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.