A show about how Glacier National Park is connected to everything else.
Season Three: BecomingSeason three is a history of Glacier National Park. From whiskey running and the war on wolves, to drilling for oil and dreaming of riches, this is a collection of stories about history refusing to stay in the past. Listen to Headwaters wherever you get your podcasts or online here. 
Season Two: Whitebark PineOver the course of five chapters, this season documents the generational effort to restore a species. It’s also a story about the purpose of national parks and our relationships with the places we love. Whitebark ask us, can people have a positive impact on nature?
Season One: The ConfluenceWhile visiting familiar places, this season tells unfamiliar stories about the park. We travel to every major region of Glacier in search of confluences: where nature and culture come together in unexpected ways.Show notes:You can listen to Headwaters online, and read the transcripts, here: https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/headwaters.htmBecoming | Prologue Consider this an extended warm up for season three of Headwaters. This episode includes two interviews about time, landscape, and history, that set the stage for the next nine to come. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J Becoming | Stained by History Glacier has a history of oil extraction. We travel to Many Glacier to see the consequences, and the causes, of climate change. Along the way we talk to young people about how it feels to live with the weight of history. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J Rising Voices Poetry Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rising-voices-of-the-blackfeet-nation/id1551386452 DeSanto, Jerome. “Drilling at Kintla Lake: Montana’s First Oil Well.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 35, no. 1 (1985): 24–37. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4518869.
Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. Free Press trade pbk. ed. New York: Free Press, 2008. Thompson, Jessie, ed. Early Days in the Forest Service. Vol. 1. 4 vols. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1944. https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/EARLY-DAYS-IN-THE-FOREST-SERVICE-vol1.pdf. Becoming | Unfrozen Tracking down 600 generations of history. We venture out to the edge of the Ice Age to see how people lived and loved when this place was buried in glaciers. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J People Before the Park: https://shop.glacier.org/people-before-the-park/ Childs, Craig. Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America. New York: Pantheon Books, 2018.
Karsmizki, Kenneth W. “Glacier National Park Archeological Inventory and Assessment- 1995 Field Season Final Report Part III: Historic Land Use,” 1997. McNeil, Paul, L. V. Hills, B. Kooyman, and Shayne M. Tolman. “Mammoth Tracks Indicate a Declining Late Pleistocene Population in Southwestern Alberta, Canada.” Quaternary Science Reviews 24, no. 10 (May 1, 2005): 1253–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.08.019. McNeil, Paul E. “Bones and Tracks at Wally’s Beach Site (DhPg-8): An Investigation of the Latest Pleistocene Mega-Fauna of Southern Alberta.” UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCE (January 2009). https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=NR51199&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=714264860. O’Connor, Jim. “The Missoula and Bonneville Floods—A Review of Ice-Age Megafloods in the Columbia River Basin.” Earth Science Reviews, 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825220302270. Becoming | Portraits of the West Lewis and Clark are celebrated yet controversial. If you know what to look for, their names still echo through the park today. We examine their legacy from a variety of perspectives. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J Edgar Paxson painting of Lewis & Clark: https://mhsmuseum.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/1885CEC9-39C3-4B45-889D-242479808699 Charlie Russell’s painting, Lewis & Clark meeting the Salish: https://mhs.mt.gov/education/Capitol/Capitol-Art/House-of-Representatives Tour the Capitol with Nancy Russell: https://youtu.be/eaOhIvxa35Y Montana Historical Society: https://mhs.mt.gov/ Jefferson, Thomas. “Jefferson’s Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803),” January 18, 1803. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/jeffersons-secret-message-to-congress.
Lewis, Meriwether, and William Clark. The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Edited by Bernard DeVoto. The American Heritage Library. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981. ———. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Edited by Gary Moulton. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press / University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries-Electronic Text Center, 2005. http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu. Neary, Dennis. A Blackfeet Encounter. Vision Maker Media, 2006. https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C3233079. Ronda, James P. Lewis and Clark among the Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.sup.ronda.01. Salish-Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee. The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 2005. Wheeler, Olin D. The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904; a Story of the Great Exploration across the Continent in 1804-06; with a Description of the Old Trail, Based upon Actual Travel over It, and of the Changes Found a Century Later. Vol. 2. 2 vols. New York, London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000234516. Becoming | A Market Place We biography Joe Kipp and join an archeological adventure in order to understand the fur trade. Then, music helps heal the traumatic legacy of history. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J Jack Gladstone: https://www.jackgladstone.com/ Native America Speaks Program: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/nas.htm Ashby, Christopher. “Blackfeet Agreement of 1895 and Glacier National Park| A Case History,” 1985. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1684.
