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.