, A-Z, THAT WAS THE BEST!  First time I did that this year and it was great.  The students loved it. " [Other teachers--who responded anonymously also listed this as their favorite lesson.] 

Teachers recommended Making an Atlatl [I was excited to see that someone not only used this new lesson of ours but that it was a favorite], Blood on the Marias: Understanding Different Points of View Related to the Baker Massacre of 1870 [one of my favorite lessons too], and Code Talker - A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two.

  

Another teacher shows Montana Mosaic episodes Chapter 6 on Federal Indian Policy, which focuses on the Relocation policy of the 1950s] and Chapter 4 Dislocation/Relocation, which focuses on the Boarding School experience. [Note each episode is less than 20 minutes. The accompanying user guides provide synopses, vocabulary definitions, and post-viewing questions. MHS donated the Montana Mosaic DVD to all public Montana school libraries. The episodes are also available on YouTube]] 

Playing for the World: The 1904 Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School Girls Basketball Team Model Teaching Unit [OPI donated the DVD that accompanies this teaching unit to all public Montana school libraries. The video is also available on YouTube]

Jennifer Hall, 7-8 Eureka, loves our Montana's Charlie Russell PowerPoints and lesson plans. 

Cindy Hatten, Colstrip, 6-8, wrote, "My favorite is the Governor’s Mansion footlocker [Original Governor’s Mansion: Home to the Stewart Family in Turbulent Times, 1913-1921]. I always use it around Christmas and involve the lives of the governors children and what they had done as far as games, presents and Christmas goodies." [Learn more about how to order this or other footlockers on our Hands-on History page.]  

April Wuelfing, Sheridan, 7 grade, wrote: "we used the [Montana: Stories of the Land] textbook's defensible space worksheet [the worksheet accompanies Chapter 12: Logging in the High Lonesome]. After that, I presented the class with more information (largely from California's legislation) on defensible space. This took an entire class period, to which the kids took some notes. The next day, I split the class in two and we had a friendly debate on whether or not home owners should be required to create defensible space around their homes. The kids loved it and did an excellent job presenting arguments for both!

Wendy Davis, Marion School, 6-8, wrote:  "Copper Kings--after learning about the 3 each student draws names of the 3 out of a hat and designs a wordle poster to display on the wall. Students have to go back to the biographies, textbook, handout, and notes to select specific details they want to stress.  We emphasize  descriptive adjectives and significant details in the displays. Not only do the students enjoy designing them, but they also remember the significant differences between the three men." [Wordle, "a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide" is so cool. I love the idea of incorporating it into a lesson.] 

Kathy Harvey, Vaughn School, grades 5-8, also taught about about the Copper Kings. [I hope she used material from Montana: Stories of the Land Chapter 10, "Politics and the Copper Kings," including the point of view worksheet we created with an excerpt from one of my favorite satirical pamphlets, "Helena's Social Supremacy," which is now available to download in its entirety from the Montana Memory Project!] 

Lauren McDonald, 6-8 Whitehall, wrote: "I use the 'Picturing the Past' lesson plan from Montana: Stories of the Land Chapter 11, 'The Early Reservation Years.' It's a great way for students to see the changes that occurred during the early reservation years. Students are so visual these days and movement always helps in a middle school setting.  I'm not sure it would be as effective if students weren't required to move around and observe different aspects.  I teach Montana History to 7th grade students and they're incredibly insightful with their observations as well as the following discussion.  I believe this is in part to the visual nature of this lesson as well as the guiding questions provided for students.  Many students struggle with how to perform a correct observation in this setting, but the lesson has provided a sheet of questions for the students to think about when observing each photograph." [The lesson, subtitled "Understanding Cultural Change and Continuity among Montana's Indians through Historic Photographs," can also be taught as a stand alone lesson--though I think it's even better to teach it in the context of the chapter.]  