Hyde, Anne F. Empires, Nations, and Families: a History of the North American West, 1800-1860. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011. LaPier, Rosalyn R. "Métis Life Along Montana's Front Range." In Beyond...the Shadows of the Rockies: History of the Augusta Area, Augusta, MT: Augusta Historical Society, 2007. Mabie, Nora. “A Story of Genocide, Survival and Resilience: Blackfeet Nation Remembers Baker Massacre.” Great Falls Tribune, January 16, 2020. https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2020/01/16/montana-blackfeet-nation-tribe-baker-massacre-150th-anniversary/4434910002/. Schultz, James Willard. “Joseph Kipp Born at Fort Union 1847 Died at Browning Dec. 12, 1914.” Great Falls Daily Tribune. July 5, 1914, sec. Sunday Morning. Becoming | Empire Builders The Great Northern Railway changed Northwest Montana forever. Who else but Americans could have built it? Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J The Empire Builder Documentary: https://greatnorthernfilmworks.com/ Ichioka, Yuki. “Japanese Immigrant Labor Contractors and the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern Railroad Companies, 1898-1907.” In American Immigration & Ethnicity, 5-Immigrant Institutions: The Organization of Immigrant Life:336, 1991. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Immigrant_Institutions/047rIZhp_r8C?hl=en&gbpv=0&kptab=overview.
Wegars, Priscilla. “Who’s Been Workin’ on the Railroad?: An Examination of the Construction, Distribution, and Ethnic Origins of Domed Rock Ovens on Railroad-Related Sites.” Historical Archaeology 25, no. No. 1 (1991): 37–65. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25616061. White, W. Thomas. “The War of the Railroad Kings: Great Northern-Northern Pacific Rivalry in Montana, 1881-1896.” In Montana and the West: Essays in Honor of K. Ross Toole, edited by Rex C. Myers and Harry W. Fritz, 38–54. Pruett Publishing Company, 1984. Becoming | Forgotten Soldiers Why doesn’t anyone remember the first rangers? We trace a Buffalo Soldiers expedition across the park and ask how history becomes preserved. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J Yosemite’s A Buffalo Soldier Speaks Podcast: https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/buffspodcast16-30.htm Learn about African Americans in the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/africanamericanheritage/index.htm Culver, G.E. "Notes on a Little Known Region in Northwestern Montana." Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters v VIII 1888-1891 (1892): 187-205. Finney, Carolyn. Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014. Holterman, Jack. "George Patrick Ahern" in Who Was Who in Glacier Land. West Glacier, MT: J. Holterman, 2001. Wood, Anthony. Black Montana: Settler Colonialism and the Erosion of the Racial Frontier, 1877-1930. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021. Becoming | Landowners The twin stories of homesteading and allotment explored through baking and quilting analogies. How Euro-Americans came to settle inside the Glacier National Park and inside the Flathead Reservation. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J Harper, Andrew. “Conceiving Nature: The Creation of Montana’s Glacier National Park.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 60, no. 2 (2010): 28. https://mhs.mt.gov/pubs/Publications/summer-2010.
Shea, Patrick. “Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Reclaim Legacy of Bison Conservation.” Native News Online, February 9, 2021. https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/confederated-salish-and-kootenai-tribes-reclaim-legacy-of-bison-conservation. Smith, Anna V. “Reclaiming the National Bison Range,” January 26, 2021. https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.2/indigenous-affairs-tribes-reclaiming-the-national-bison-range. The Indians Were Prosperous: Documents of Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai Indian History, 1900-1906. Edited by Robert Bigart and Joseph McDonald. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021. Us Indians Don't Want Our Reservation Opened: Documents of Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai Indian History, 1907-1911. Edited by Robert Bigart and Joseph McDonald. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021. Becoming | A Destination This is the history of how a corporation marketed Glacier National Park into existence. We use art to study how the Blackfeet took control of their own histories. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J See Winold Reiss’s Art: https://iacbmuseums-viewingroom.exhibit-e.art/viewing-room Djuff, Ray, and Morrison, Chris. View with a Room: Glacier's Historic Hotels and Chalets. Helena, MT: Farcountry Press, 2001. Harper, Andrew. “Conceiving Nature: The Creation of Montana’s Glacier National Park.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 60, no. 2 (2010): 28. https://mhs.mt.gov/pubs/Publications/summer-2010. LaPier, Rosalyn. Invisible Reality, 2017. MacCarter, Joy, ed. History of Glacier County, Montana. Glacier County Historical Society, 1984. Young, Biloine W, and McCormack, Eileen R. The Dutiful Son: Louis W. Hill - Life in the Shadow of the Empire Builder, James J. Hill. St Paul, MN: Ramsey County Historical Society, 2010. Becoming | (Re)colonized A young national park wages biological warfare and nature finds a way. This is a history of wolves in Glacier. Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/headwaters Frank Waln music: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/ Eric Carlson art: https://www.instagram.com/esccarlson/ Behind the scenes pictures: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmSxSe2J Sign up for a Glacier Institute course: https://glacierinstitute.org/ Reece, Myers. “Montana’s Diane Boyd: The Jane Goodall of Wolves.” AP NEWS, April 8, 2017. https://apnews.com/article/5abd8b3782bf4caf9c219bc179bd464e. Robbins, Jim. “GLACIER PARK WELCOMES BACK 12 EXILED WOLVES.” The New York Times, June 29, 1986, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/29/us/glacier-park-welcomes-back-12-exiled-wolves.html. Teasdale, Aaron. “Life, Death, and Winter.” Sierra Club, October 1, 2015. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2015-6-november-december/feature/life-death-and-winter. You can listen to Headwaters online, and read the transcripts, here: https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/headwaters.htm
Whitebark Pine | Chapter One Journey across the Flathead Indian Reservation to the most important tree you’ve never heard of. The Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/ Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation: https://whitebarkfound.org/ Pictures of Ilawye, the Great Great Grandparent Tree: https://flic.kr/p/2mtQsSH Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribal Forestry: https://csktribes.org/natural-resources/tribal-forestry The Native America Speaks Program Schedule: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/nas.htm Claire Emery Art: https://www.emeryart.com/ Ben Cosgrove Music: https://www.bencosgrove.com/ Special thanks this episode to Bill Hayden, ShiNaasha Pete, Tony Incashola Jr., Mike Durglo Jr., Robert Hall, Sierra Mandelko, Claire Emery, Kaylin Brennan, Debby Smith, everyone with Glacier’s native plant program, the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, and so many others. Whitebark Pine | Chapter Two An entire ecosystem held together by one tree. The Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/ Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation: https://whitebarkfound.org/ Tree Huggers Comedy: https://www.treehuggerscomedy.com/ Picture of Clark’s Nutcracker: https://flic.kr/p/2mqRdzH Ben Cosgrove Music: https://www.bencosgrove.com/ Special thanks this episode to Brad Einstein, Kyle Neimer, Lisa Bate, Kate Kendall, Vlad Kovalenko, Taza Schaming, everyone with Glacier’s native plant program, the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, and so many others. Whitebark Pine | Chapter Three Mountain pine beetles, an invasive fungus, and climate change—is whitebark pine doomed? The Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/ Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation: https://whitebarkfound.org/ American Chestnut book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520259942/american-chestnut Documentary about Ranger Doug: https://www.instagram.com/rangerdougfilm/ Pictures of whitebark pine: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWJ2S4F Ben Cosgrove Music: https://www.bencosgrove.com/ Special thanks this episode to Annie Gustafson, Rebecca Lawrence, Diana Six, Wendy Cass, Susan Freinkel, Glenn Taylor, Stacy Clark, Tara Carolin, Doug Follett, everyone with Glacier’s native plant program, the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, and so many others. Whitebark Pine | Chapter Four Collecting pinecones, planting seeds, and other acts of hope. The Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/ Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation: https://whitebarkfound.org/ Pictures of whitebark pine: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWJ2S4F Ben Cosgrove Music: https://www.bencosgrove.com/ Special thanks this episode to Doug Tyte, Diana Tomback, Bob Keane, Rebecca Lawrence, Summer Kemp-Jennings, Cara Nelson, Rob Sissons, Genoa Alger, Carleton Gritts, Levi Besaw, everyone with Glacier’s native plant program, the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, and so many others. Whitebark Pine | Chapter Five Trees, fish, and ferrets—what is our relationship with nature? The Glacier Conservancy: https://glacier.org/ Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation: https://whitebarkfound.org/ Revive and Restore: https://reviverestore.org/ Rosalyn LaPier: https://www.rosalynlapier.com/ Pictures of whitebark pine: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWJ2S4F Ben Cosgrove Music: https://www.bencosgrove.com/ Special thanks this episode to Rosalyn LaPier, Ben Novak, Melissa Jenkins, Karl Anderson, Dawn LaFleur, everyone with Glacier’s native plant program, the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, and so many others. You can listen to Headwaters online, and read the transcripts, here: https://www.nps.gov/podcasts/headwaters.htm