Jim Martin, Missoula, 6-8, wrote:  "Not one particular lesson, but, connecting our American Indian culture and timeline as we work through the curriculum of ancient world history." I was curious to learn more so I contacted him for details. he explained that the "6th grade curriculum covers the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Greece, and Rome.  It is a tough subject for kids to connect to, and sometimes kids think it moves chronologically through time.  For example, they think that, when learning about Egypt, India hadn't been settled since we haven't covered it yet. ... So, I have a big timeline in the front of the classroom. It's made of yarn, and each civilization has its own line that runs parallel to the rest. This creates a visual to show that, 'while the pyramids are being built in Egypt ... meanwhile in India...' and shows kids that human development occurred simultaneously across the world achieving many of the same milestones; use of iron tools, developing complex religion, etc." The curriculum does not cover either North or South America and Jim wants to make sure that students understand that the people living here in ancient times had rich cultures of their own. He struggles with finding dates and details about what was going on before 1492. Although he recognizes that "each tribe is complex with its own history," his main goal is to make sure students understand the Americas as a whole was home to civilizations, so he includes events across the Americas on his timeline (rather than trying to be tribally specific.) "So, there are events from the Anasazi creating pottery, to Mississippian culture building mounds in the Ohio River valley, to petroglyphs being created in the Pryor Mountains, to the tribes settling the Mexico Valley.  The point is to show students that events and the efforts of human ingenuity occurred all over the globe, not just in these five pockets of the world."

It's not too late! If you have a lesson you think other teachers should know about, for any grade, drop me a line!

Learn In Person ... Or Online

The Montana History Conference is fast approaching, September 26-28, in Helena. If you are within an easy drive, I encourage you to register for the Thursday educator workshop or the entire three-day conference. The educator workshop will feature elementary resources in the morning, including our new resources for teaching Montana geography, one of the new Lewis and Clark lesson plans, and the Montana State Symbols footlocker. In the afternoon, we'll be learning how to find primary source resources on Montana Memory, the Digital Public Library of America, and Montana Newspapers. (These are all extraordinary sites, and training in how to search them will reduce your frustration and up your likelihood of success a thousand fold.) We'll also be sharing some new upper-grade Indian Education resources. Come join us!


The Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative is offering a new online moodle course, Current Events in Indian Country: An inquiry-based Approach, September 30, 2019-December 15, 2019. Participants will learn inquiry-based teaching and learning strategies to use in their classrooms. Each participant will apply these strategies to explore a contemporary American Indian issue as part of a class-wide inquiry, and an additional American Indian issue of his or her choosing for the free-inquiry portion. This course requires participants to be self-directed and highly motivated, a background in inquiry or American Indian issues is not necessary.

• Registration fee: $335
• Credit: 45 OPI Renewal Units or 3 Semester Credits pending for an additional fee of $155. 

They are also offering a self-paced online course, IEFA Special Topics, composed of five distinct units, each the equivalent of 1 University credit or 15 OPI renewal units. Upon registration, participants select which units/how many credits they wish to take. See website for pricing.
The five units included in Course One are:
1) Who Will Tell My Brother?: The Indian Mascot Controversy
2) Honoring Native Women’s Voices
3) American Indian Short Stories
4) American Indian Poetry
5) Biographies of Native Americans: Contemporary and Historic

Fourth Grade Units: One Ready to Go and One Ready to Test

Every year I hear from fourth grade teachers looking for a curriculum to teach Montana history. In the past, I've suggested road maps but I know that isn't enough, so we've slowly been working on a fourth grade Montana history curriculum.

Montana Today: A Geographical Study is the first unit in this curriculum. It was tested and improved by Libby teacher Bill Moe and is ready to implement! Designed for grades 4-6, it asks students to investigate how climate, geology, and geography affect the lives of Montanans. 

• In Part 1, they construct population maps and look for patterns. 
• In Part 2 they will about Montana’s three regions. 
• In Part 3 they learn about Montana’s reservations and tribal nations. 
• In Part 4, they plan a route across the state, learning about the places they choose to stop as they go while improving map-reading skills (an abbreviated take on our very popular Mapping Montana A-Z lesson plan). 
• In Part 5 they will tie what they learned together to answer the unit’s guiding questions. Total time is about 10-15 days.

We spent the summer creating the next unit, Unit 2, Montana's First Peoples. This 10-15 day unit combines math, science, reading, and social studies to explore what life was like in this region before the arrival of Euro-Americans: 12,000 years ago until about 1810. We need teachers to test this unit. 