Confluence | Goat Haunt You should always bring food, water, and plenty of layers when you go hiking in Glacier, but sometimes you might even need… a passport? Together, Montana’s Glacier National Park and Alberta’s Waterton Lakes National Park form Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park: a transboundary park jointly managed by two agencies. In this episode, we’ll learn about the friendship that led to the world’s first International Peace Park. After that, two stories about how that designation has affected those that live and work here. Featuring: Natalie Hodge, Tracey Wiese, Lisa Bate, and Justin and Kim McKeown. Voice acting from Bob Adams. Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park:https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/354/Waterton Lakes National Park:https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/waterton Harlequin ducks:https://www.nps.gov/articles/harlequin-ducks.htm Confluence | Lake McDonald How does fire affect our relationship with the park? In this episode of Headwaters we explore our relationship to fire through different lenses. What is it like to be in a wildfire? How have native people used fire? How does fire affect plants and animals? And finally, what can we learn about our history from fire? Featuring: Chris Peterson, Tony Incashola Sr., Dawn LaFleur, Teagan Hayes, Mike Sanger, Sarah Peterson, and Brent Rowley. History of fire in Glacier: https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/nature/fire-history.htm Sélis Qlispe Culture Committee: http://www.salishaudio.org/ Confluence | Logan Pass In this episode of Headwaters we visit one of Glacier’s most popular and unique destinations: Logan Pass. First, we’ll learn about the road that gets us up here, the Going-to-the-Sun Road, and about some hilarious attempts to reduce our impact at Logan Pass. We’ll learn about appreciating the natural smells of the park, and end with the search for a rare and disappearing flower. Featuring: Bill Schustrom, Jeff Hoyt, Emlon Stanton, Will Rice, and Darren Lewis. Planning a visit: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/index.htm Leave No Trace: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/leavenotrace.htm Confluence | Many Glacier You’ll find some of the park’s most popular trails in Many Glacier. As many as 600 people hike the Grinnell Glacier trail each day during the summer! Why? Many people want to see Grinnell because—like the other glaciers in the park—it is retreating. But a retreat that takes place over decades can be hard to see for yourself. In our search to understand how Grinnell Glacier has changed, we meet someone who last visited the glacier over 30 years ago and hike with a researcher who discovered the power of portraits. Featuring: Gerard Byrd, Bob Adams, Diane Sine, and Lisa McKeon USGS Repeat Photography project: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/repeat-photography-project?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects Glacier Overview: https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/nature/glaciersoverview.htm Confluence | North Fork What does it mean to be wild? In this episode of Headwaters, the Flathead River uncovers our own notions of wilderness, and fossils found nowhere else on earth. We learn about a remote alpine glacier with a complicated connection to the origins of the ice age—and we climb to the top of a mountain to learn that even the park’s most isolated office space isn’t as lonely as it seems. Featuring: Colter Pence, Amanda Wilson, Kurt Constenius, Dale Greenwalt, Christoph Irmscher, Beth Hodder, Karen Reeves, and interviews & letters from Kay Rosengren—courtesy of the Northwest Montana Forest Fire Lookout Association. Voice acting from Alex Stillson and Lora Funk. Montana Memory Project:https://mtmemory.org/digital/custom/home/Northwest Montana Forest Fire Lookout Association:https://www.nwmt-ffla.org/ Confluence | St. Mary In this episode of Headwaters, we visit St. Mary, looking for experiences that are disappearing from the world. After hearing about the legendary St. Mary winds, Michael gets up early to try to see a grizzly bear, and we learn how these animals are faring in Glacier’s ecosystem. Andrew stays up late to visit the St. Mary observatory and learn about dark skies and stargazing in Glacier. Featuring: Debby Smith, Bob Adams, Tabitha Graves, and Lee Rademaker. Bear Safety:https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bears/safety.htm Astronomy in Glacier: https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/nature/night-sky.htm Neowise Comet https://flic.kr/p/2kd9Qwm Confluence | Two Medicine Glacier National Park, a place often celebrated for its natural scenery, offers an equally diverse and rich cultural landscape. In this episode of Headwaters, food offers an introduction to the area’s indigenous communities. We also explore the longest-running indigenous speaker series in the National Park Service. Featuring: Darnell Rides At The Door, Vernon Finley, Mariah Gladstone, Rose Bear Don’t Walk, Tony Incashola Sr., and Kelly Lynch. Indigikitchen:indigikitchen.com Recovering our Roots: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11494 More at our website:nps.gov/glac/learn/historyculture/tribes.htm 
The Headwaters TeamHeadwaters is produced by Glacier National Park's media team and made possible by a huge number of park staff, partners, and friends. Props to Alex Stillson, Andrew Smith, Ben Cosgrove, Bill Hayden, Brent Rowley, Claire Emery, Daniel Lombardi, Darren Lewis, Eric Carlson, Frank Waln, Gaby Eseverri, Melissa Sladek, Michael Faist, Peri Sasnett, Quinn Feller, Renata Harrison, Sierra Mandelko, and so many others.
Headwaters is Supported by the Glacier National Park ConservancySupport for Headwaters comes from the Glacier National Park Conservancy, who work to preserve and protect Glacier National Park for future generations. The Conservancy funds vital projects across the park, including those explored in this podcast series. We couldn’t do this without them, and they couldn’t do it without support from generous donors. |
Last updated: June 8, 2023