• Part 1 asks students create a timeline starting 12,500 years ago in order to see that Euro-Americans have only been in this region a relatively brief period of time. They also read to find out what life was like before Europeans arrived on the continent.
• In Part 2 students make atlatls, according to the Making an Atlatl lesson plan master teacher Jim Schulz wrote up last year.
• Part 3 uses a map activity to introduce the tribes who lived in Montana around 1800.
• Part 4 offers students the opportunity to take a virtual tour of our exhibit Neither Empty Nor Unknown: Montana at the Time of Lewis and Clark to learn more about the lifeways of indigenous Montanans (particularly the Crow and the Blackfeet).
• Part 5 takes the lesson plan "Winter Count: Marking Time" from a larger unit we published some years back called "The Art of Storytelling: Plains Indian Perspectives." 

As you can tell from the descriptions, we've integrated lessons we'd already created into Unit 2 (as well as creating some new ones) but we still want to test it from start to finish. Email me if you are interested! 

   

Best of, High School Edition, 2019

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history of IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Read on for the responses from high school teachers with some notes from me, in brackets.

Montana History Lesson lectures/videos, particularly the early history lessons. I don't have much background in paleontology and archaeology so those have really helped expand my knowledge. Its a great way to start the class.--anonymous [This teacher is referring to the lecture series we sponsored and recorded and made available online: "Montana History in 9 Easy Lessons" and "Montana History in 9 MORE Easy Lessons." I've always thought of these as professional development (and you can earn renewal credits for watching). It never occurred to me to use them as a way to bring in virtual guest speakers.] 

Am working on a lesson about the French Canadian nuns at the Catholic boarding school for my French 1 Class. Need to reread Lady Blackrobes (Lady Blackrobes: Missionaries in the Heart of Indian Country, by Irene Mahoney (2006) this summer and fine tune it for next year.--anonymous

I made a huge project that was very in depth about the Montana Landless Indians that I got from your emails. From the link you sent me I printed off the lesson plans but then turned it into a larger project for my students to go into more detail with and paired it with reading to them The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian (the edited version).--anonymous

Collaboratively with 10th Grade English--historic photos and newspapers--regarding Heart Mountain Internment Camp. --anonymous 

Betty Bennett, English teacher, Missoula, wrote, "Winter in the Blood, Blood on the Marias, the Treaty Era, and the Territorial Period."

I use Billings street names around West (Custer, Lewis, Clark, etc); challenge them to find street names that honor Native Americans. [Bruce Wendt gave a longer description of this project last year, which is well worth reading (and imitating!).]

I used the IEFA lesson plan for Two Old Women.  I really like the engaged activities that are included.--anonymous

Charlie Russell: Using Visual Thinking Strategies with the paintings.--anonymous 

Family and Consumer Science teacher Charlotte Johnson from Heart Butte created a class on pulse crops grown in Montana. 

Ceilon Aspensen, 6-12 art teacher, Shelby wrote, "I didn't teach it this year, but the "Creating Timelines and Timeline Based Lesson Plans" resource that you sent out in January was so interesting that I flagged it for planning next year. I am planning to teach my art appreciation lessons using the ideas presented in that resource."

Sense of Place unit: includes myths,  nonfiction (journal entries, essays), poetry, speeches from past chiefs, explorers, naturalists, historians as well as contemporary poets from the local area (Fort Peck, Fort Belknap, etc.). The focus is to read a variety of perspectives on how our immediate (the hi-line, Missouri river, NE MT, MT) landscape and people's experience with it shapes their understanding of place, identity, culture, etc. The students enjoyed reading "old stuff that describes where we live" and found it "cool to see how the area has changed or really not at all."--anonymous

I teach in a collaborative class. Our best lesson this year was a unit on local history research where we had students look at an archival photo of Bozeman. They had to then find the current location of the photo, recreate it, and write an essay on how things have changed between the photos. We used On the Road Again: Montana's Changing Landscape by Dr. Bill Wyckoff as a template for their writing.--anonymous

Walking history of Dillon.--anonymous [I'm not sure if this teacher had her students create a walking tour or take one--but you can find resources for studying your own town on the Educator Resources page for chapter 14 of Montana: Stories of the Land. Also, check out ExploreBig: Montana's Historic Places, a website and mobile app to help you discover Montana’s rich cultural resources.]

Stay tuned for the elementary and middle school teacher responses. And, of course, it's not too late. If you have a great resource you think other teachers could benefit from knowing about, email me!